MANHATTAN, KAN. ? In some ways, Matt Droge seems like your average 17-year-old. He’s a senior at Manhattan High School and he enjoys playing with his two dogs.

But he also started an annual food drive when he was 13 that last year brought in more than 1,000 pounds of canned goods.

Matt is the founder of “Cats Caroling for Cans.” He and about 50 volunteers drove around Manhattan last year, caroling and collecting 1,065 pounds of food for the Flint Hills Breadbasket, a nonprofit organization that collects and distributes food for lower income families in the Manhattan area.

Matt thought up “Cats Caroling for Cans” during the summer of 1998, between his seventh- and eighth-grade years of school. While most children were swimming and riding bikes, enjoying the freedoms of youth, Matt was thinking of a way to help feed the hungry.

“Ever since I can remember my family and I have gone caroling in one way or another,” he said.

The idea struck Matt that they could carol and try to gather canned foods at the same time. So at Christmas of 1998, he, his family and his next-door neighbors decorated a wagon with candy canes and Christmas trees and set out to see how much they could gather. They hoped to collect as much as 50 pounds of canned food. They ended up with 85 pounds.

Adding school spirit

The next year, Bobby and Kristi Pottroff donated their “Cat Tracker,” a modified purple school bus equipped with a sound system and outside speakers. (It’s a familiar sight at many a Kansas State University event.) The new Kansas State-inspired wheels put the “Cat” in “Cats Caroling for Cans,” and allowed the carolers to back up their vocals with music.

That year, the Droge family adorned the Cat Tracker with Christmas decorations and set out with friends to try to collect 100 pounds of food. The group again drove around, making numerous stops, singing Christmas carols while others went door-to-door collecting the food. That trip netted about 135 pounds.

The 2000 excursion produced 500 pounds, and word quickly spread about how much fun the Cat Tracker treks had become. Last year’s drive was the largest to date. More than 50 people joined Matt during five nights as he and his family took the Cat Tracker around the city.

Willie the Wildcat and the entire Kansas State Men’s Basketball Team were among the voices that year, and extra vehicles were enlisted one night because of the turnout. The carolers netted their largest take of 1,065 pounds of food.

Ever higher goals

Never satisfied, Matt set this year’s goal at an optimistic 2,000 pounds of food. They gathered 2,520 pounds from Dec. 10-14.

“It’s going to be really hard, but I think it’s better to set a goal that we might not be able to reach. That way we have to stretch,” Matt said before knowing the results of this yer’s effort. “I have a lot of people that are looking forward to it.”

To handle the logistical problems of organizing and promoting the massive food drive, Matt enlisted fellow senior Erica Monroe to help with the administrative duties.

“It’s too big for just me to do,” Matt said.

He and Erica are working to set up local drop-offs and are asking businesses for donations. Matt also depends on his dad, Dan Droge, to drive the Cat Tracker, and his mother Kim Droge, who helps lead the door-to-door food collectors.

May be last year

Matt can’t explain why he likes caroling so much that he’s willing to dedicate an entire week to singing Jingle Bells in the cold, only that he truly enjoys it.

“I wish we could carol every night of December,” Matt said. “I look forward to it.”

Despite his love of caroling, this may be the last year for the innovative food drive. Matt graduates from high school in May and is deciding between Glendale Community College in Arizona, and Kansas State. That decision also will affect the fate of the charity.

“If I’m in Manhattan, it will definitely happen again,” he said, “but if I’m out of state, it will be impossible.”