DUNMORE – A central aspect of Catholic education is learning the importance of service to others. As part of Catholic Schools Week, every Catholic school participates in service activities to showcase how to make the world a better place.
At Saint Mary of Mount Carmel School, students wrote letters to their parish priests, collected personal care items for veterans at Gino Merli Veterans Center and held a cereal box domino event on Feb. 2, 2024.
“We started our cereal box domino during COVID. We did it upstairs in the hallway and it became a thing. The kids really liked it,” Maryelizabeth Shattin, principal, said.
Students are invited to bring in a box of their favorite cereal and the eighth grade set up all of boxes in a path that would have them all fall in the pattern of dominoes.
“It is really a great way for us to help others. We turned it into a class competition as well. The class that collects the most, in ounces, gets a dress down day,” Shattin added.
The whole school looked on and cheered as the cereal boxes all started to topple on each other.
More than just providing a few exciting minutes, all the cereal boxes were then donated to a worthy community cause.
“They are going to a really good cause. They are going to Saint Ann’s food pantry,” eighth grader Keira Lalli explained. “We do a lot of service projects throughout the year, and we give to people in need, and it shows that we care for people.”
Shattin said events like the cereal box domino are an easy, fun way to instill Christian values of service and giving in the students – with the goal of making them good Christians.
“We listen to the Gospel and listen to the things Jesus did, helping those around him, and we want to instill that in our students,” she said. “We want them to walk in Jesus’ shoes.”