‘Every penny helps’
MONROE — Spare change can add up to something big.
Really big.
Just ask North Main Elementary students, who collected thousands of coins in a battle of the grade levels to see which one could gather the most coins to benefit Our Mother’s Cupboard in Monroe.
They called it the North Main Coin Wars.
It was a war of epic proportions, led by Robert Elser’s fourth-grade class.
The Monroe cupboard, a project of the Sacred Heart Parish Community Outreach Program, provides needy mothers with diapers, wipes, formula, baby food and other sundry items for free. North Main’s collective efforts served as a Mother’s Day gift to help cupboard volunteers get those supplies in stock.
And when all the change was counted up, a total of $3,021.69 was donated by the entire school, with the fourth-grade student body named the winning grade level of the first-time effort.
Pennies from ....
To make that happen, daily coinage clashes ensued, pitting grade level against grade level. The currency combat brought pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars and dollar coins into school for five days last week.
Elser’s students - the overseers of the project - acted like generals rallying their troops as they visited all classrooms each day to remind their classmates of the importance of their community service endeavor and to remain on their offensive mission of bringing loose change to school.
They had to count all those coins, too, extracting Canadian, British, Costa Rican, Israeli and Bahamian currency as well as obsolete French francs and new Euro coins from the mix.
Then, there were the unexpected arcade and casino tokens, screws, earring backs, watch batteries and even a Barbie doll shoe in the mounds of money, perhaps a ruse from unnamed battle enemies checking to see if Elser’s students were really watching what they were counting.
“I think people were truly emptying their change jars,” said Elser.
Planet Pizza party
But the Elser Allied forces prevailed and the daily levels on the handcrafted, oversized thermometers for each grade in the cafeteria rose.
The announcement of the final tally and the winning grade level last Friday had fourth-grade students screaming with delight, as they knew the overall grade-level winner would be treated to a pizza party from Planet Pizza. That party for the 164 students took place last Tuesday.
“We did it for a good cause and to help our community,” said fourth-grader Grace Wanderling, one of Elser’s students.
“It shows we can work together to help other people and bring our school together,” added her classmate Michael Fuchs, admitting the simple second-grade math he learned two years ago of how to quickly count coins came in handy.
Lots of diapers
Representatives of Our Mother’s Cupboard, who stopped by this past Monday to thank students, were astonished to learn of the amount raised.
“I am stunned, absolutely stunned,” said Susana Rodriguez, cupboard coordinator. “How did they do that? This is absolutely amazing. This is going to buy a lot of diapers and other necessities.”
Likewise, Elser was overwhelmed with the response.
“This was a fun and fair competition,” he said, noting the coin drive also offered lessons in spreadsheet and bar graph preparation, multi-step word problem solving, science discussions about weight, mass and materials and writing opportunities for students. “We did it for a good cause, to help mothers for Mother’s Day.”
Cupboard assistant Camille Stack also praised the North Main school community for its good deed.
“This will help a lot of people who are less fortunate (than you all),” Stack said, pointing to the jugs. “There are people out of work, or who are ill and in need.”
Closely following the fourth-grade in money collected was the third-grade student body, with the second-graders capturing third place and the fifth-grade students taking fourth place.
“A little bit of change does add up,” Stack added. “Every penny helps.”
By Nancy Kriz