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Clark Memorial students recently set a path with their Kindness Project to help local food banks, and they’ve done that by nearly doubling a 750-cereal-box goal

The Clark students and staff have been working on the community Kindness Project that teaches students about the importance of empathy and caring while simultaneously benefitting local food banks.

The event was spearheaded by School Counselor Andrea Parson as well as teacher Sarah Curtis.

Parson said she found inspiration for the outreach project through CBS News’ Steve Hartman’s Kindness 101 video lessons as well as previous teaching experiences.

The hope of the project was to give back to the community through food-bank donations while having the added benefit of showing the pre-K-through-fifth-grade students important character qualities. 

The goal was to finish the project by Feb. 17 which was National Random Acts of Kindness Day.

At 1:30 p.m. on that date, the school staff and other volunteers, including the Mind2Heart group, arranged all the cereal boxes to create a domino effect.

Once set up, the anxious students lined the halls of the school in preparation for the box-domino chain to be set off. The chain of cereal boxes was really something to see as it stretched along the hallways of the entire school.

The student council had made it a fun competition among the grade levels to see which class could bring in the most cereal boxes. An ice cream party would be awarded to the grade that produced the most boxes.

The fifth grade ended up winning the competition with 382 boxes of cereal donated.

The final calculations revealed that Clark Memorial School received 1,417 unopened boxes of cereal for the community.

The cereal will be taken to the Grace Center of Hope, Abundant Life Church, Estill Springs Baptist Church, Good Samaritan Ministries, Christ the King Anglican Church in Decherd, The Table at Cowan and the Isaiah 117 House.

Some boxes will also be kept for the school’s food pantry in the event it can benefit students. Each student was also able to take one box of cereal home with them after the celebration.

School staff members said it is comforting to know the students are gaining hands-on experience in giving back to others and learning the importance of kindness and sharing at such an early age.