Cereal Box Domino Challenge becoming serial event for Indian Grove, Hersey students
The dominoes fell the right way as students from two school districts partnered to provide cereal for needy families this week.
Students from John Hersey High School in Northwest Suburban High School District 214 and Indian Grove Elementary School in River Trails Elementary District 26 teamed up to support local food pantries through the Cereal Box Domino Challenge
The combo of younger and older students at the two schools collected nearly 900 boxes of cereal.
The effort brought together Hersey’s Service Over Self (S.O.S.) Club and Indian Grove’s Grover Community Service Group.
The high school students visited Indian Grove Tuesday to help set up the donation display, lining school hallways with cereal boxes to create a domino chain. Students gathered to watch the display topple, watching the outcome of their all their hard work.
The effort is becoming a serial event. This is the third year the two groups have collaborated, said Annette Russo, a second-grade teacher at Indian Grove and one of the sponsors of the Grover Community Service Group. “We collect cereal boxes, and it kind of becomes a schoolwide competition between grade levels.”
The students have about two weeks to collect the boxes, with the grade-level winner announced on the last day. Meanwhile, the students from Hersey pair up with the Indian Grove students.
Russo said it is an exciting two weeks, including a raffle of donated Hersey items.
“Pretty much every kid who brings in some cereal box will win something with the Hersey logo on it, which they love, because they're going to attend that high school,” she said.
Another Grover Community Service Group sponsor, second-grade Indian Grove teacher Sommer Havel, said a wide range of cereals are picked, with Cheerios well represented.
The beneficiaries will be food pantries in Arlington Heights, Palatine and Mount Prospect.
The Cereal Box Domino Challenge is held in a variety of locations nationwide, including Wisconsin and North Carolina.
Havel said a Hersey class approached Indian Grove, sending a social media video of a domino challenge event and asked if there would be interest.
“We responded right away and said we have our own community service club here at Indian Grove, and our kids would love to be involved in something like this,” Havel said.
Havel said the service group’s efforts include raising money for Toys for Tots, Ronald McDonald House and animal shelters. During Kindness Week, the students also write positive messages to younger students.
“This project shows the power of students working together to make a difference,” Russo said. “It was incredible to see their excitement and pride as the dominoes fell.”