District 99 Foundation to host Pizza Wars fundraiser Feb. 27

From 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 27 in the Downers Grove South High School cafeteria, the District 99 Education Foundation will host its seventh annual Pizza Wars fundraiser event.

"Every year for the last seven years we bring together a variety of pizzerias from the local community," said Pizza Wars Sponsor Chair Maura Bates.

At last year's event, the winners were Best Crust- Lou Malnati's; Best Sauce- Papa's Pizza Place; and Best Overall – Tortorice's Pizza.

"We're really known for our crust and how crispy it is, the flavor and the crunch," said Lou Malnati's manager Eric Aguirre. "It was a great honor to win last year, it really shows how we actually do have the best crust in people's opinions, so it's not just from our own perspective."

For this year's event, tickets are available to be purchased in advance for $10 each at http://www.pizzawars.org, and they are also available to be purchased at the door for $15.

The local participating pizza vendors for the 2020 Pizza Wars fundraiser will include: Lou Malnati's Pizza (Downers Grove), Papa's Pizza Place (Woodridge), Pizzeria32 (Downers Grove), Rosati's (Woodridge), Sarpino's (Downers Grove), Skuddlebutts Pizza (Downers Grove), Tortorice's Pizzeria (Downers Grove) and Zazzo's Pizza (Westmont).

"The community is able to try a bunch of different pizzas at once and figure out who they think the best crust, sauce and overall pizza is," Bates said. "We like it because we get the community involved and they come to the campus for the event, where maybe some of them haven't been in a while and of course everyone enjoys pizza."

When each person walks into the event, they will receive an event program with their ticket that they will bring around to each vendor.

After they have tried each slice of pizza, they will mark down that option that has been tried, and then they can vote for the three categories for the winners.

Also, for this year, more than 30 sponsors have contributed monetary and in-kind donations to benefit this year's event.

Pizza Wars proceeds benefit a variety of teacher grants and student scholarships at both North and South High in Downers Grove, which is the main focus Bate said for the fundraiser.

In 2018-19, the District 99 Education Foundation gifted more than $20,000 in support of educational programs, which has heavily increased the amount of scholarships for both schools that have been available for students.

A few of the other services that the money has been disseminated to are digital cameras for Fine Art classes, ukuleles for the All Access Choir, Umoja (Unity) club events and college tours, student leader's involvement in 'My Name My Story equity and inclusion workshop', 3D printers on both campuses and cardiac screening for nearly 5,000 students through Young Hearts for Life.

"The thing we really love about this fundraiser is that 100 percent of the proceeds go into the foundation," Bates said. "What the foundation does then is we have teachers apply for the grants and then we can use that money to assist teachers and faculty in areas that our traditional budget for school wasn't allocated for."