Local students have fun with food donations

By CHRISTINE HAINES

chaines@yourmvi.com

Elementary students in the Belle Vernon Area School District had a bit of fun Friday while being community minded and competitive at the same time.

After a month of collecting boxes of cereal for the Bag Brigade, the elementary students got to watch a domino-style box drop through the halls of Marion and Rostraver Elementary schools.

Bag Brigade co-founder Kathy Kelly said the idea for the project came from a video of a school that used falling boxes to demonstrate a chain reaction.

“I thought ‘We could do that,’” Kelly said. “I took the idea to the superintendent and she said yes.”

Marion Elementary Principal Deidra Stepko also approved the project and suggested that instead of waiting until the fall, this would be a great time for it to take place.

“With the COVID issue all around and PSSAs (standardized tests), she thought this would be a good time to do it,” Kelly said.

The students jumped on the opportunity to outdo one another. The grade level that brought in the most boxes of cereal would receive extra recess time for a month. That was strong motivation for the kindergarten students at Marion, who brought in 497 boxes. 

A total of 1,657 boxes of cereal were brought in for the box drop at Marion, and another 859 boxes were gathered at Rostraver Elementary. Kelly said there will be even more boxes going to the Bag Brigade next week.

“The middle school student council also did a drive for us, but we couldn’t pick them up because they’re shut down for COVID,” she said.

One teacher used the project for impromptu math lessons, having the young students gather the boxes in groups of 10. The box drop was a double race against time, first with the set-up and then with a race between two lines of boxes.

“We had about 40 minutes to set up,” Kelly said. “There were so many people, teachers, aides, the security guard and police officer, the superintendent, everybody put the boxes out.”

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