Primary school create giant domino chain for homeless charity

Children from Holy Cross Catholic Primary School’s Chaplaincy Team organised a novel way to support Swindon Night Shelter by creating a giant domino chain of cereal boxes.

The event, which took place on Friday 14 March, was a huge success. The chain ran from Holy Cross Catholic Primary School all the way to the Haven Day Centre and Guest House, which is located a little further than 100m away.

The children have been creating posters to advertise the event around the school and to invite the parents to send their children to school with a full box of cereals. All the boxes will eventually be donated to the Swindon Night Shelter’s food pantry project which provides fresh, chilled, frozen and store cupboard items at venues around Swindon each week, feeding over 800 people a month.

Headteacher, Sam Dowdeswell, said: “As a school we are always looking for ways to support our local community.

“The children have a good understanding of how the Night Shelter helps those within our local area who need a helping hand, and they are excited to be able to support them wherever and whenever they can.”

Benjamin in Year 5 said: “We are giving the cereal boxes to the Swindon Night Shelter because some of these people don’t have homes or they have lost their jobs. We are making a giant domino line from the school to donate cereals for their breakfast. It feels like a dream come true!”

Ella from Year 6 said: “We are one big community in God’s family. We are neighbours and Jesus said, “love your neighbours”. We are doing this so we can help people in our community, they are almost our local family.”

Some year 4 children that attend the Chaplaincy Club shared some of their thoughts about the event:

Erin said: "Since we are Catholic, we try our best to help people in need. We are trying to follow in God's footsteps by sharing."

Asher and Marlene said: "We can help our community and ensure that everyone gets their fair share of food".

A spokesperson for the school said: “The response from the children and their families was fantastic. We collected 555 boxes in total, which was more than we initially expected, as we only have 392 children enrolled in school.

"It was a lovely event and the children thoroughly enjoyed it."