Long Beach Middle School students and staff members set out together on a mission to break a world record while making a difference to those in need. Students and staff members spent weeks collecting thousands of new, unopened boxes of cereal, and on May 26, they put their plan in motion to set the Guinness World Record for Most Cereal Boxes Toppled in Domino Fashion. Following the highly anticipated and successful run, all cereal was donated to local food pantries.
The initiative’s coordinators, William Papetti, Walter Kramme, Patricia Van Loon and Michael Vasikauskas, walked students through multiple practice rounds earlier in the week and oversaw the entire cereal donation drive leading up to the day of the attempt. Students, many of whom represented National Honor Society and Student Government, sprang into action after school as they worked with faculty members to carefully assemble the boxes in neatly organized rows throughout the hallways. They were joined by members of the Board of Education, administration and staff to watch the new record take form.
The middle school raised more than $5,500 in donations for cereal, and more than 6,500 cereal boxes were donated from students, staff, and community members. Participants lined up 6,419 boxes and successfully toppled 6,394 of them – a number that is more than double what the Guinness World Record was at the onset of the Long Beach group’s endeavor.
“We had students that worked tirelessly these past three weeks, giving up lunch periods, day after day, to mark off every eight inches throughout the entire school, sort cereal by size, kind, and weight, transport cereal to different locations or test out different configurations that might or might not topple,” Mr. Papetti said. “Whatever needed to be done, the students were there for it.”
“This has truly been a mark of all stakeholders in the community,” Mr. Kramme said. “Students have been unbelievable in collecting boxes and really took such a headway in getting this going.”
Watch the unedited footage here!