One penny at a time

Shannon LeClair

Times Reporter

 

Students at Sacred Heart Academy, SHA, all have good works projects, which they work on to try to make the community, and the world, a better place.  When and what the project is will determined by the teacher and the students. For Kaitlyn Sinclair, a teacher at SHA, the idea began to form after the class read ‘The Breadwinner,’ by Deborah Ellis, as a part of their novel study. ‘The Breadwinner’ is about the struggles a young Afghanistan girl faces when trying to help her family after her father is arrested. 

Reading the book lead to deeper thoughts about Afghanistan and Middle Eastern countries and eventually to deciding to raise Pennies for Peace. 

“Our goal was $634 because that was how much money the very first school raised for the Pennies for Peace and so our goal was to beat that and we did,” said Sinclair. 

At the beginning of November the tally for the pennies was up to $608. She is sure they have raised near the $650 mark, but has yet to tally up the final numbers. 

The students have been gathering pennies, and the money they have raised will be going towards building schools and buying school supplies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Each class in the school had a collection jar and the students would bring in their own pennies, though the 5S class organized the project. 

“It was good for the kids because we talked about how pennies over there could buy a lot more than what they can buy here,” said Sinclair.  

Sinclair plans to take the change to the bank because it’s all rolled pennies. She is waiting to find out how they should send it over, whether as a bank deposit or a cheque. 

Pennies for Peace first began in 1995 as Pennies for Pakistan. Since its inception, Pennies for Peace has raised over 17 million pennies.  

Another good works project has also begun, the mitten tree. This is the second year for the tree, organized by Grade 2 teachers Deanna Muchka and Lisa Szymanek. Last year the tree brought in about 50 pairs of mittens, which were donated to Wheatland Family Services. This year Muchka said she would like to see 100 or 150 pairs donated.