Falling like dominoes
Mother of Mercy Academy students collect cereal boxes for food pantry
It was a sight to behold: 287 cereal boxes toppling like dominoes.
The maneuver was the culmination of a recent service project at Mother of Mercy Academy in Whitehall.
The school’s 323 students at the K-8 school brought in the cereal boxes, decorated them, set them up and watched them topple over, one by one.
“For our service project for the third quarter, we wanted to give to the St. Winfred Food Pantry,” said Amber Ingold, the school’s advancement director. “We saw other schools were doing domino challenges, so we decided to do ours with cereal. We rolled with it and the students really enjoyed it. Our families love to give back to the community.”
A video on the school’s Facebook page shows the boxes toppling as the students, lined up on each side of the hallways, cheer.
The cereal boxes were then taken to the food pantry in Mt. Lebanon. The staff at St. Winifred was happy to receive cereal, as it is not frequently donated. “They said that will last them about two or three weeks,” Ingold said.
Principal Don Militzer said Ingold plans a service project each quarter for the students.
“The kids had a blast,” he said. “Aside from the academics, we pride ourselves in teaching the kids service and helping each other out. It never ceases to amaze me that anytime we do something like this, the kids really step up. They’ll even push their parents to participate in these projects. It’s really part of what we teach here and what we try to instill in each and every student who comes here.”
Plans are in the works to hold the fundraiser again next year.
“We already challenged our students to double the amount of boxes collected,” Ingold said.