Students raise $1,100 for Island Harvest

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Fifth-grade students at Barnum Woods Elementary School in East Meadow raised $1,100 to donate to Island Harvest through the creation of arcade games as part of their third annual Global Cardboard Challenge.

The project was inspired by the 2012 documentary Caine’s Arcade, which highlights how 9-year-old Caine Monroy built his own cardboard arcade, filled with games and prizes, for customers of his father’s auto parts store. When filmmaker Nirvan Mullick walked in, he became Caine’s first and only customer. Through this experience, Mullick created a documentary about Caine’s arcade while also establishing a scholarship fund for him to attend college.

Fifth-grade students at Barnum Woods used the idea to carry out a month long creation of arcade games made of recycled cardboard and materials. Some examples of the games that students created included foosball, Plinko, pinball and claw machines. Parents, students and staff were invited to come and play for 25 cents per game on Dec. 17, with all money raised going to Island Harvest.

On Jan. 16, representatives from Island Harvest came to Barnum Woods to collect the donation and to thank the students for their efforts.

“We were extremely proud of the games they created and the generosity of our guests,” said Jaime Assortato, the technology instructor and literacy coach.

—Brian Stieglitz