The twists and turns of the cereal domino lineup on Carnegie Elementary’s gym floor proved to students that there is a bonus to helping others.
The school held its second-annual cereal drive domino fall on March 7, which coincided with National Cereal Day.
Over the prior month, students brought in 452 cereal boxes to donate to Free Store 15106, located at the school.
One student, third-grader Andrew Palvetsky, brought in more than 120 boxes.
“Helping others can be fun,” said Julie Lewis, fourth-grade teacher and coordinator of the cereal drive. “Together, we can — that’s our school motto — and this is all possible because everybody helped.”
Lewis said collecting cereal boxes was an easy buy-in for students: the domino concept is fun, and cereal is a nonperishable item.
The school’s free store is a fully functioning food and clothing pantry housed in the school, where students and families can “shop” for their needs. Each week, volunteers pack and send home bags of food with students on Fridays.
A total of about 160 students at Carnegie Elementary use the free store weekly — which accounts for 39% of the school’s student body.
Student Raven Vetter, 10, said she enjoyed seeing how many cereal boxes the school collected. This year’s collection had 123 more boxes than last year.
“Seeing all the boxes fall down is fun,” she said.
