Following successful first year, Greenfield’s Cardboard Building Challenge expected to be repeat event

Roughly 50 families participated in a Cardboard Building Challenge — a hands-on event designed to inspire creativity, problem-solving and teamwork among students — at Federal Street School in Greenfield on Saturday.

Roughly 50 families participated in a Cardboard Building Challenge — a hands-on event designed to inspire creativity, problem-solving and teamwork among students — at Federal Street School in Greenfield on Saturday. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Roughly 50 families participated in a Cardboard Building Challenge – a hands-on event designed to inspire creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork among students – at Federal Street School on Saturday.

Roughly 50 families participated in a Cardboard Building Challenge – a hands-on event designed to inspire creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork among students – at Federal Street School on Saturday. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

By DOMENIC POLI

Staff Writer

Published: 03-19-2025 1:03 PM

GREENFIELD — If you enjoyed Greenfield schools’ inaugural Cardboard Building Challenge, you’re in luck: Brittany Hathaway, vice president of Federal Street School’s Parent-Teacher Organization, says the event is just getting started.

“It exceeded all expectations, for sure,” she said. “This was our first annual, and certainly not our last. It was too much fun not to do it again.”

Roughly 50 families stopped by Federal Street School on Saturday for the Cardboard Building Challenge, a hands-on event designed to foster creativity, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, and teamwork among students while also reinforcing sustainability by repurposing materials. The event was a chance for all Greenfield elementary students and their families to let their imaginations run wild and think outside the box to assemble cardboard jet packs, rocket ships and more.

The Greenfield event is part of the Global Cardboard Challenge, which was inspired by “Caine’s Arcade,” an 11-minute documentary about a boy who creates a cardboard arcade operated out of his father’s auto parts store in Los Angeles in mid-2011.

“It was really an honor to bring this sort of national hype to the Greenfield public school system,” Hathaway said.

The event was sponsored by Title 1 and the PTOs of Federal Street School, Newton School and the Discovery School at Four Corners.

“The Cardboard Building Challenge is a celebration of creativity and hands-on learning,” Kelly Halpin, principal at Federal Street School, said in a statement, “and we’re grateful for the support of Title 1 and the PTO in making this possible for our students.”

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.

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