A North Myrtle Beach pizzeria tackled a daunting challenge: raising enough money to repay over $4,000 in debt for a local school. Nunziante of The Main Slice sold pizzas all November to donate 20% of sales to repay the initial debt for Waterway Elementary School.  Then a holiday miracle happened: donors stepped in at the eleventh hour and the pizzeria raised over $10,000.

“I was not aware of how much people would step up and that was completely humbling.  … With the holidays coming up, money is tight for everybody. But everyone wanted to step up and help the kids of the community, and that’s been a blessing within itself,” said Nunziante to WBTWNews13.

He said that as soon as the local news covered his fundraising effort, his phone kept ringing with calls and pinging with messages from people asking to help.  The news also caught attention from the NFL Carolina Panthers’ tight end, Temarrick Hemingway.

Nunziante said that after a few phone calls with Hemingway, they decided to help more schools. Hemingway then made a significant donation to help repay lunch debt for Riverside, Ocean Drive, and Waterway Elementary Schools.

Then Nunziante’s business partner, Chris Efaw who owns Chris’ Pizza and Pub, then donated $1,000 to ensure the schoolchildren will have meals paid for all of December.