Saint Olaf's Penny Wars

Intermountain Catholic

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Students of Saint Olaf Catholic School ushered in this year’s service activities program with a penny war. During a discussion about world events, 5th-grade students learned about the starving people in Somalia. Carly Anderson and Kalyn Avery wanted to help, so they proposed raising money for the starving refugees in East Africa.

A penny war was launched. (A penny war is when classes compete to fill each other’s jars with coins.) Information about the dire situation and the terrible draught affecting millions of people was presented and jars were provided for each class. The challenge was that the winner of the penny war would be the class whose jar had the least amount of money when the fundraiser ended.

Students arrived at school each day proudly displaying bags filled with change and announcing that they were going to put it in a certain class’s jar. Recesses were spent going from class to class, filling jars. Middle school students delighted younger ones as they visited lower grades to deposit not pennies but dollar bills. Revenge soon followed as more pennies came in to fill the older student’s jars. In the end the third grade won the "war" with the least amount of money. The big losers were the fifth graders, who came out with an astonishing $144.

The students’ enthusiasm raised $600 as a sign of hope for those who have nothing. Not only was the money raised for a special cause but a lively sense of community and pride developed between all students from pre-K to eighth grade.

Courtesy of Saint Olaf Catholic School