Spirit Week. Competition among student organizations. Red-painted windows. Free food. Pack Howl Concert. Hillsborough Street parade.

But according to organizers, that is not all that Homecoming is about.

This year, volunteers collected over 11,000 cans in the canned food drive Wednesday, an increase from last year’s 8,000.

According to Caitlin Garisson, a junior in graphic design and organizer of the food drive, it was exciting to see people who weren’t even involved in the spirit competition with a student organization donating cans.

Publicity chair and junior in agricultural business management Adam Compton agreed.

“It was another opportunity for a Homecoming event that could give back to the community,” he said.

According to Compton, many Homecoming’s events this year have been growing, while some, like the bone marrow and blood drives, are even benefits to the community.

He said the first person who enlisted to donate bone marrow was called Tuesday — an act that is not always common because it’s hard to find matches between people quickly.

“We’ve already saved one person’s life,” Compton said.

The Homecoming Committee also exceeded its goal for the blood drive, collecting over 100 units of blood per day.

Garisson said she has been impressed with the events thus far.

She said the only disappointment was the rain during today’s canned food drive, which made things a little more difficult.

The canned food drive was held in the Brickyard and Garisson said another holdup was the fact that vehicles could not drive into the Brickyard, so volunteers had to carry cans to the trucks.

Volunteers from the InterResidence Council drove gators to assist in carrying cans to the trucks.

Amanda Bedsaul, vice president of programs for IRC, was one such volunteer.

“We really stepped it up this year,” Bedsaul, senior in electrical engineering, said of IRC collecting 685 cans.

She said although it isn’t much compared to other organizations that collected 4,000, it is an increase from IRC’s contribution last year.

Bedsaul said IRC didn’t buy any cans but received collections from its general members and the residence halls.

“It was really amazing to see the trucks and how many cans were in there,” she said.