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Giant cereal domino run in aid of homeless charity

Emma Colman & Sophie Parker
BBC News, Wiltshire
BBC Up front, boxes of cereal having just fallen on top of one another. Behind, children sitting on the floor looking on.BBC
The school picks a charity for the children to support every year

A primary school has supported a homeless charity by organising a huge domino run using more than 500 cereal boxes brought in by pupils.

Holy Cross Catholic Primary School is next door to the Swindon Night Shelter, which it chose as its charity for 2025.

Headteacher Sam Dowdeswell explained one of the children came in with the idea when they spotted a cereal domino on YouTube.

The charity also taught the children more about what it does and why it is needed before the cereal was delivered to the charity.

A wider shot of a school hall, children sitting round the edge on the floor. The middle has a twisting stream of cereal boxes.
More cereal turned up than expected, leading to a very long domino line.

School pupil Benjamin said: "The reason we made this huge domino is because some people wake up freezing cold with nothing to eat."

"Our school brought in way more cereal boxes than we expected" he added.

"We had over 500 boxes it went all down the corridor, all round the school and off to Swindon Night Shelter" said Dawn Prosser from the charity.

She explained that they feed about 800 outside of the shelter, but have around 40 a day for breakfast and lunch.

Outdoors, children standing beside a line of cereal boxes on the floor, which are standing up ready to be pushed.
With so many boxes, they were able to go through the school and all the way to the night shelter.

The school has around 400 pupils - many extended families do not live locally, so headteacher Mrs Dowdeswell explained "it's really important the children who attend this school feel part of the local community."

She said children from all years got involved and the cereal boxes mounted up: "So many were coming in everyday. We wanted it to be something everything could enjoy. Excitement levels are very high."

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