Westport Teacher Creates Domino Effect of Giving Back

Leave it up to a dedicated teacher to turn the act of giving back into an interactive game for every student to enjoy.

After weeks of collecting packaged cereal boxes, the Macomber School in Westport will be proudly donating over 1,000 boxes to the Westport Food Pantry, thanks to the action of one first-grade teacher.

Robin Morin has been a resident of Westport for over 40 years. As a first-grade teacher at Macomber School, she has seen firsthand the school’s generosity over the years and she truly enjoys giving back to the community.

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Recently, she was scrolling through Facebook and stumbled upon a video from across the country that showed a teacher lining up cereal boxes in the hallway and knocking the first one down like a domino while the kids cheered on the sidelines.

“I called a fellow teacher and said, ‘We should do this,’” Morin said. “We typically raise money for the Westport Food Pantry during the holidays, but I thought this would be fun for the kids.”

Morin knew that the students were familiar with dominos because they are often used in math class, and she saw the perfect way to get the kids excited about giving back. She got to work on planning and the “Mac Gives Back” mission was born.

Over the course of the campaign, the Macomber School managed to collect 1,003 cereal boxes, with more trickling in by the day.

Morin spoke to the pantry, who said they will be able to feed enough families for seven weeks. “The pantry makes bags of food and they will put a box in each bag," she said.

The kids were ecstatic, and so was Morin as she watched her idea come to life.

“It was just something I thought would be fun and I wanted it to go to a good cause," she said.

The students were able to see the domino effect of giving back thanks to the initiative of their teachers. Morin and the entire school are looking forward to handing over their donations on Friday.