MS students raised $2,000 in pennies

Scotia-Glenville Middle School students and staff have raised $2,000 by collecting pennies from friends, parents and neighbors during a Penny Harvest, the first done by SGMS.

"This has been a wonderful experience for everybody," said Allen Calhoun, technology teacher and advisor to the GIVE service learning program, which organized the event. "Our students came up with many good ways to use this money to benefit the community."

The final tally showed students brought in 1,500 pounds of pennies, which is equivalent to $2,000.

He said students "looked under cushions" and came up with some novel ways of finding pennies in a society that doesn't seem to value the now mostly-zinc coin with Lincoln's face on it. In fact, a recent government report said it costs 1.67 cents to make each 1 cent penny.

Calhoun said 25 30-pound burlap bags of pennies equals about $1,100; students and staff collected double that amount, with homerooms competing against each other to raise more. David Swain's grade 6 classroom was the winner of the contest, collecting 121 pounds of pennies.

Students in the grade 8 Discover service program weighed the pennies and they came in and kept track of the individual homerooms' totals. A chart at the school entrance showed how many pennies each homeroom had collected during the program.

The Penny Harvest, which began in New York City in 1991, is a program in schools across the US that encourages students to collect pennies and convert them to money to use for worthwhile programs in their communities.

At Scotia-Glenville Middle School, social studies classes in grades 6-8 discussed the various social issues – homelessness, poverty, animals at the shelter, struggling seniors and environmental issues – facing the community. A schoolwide assembly was held to discuss the program with the entire 670-student body.

A 15-member roundtable of students and staff will be established to review proposals for grants to various community organizations. The grants will be based "on where the money should be spent and where it will do the most good for the community," said Calhoun.

Grade 8 student Jes Briere, who collected about 3 pounds of pennies, said she "looked in all kinds of places, in the couch and all around" to collect her coins. She said she'd like to see some money go to help the homeless and shelters in the area.

Mercedes O'Connor, also an eighth-grader, "went to neighbors and asked if they had any pennies...my uncle had a whole bunch of pennies." She collected about 10 pounds of pennies for her homeroom. "I really didn't expect to collect this much," added Mercedes, who said both the homeless and animal shelters would make good use of the money.

"I looked in a lot of the odd places," said grade 8 student Clara Pinheiro.

Corey Lussier was a bit more aggressive. "I called all my family members and asked them to mail me some pennies," said the eighth-grader, adding that several did send them via the Post Office.

Check out the Penny Harvest handbook (in PDF), developed to help students as they seek out pennies.