Imagine large dominoes set up on the blacktop of James Foster Elementary School, where each item, all 466 boxes of cereal, later gets donated to the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry.
As a part of James Foster’s “Kindness Week,” spearheaded by school social worker Jenny Ayres, students from each grade competed to have the most cereal boxes donated.
“Jenny set up this thing called the ‘Domino Effect,’ and basically it was a competition with each classroom to bring boxes of cereal to donate to the food pantry,” said Linsey Ritter, a member of the PTA. “Whichever classroom got the most got an extra recess and they were able to pick another classroom to take an extra recess with them.”
The winner of the extra recess? Transitional kindergarten.
Parents received an email from the school at the beginning of the month, and students were bringing in cereal from March 11 until March 20, and then the “Domino Effect” took place on March 27, according to Ritter.
Parents and volunteers then set up that morning for around an hour and a half, ensuring that the boxes were ready to go while demonstrating to children that donating can be fun.
“Everyone is really proud of themselves. The Food Pantry came to pick everything up and they were super pumped,” Ritter said.
