Pennies Galore: Students Fundraise for Causes

What's the value of a penny these days? Lots apparently after a group of students at Russell Middle and Pomeroy Elementary asked peers and parents to donate their change for a good cause.

The spare change came out to about $3,000, but the recipients, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and local soup kitchens will likely receive a check.

In the first year of a contest at Pomeroy that pitted grade levels against each other, students quickly learned they could score positive points with pennies, and sabotage other grades with larger chunks of change–nickels, dimes, quarters and even bills.

"Penny wars" inspired students at Pomeroy to line up during recess, lunch or after school to drop change in milk jugs, and sometimes even sprinting to donate their money.

"The kids were really into it," said Principal Troy Knechtel. "We were hard-pressed to take all their coins during recess time."

And parents quickly caught on, too.

"A couple of parents brought a box of 25 dollars of pennies," said sixth grade teacher Deanna Sainten, who started the club in her second year at Pomeroy.

"The whole school knew the money was going to soup kitchens," she said.

Sainten and Coach Rey Elzey are both advisors for Club Six. It wasn't that long ago that they were trying to come up with a service project with the sixth grade members.

They considered a car wash, but thought it would waste water. They considered a bake sale, but thought it was unhealthy. The idea for penny wars came from Sainten's college days.

"I had done something similar at Santa Clara University in the dorm building where different floors competed against each other," she said.

When all the change was rolled up by the Club Six students, the total had come out to about $1,975.65. The students will get to decide which soup kitchens to donate the money to, according to Sainten.

The winners, third graders, will get an extra long P.E. session with Coach Rey Elzey.

Special Education Class at Russell Middle Raises $1000+ for Leukemia

For teacher Rozina Kapadia, a special education teacher at Russell Middle School, she wanted to develop leadership experience among her 12-14 year olds.

During March, her nine students led The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Pennies for Patients campaign at school and raised more than $1000.

It's the second year the class has raised money for the campaign, but this year they doubled their totals.

“All of my kids have a communication deficit, so it makes it difficult for them to ask for donations,” said Kapadia.

The students have autism and individual disabilities so “a lot of them are very insecure about themselves, and I have one student who has very limited language.”

With buckets and cue cards, the students fundraised during lunch, asking other students to donate.

“When they ask for money, it’s very hard to say no to them because they’re so kind.  They’re very genuine about it,” Kapadia says.  

At first, she was concerned about how her students would be received at school, “now other students recognize them and say hi to them in the halls.  It’s been very rewarding to see,” she said.