Monmouth Junction students make difference penny at a time

Students’ "Penny War" spreads holiday cheer throughout community.

By: Melissa Hayes
   Third-grade teacher Keri Nieves wanted to teach Monmouth Junction school students about the spirit of giving for the holiday season, and was able to do just that when the school collected 181,596 pennies during a weeklong "Penny War."
   The collection began Dec. 6 and students brought in all the pennies they could find until Friday.
   The money will be put into the South Brunswick Human Intervention Trust Fund which is money that is available to families in need that live in the township.
   "It’s a trust fund that we keep totally separate from the township budget so I can draw checks down more readily," said LouAnne Wolf, director of social service for the township. "All the money goes to families in the town."
   "It was thousands and thousands of pennies," resource teacher Sharon Monasch said. "Every day kids were volunteering to count during their lunchtime and recess."
   She said the teachers took the pennies to Commerce Bank on Quaker Bridge Road in Mercerville where they put them in the sorting machine to cash them in.
   "The bank branch told us that this was the largest amount of pennies ever counted from one source," she said.
   The school brought so many pennies that the bank mentioned it in the Commerce Bank newsletter .
   "They were great," Ms. Monasch said of the bank employees. "Teachers would drive up with pennies and they would go out to meet them and help carry them in."
   Ms. Monasch said they never expected to get such an overwhelming response from the school community.
   "Our students were asked to donate pennies for the benefit of needy families in South Brunswick," she said. "The response was incredible both in the amount of money we received as well as the spirit in which everyone joyfully contributed. Students, parents, grandparents and other relatives joined together in this amazing effort."
   She said it was an exciting process for the students, who anxiously awaited the morning announcement of how much had been tallied each day.
   Ms. Monasch said the project sent a message of what people can do when they work together.
   "It shows them that if you get together and everyone puts their stuff together pennies can really amount to something incredible," Ms. Monasch said.
   The school will be presenting a check to Ms. Wolf during an assembly at the school Friday morning.
   Ms. Wolf said she was excited to be going to the school.
   "I am always excited to talk to children when they do things like this," she said. "There’s nothing better than watching children give to other children."