Kids helping kids: Clearbrook students help Abbotsford’s Cyrus Centre...
The entire student population of Clearbrook elementary poured into the hallways recently to watch an amazing feat of community service — and physics.
The Grade 5 students had gathered more than 600 boxes of breakfast cereal from the community, and meticulously lined them up like dominoes. The line stretched from one end of the school, down a small set of stairs, around a corner, where it branched off to travel down two more hallways.
The excitement built as the ‘dominoes’ were set into motion. The screams of joy grew louder and louder from the first tipped-over box to the very last.
The students had rallied together about a month ago to gather 1,000 boxes of cereal to help feed Abbotsford’s unhoused youth at the Cyrus Centre. And while they were just a little shy of their goal, the Cyrus Centre staff who came to pick up the donation were overwhelmed, emotionally and physically, with the enormous donation.
It took three vans to load up, all with the help of the students.
“I never thought I would cry over cereal,” said Melissa, Cyrus Centre’s Abbotsford director. She and the non-profit’s regional director Matt Loewen were there to gather the boxes and take them back to the centre, which offers housing and other supports for young people ages 12 to 24.
Cereal is such a common request for the kids who come through the centre, they said. And it’s a comfort, too.