Animal Shelter and Care of Jefferson County was looking for an event to build momentum for “Giving Tuesday,” the annual event after Thanksgiving that can be a big fundraiser for non-profit organizations.
Fortunately, the Montana City School stepped up to hold a “penny war.”
What is a penny war? In this version, each school grade gets its own water jug. Students get one point for each penny they put in the jug, and 100 for each dollar bill. The catch: They can add silver coins – nickels, dimes, quarters — to other grades’ jugs. The value of those silver coins is subtracted from the totals in each jug.
The money is counted daily, and students are updated on the standings at the end of each day. The grade with the most points wins!
The week of Nov. 13, Montana City’s kindergarten through 5th grade classes gathered all the pennies, other coins and dollars they could find. They loaded the pennies and dollars in their jugs and put the silver coins in their competitors’ jugs. The Challenge was on!
On Nov. 17, school Superintendent Tony Kloker and custodian Jordan Beasley removed all the money. We put them into bags labeled with each teacher’s name. Then the fun really began. AS&C volunteers counted and sorted the money all weekend. It took over 10 hours.
We were expecting to raise about $300. Maybe $500.
We took the coins to the Stockman Bank. The tellers there spent two hours putting all the money through their counting machine. Then, they gave AS&C…$2,913.64. All of that will go to support our new kennel building.
The winning classroom for grades K-2 was Taylor Salonen’s first-grade class. The winning classroom for grades 3-5 was Kelly Coburn’s 5th grade. And Martin Kuhl’s home room won for the middle school.
Thank you, Montana City School!
Darlene Moyer
