Alaia Tuapante admits she was a little bit nervous when she stepped up before a formidable domino line of 727 cereal boxes at Carnegie Elementary School’s gymnasium.

“There was a big crowd,” said Alaia, a second grader at Carnegie.

But once she tapped over the first box of Honeycomb cereal, causing a domino chain reaction, the feeling of nervousness quickly went away as Alaia and her peers cheered the falling cereal boxes.

“Everybody at the school came together and cheered all the dominos as they fell down,” said Sydney Sullivan, a fourth-grade student. “We do this every year. It’s cool to see the kindergarten students get to experience it for the first time, and my class and some of the fifth grade students get to help set up the dominos.”

Carnegie held the third-annual cereal drive domino fall Friday, March 6.

Fourth grade teacher and cereal drive coordinator Julie Lewis said donations came from students and their families, Carlynton community members and Carnegie-Collier Rotary Club members.

The donation period lasted about three weeks. Donations benefit the school’s Free Store 15106, a fully functioning food and clothing pantry housed in the school where students and families can “shop” for their needs.

Each week, volunteers pack and send home bags of food with 135 students, Lewis said. That accounts for about 35% of the student body.

“People are fantastic and want to help,” Lewis said. “The food is going to our students, but it’s also a fun, quick activity at school. As a student called it when she heard the total: ‘This is going to be epic.’”

Before the domino fall, students Andrew Plavetzky, Chase Bostic and Mia Patriarco held up signs that signaled to their classmates that the collection totaled 727 boxes — 268 more than last year.

“I hope they take away that a little bit of working together can make something big happen,” Lewis said. “This would not work with one box of cereal, but all of it together makes it really fun.”

Alaia was selected to kick off the domino fall through a positive behavior initiative at the school, Lewis said.

“She is a star student and shows the characteristics of a cougar,” Lewis said, referring to Carlynton’s cougar mascot.

Said Sydney, “(Alaia’s) really sweet and she deserved it.”