Clemmons Middle School students watched a line of boxed food dominos 2,915 pieces long fall on Friday as they celebrated a massively successful boxed food drive.
The domino event is a familiar sight for the Clemmons Elementary School community, who have used it to cap off their cereal box food drives in the past few years. This year, with her kids now in middle school, Fara O’Byrne organized it at Clemmons Middle, and in anticipation of Thanksgiving, it expanded to include other boxed staple food items like pasta and instant potatoes.
The fundraiser took place over less than two weeks, but that turned out to be more than enough time for Clemmons Middle to embrace the tradition. Not only did they surpass their 2,500-box goal, but they also attracted guest appearances for the domino event including the Winston-Salem State University Red Sea of Sound marching band, Bolt from the Winston-Salem Dash, and the Carolina Panthers TopCats cheerleaders accompanied by Sir Purr. By the time the last domino fell, the entire school was on their feet, exhilarated by their accomplishment.
O’Byrne was overcome with emotion to see so much support for the food drive. It wasn’t always clear if it would be as popular at the middle school level, but students put in a ton of work in a short span to support the Clemmons Food Pantry. She hopes every student in the school knows what a meaningful difference they’ve made in their community by participating.
“The first day, we didn’t have any donations, and part of me wanted to quit, but I’m so glad we didn’t,” O’Byrne said. “Some of these kids may end up being the recipients of the food we collected here… I hope they all feel like superheroes.”