A Butler County charity program won $1,500 in a sports-themed bracket competition that could be turned into 7,500 meals for Butler Area School District students.

The Kids' Weekend Backpack Program, sponsored by the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation, vied against other charity organizations on social media in a bracket-style contest akin to the NCAA's March Madness basketball tournament.

The public was invited to vote for its charity of choice and whichever organization had the most votes would move on to the next round. After going to the final round last week, the Kids' Weekend Backpack Program faced off against Paws Across Pittsburgh.

The final tally was 2,963 votes for the Butler group and 2,916 for the Pittsburgh group, according to Audray Muscatello Yost, who is a member of the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation.

“I woke up at 4 a.m., checked the numbers and I was too excited to go to sleep. At the last minute they were really close to us,” Yost said. “We won by half a percent. It was really close.”

Clearview Federal Credit Union started Clearview Craziness several weeks ago, pitting 16 charities against each other in the bracketed competition. Each week, people were invited to vote for one charity and the ones with the most votes made their way to the next round.

Kim Thomas, a teacher at McQuistion Elementary School, founded the Kid's Weekend Backpack Program in 2015. The effort typically sends home a backpack full of food every Friday for roughly 360 elementary school students throughout the school year.

But with schools closed and many people laid off from their jobs over coronavirus precautions, Thomas said funds for the program are more important than ever.

Thomas noted that the backpack program always has an open enrollment, and there are no requirements needed to sign up.

“This is gonna be huge because when we come out of this situation with the coronavirus, we don't know how many people will need help next year,” Thomas said. “Thank you, thank you to everybody. It definitely takes a village to raise these kids. And it's overwhelming the support we received. The community has just been amazing.”

With schools closed over the spread of the coronavirus, the program delivered its last batch of food to district schools last weekend to be distributed by the schools' police and security. The backpack program is on hold since the schools are closed.

Two weeks ago, Butler Area School District officials announced the district would continue providing free meals to children while schools are closed. This meal distribution is separate from the backpack program.