Currency For The Cure

This article is written by Jared Eliot Middle School student Kate Mozzochi

A penny. Just a plain, simple, copper penny. It’s worthless, not-needed, a nuisance. You can’t buy anything with just one penny, so it just sits alone and dejected, in the bottom of a piggy-bank. People just think that pennies are worthless, but have you ever thought about the worth of thousands of pennies combined? Probably not.

But, if you ever feel worthless like the penny in your piggy-bank, like you don’t do anything for the good of the community, you should donate your penny to Pennies for Patients. Just one penny combined with hundreds of thousands of other pennies from around the country can help work toward a cure for cancer and save many people’s lives. So, is that penny really worthless anymore?

Pennies for Patients is a nation-wide fundraiser created by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in 1995. It is a school competition in which students bring in spare change and donate it to help work toward a cure for cancer.

In just three weeks, most schools across the nation collect thousands of dollars for the cause. All of that change is then invested in essential efforts like research, patient and community service, public health education, and professional education. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society encourages students to participate in Pennies for Patients because they believe kids learn that they can make a difference in other peoples’ lives. They also think that kids learn the value of giving back and receive the opportunity to succeed through teamwork.

All Eliot students participated in Pennies for Patients under the supervision of health teacher, Mr. Bontempo, and Spanish teacher, Miss Lehberger. When we combined all the money, our Eliot community collected almost $2,000 to donate to Pennies for Patients. At Eliot, we raised $1,903.98 and three of our homerooms raised over $100 each. Pretty impressive, right? Well guess what? Three other homerooms collected over $200 each. If one school could raise that much money, think of all the money the schools across the nation collected altogether. $1,903.98 is a spectacular total but, I strongly believe that next year we could double that total at Eliot and save more peoples’ lives.

So I challenge our community to try to double our school’s individual total next year. Lots of citizens in our community know we can, so come on Clinton, let’s do it together! Remember, all it takes is one penny to make a huge difference in the world!