Cardboard Challenge comes to Tarkington

Tarkington Elementary School turned into an arcade as students and families participated in the Cardboard Challenge on October 8th. Kindergarten through fifth grade students imagined and built arcade games from recycled materials Tarkington’s student service club, Helping Paws, helped run the event. The community came together to play the games and raise money for Tarkington’s newly-established scholarship fund.

The Cardboard Challenge is designed to inspire creativity in children and encourage them to think critically to create and build a game that others can play. Students incorporate STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Math) thinking skills in the creation of their arcade game. Students voted on their favorite games and were awarded with cardboard ribbons and prizes donated by Target, Star Cinema Grill and Chuck E Cheese.

Families donated money in order to play the games. All of the money raised from this event benefits the Tarkington scholarship fund. To date, $3,360 has been raised for the scholarship. The fund’s first scholarship will be awarded this coming spring to a high school senior who previously attended Tarkington Elementary School.

“The Cardboard Challenge has been a great success due to the generous nature of our community,” said Ryann Rivers, Literacy and Media Teacher at Tarkington School. “We are looking forward to giving the first scholarship.”

Tarkington alumni can access the scholarship application from the Tarkington School website.

The Global Cardboard Challenge was inspired by Caine’s Arcade, an arcade created by a nine-year-old boy in California where all of the games were made from recycled materials. The 2013 Global Cardboard challenge had over 90,000 participants from more than 40 countries.