Wiscasset Middle High School senior and student council president Daren Wood found out that organizing a big event like the school’s nearly two-month participation in WGME’s Spirit Challenge can be a lot more work than it looks like it will be.

But it was worth it, Wood said Monday about the contest that showcases schools’ spirit and fights hunger in Maine.

“The rewards are definitely there, and at the end of the day, you definitely get a good feeling,” he said.

On Friday, March 4, Wood, a few fellow WMHS students, WMHS technology coordinator and student council adviser Deb Pooler and Wiscasset Superintendent of Schools Heather Wilmot are set to join contingents from other participating schools at the Portland station for the televised finale.

Pooler praised Wilmot for taking an active role in the Spirit Challenge, including joining school staff in a Feb. 22 fundraiser at the Wiscasset McDonald’s. “She has been an unbelievable force during this,” Pooler said.

WGME is giving the groups breakfast and a tour of the station, Pooler said. “So it’s a really fun thing for the kids to see and do.”

The contest winner takes the Spirit Cup, for raising the most pounds of food for Good Shepherd Food Bank. Wiscasset High School won in 2014; it does not appear a repeat win is at hand, however, according to Pooler.

As of Monday, Pooler did not have a final tally for Wiscasset but expected it to approach the 58,662 pounds the school achieved the first time around. She’s already heard that one school this time raised that much in a single donation, in addition to whatever else was raised in the donation window from Jan. 1 to last Friday, Feb. 26, she said.

Pooler said she has told students that regardless of Friday’s outcome, the school’s name is already on the cup from the 2014 win. Finishing elsewhere in the pack takes nothing away from that win, and speaks to the school’s main reason for making the second run, which no other school has done, she said.

“We did a good job, but it wasn’t about the winning piece this time. It was about helping,” Pooler said about the cause the contest benefits. “Wiscasset should be patted on the back for doing it twice. It’s a double effort on the part of the town,” she added.

Both Pooler and Wood, interviewed separately, said the bulk of the donations in January and February came from individuals and small businesses. “We had a lot of small donations from regular people on the street, and the kids and teachers,” Pooler said. “I think it really was a good representation of our community.”

One of the last donations was an $804 one that Sarah’s Cafe raised with portions of its soup sales throughout the Spirit Challenge, Pooler said.

At the school’s televised rally Jan. 22, many businesses donated food and gave any money they had on them, Wood said.

Plans call for the Wiscasset contingent to be at WGME at 5:45 a.m. for the 6 a.m. start to Friday’s one-hour finale, Pooler said.