JANUARY 2008 E-NEWSLETTER

Penny Harvest Field at Rockefeller Center

What a month! This December’s Penny Harvest Field was a bigger success than any of us could have imagined. Millions visited, including tens of thousands of participating NYC school children and their families. Students witnessed their collective accomplishment and were energized to begin their grant making this spring; teachers reported that their Rockefeller Center field trip (for many students, their first time to this historic NYC landmark) was the perfect reward for their students’ hard work; and passersby marveled at what children in NYC achieved in just one month.

Here are just a few - of the many! - comments we received during the month:

“When I tell you that the sight was amazing, I’d truly be understating the experience. From my own understanding, this might be the first time students and coaches alike could visualize the impact that our collective monies could have in helping the less fortunate.”
Jose Vilson, Penny Harvest Coach, JHS 52, Manhattan

“[The] Penny Field was amazing. Millions and millions of pennies lite my heart. I said, ‘Think of all the people we can help.’ / I never knew that so many schools cared so much.”
Hemali Shan / Ella Leviyeva, Penny Harvest Student Leaders, JHS 190, Queens

“People were in awe! They couldn’t believe [these pennies were] all collected by children. They wanted to know if it would be in NYC every year. One man could not believe children were a part of this, based on the world we live in now. He said it was unbelievable.”
Sheryl Waters, Volunteer and Penny Harvest grantee (Sunrise Day Camp)

Visit our blog to read more about the field and see pictures from throughout December.

This month at the Penny Harvest

January is professional development time at the Penny Harvest. Teachers throughout the country attend day-long training sessions on the final phases of the Penny Harvest: Making Grants and Neighborhood Service. These sessions prepare Penny Harvest Coaches for the coming weeks, help them plan activities, and provide a forum to share ideas and best practices.

In NYC alone, over 450 teachers were trained during the 12 professional development sessions offered this month. Coaches received comprehensive instruction on how to maximize the educational benefits of the program for their students and strategies for best implementing the lessons in their Penny Harvest Curriculum Guide.

Interested in supporting Common Cents and the Penny Harvest?

Following the Penny Harvest Field, demand for the program is at an all time high. We urgently need your support to bring the Penny Harvest to more schools and students. Consider school sponsorship, and for just $500 you can help us deliver the Penny Harvest to every child who wants to participate (you can also team up with a friend or relative and share this gift to Common Cents). Your support will provide the curriculum, supplies and resources children use to gather pennies, make grants and take action. Sponsor a school now, and watch their efforts go from pennies to promise.

New Poll

In the coming weeks, Penny Harvest students all over the country will be researching, debating and deciding how to invest the pennies they collected this fall to help others. If you were in their shoes, how would you assess your community’s needs?

1. Reading the local paper
2. Conducting a survey of the community
3. Talking with family and friends
4. Interviewing community leaders

Visit our home page to participate in this poll.

Guess the Pennies Contest

After receiving hundreds of entries, the Guess the Pennies contest from the Penny Harvest Field is officially closed. So many visitors threw in their two cents (and silver, and pesos, and euros, and…) that the counting process will not be complete until June 1st, 2008!

As soon as we get this number from our bank, we will announce the winner along with some pretty neat statistics, including the exact amount of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters…and all the types of foreign coins that were thrown in. Stay tuned!

Penny Harvest in the Press

For more stories, go to our press clippings page. Visit us on YouTube and on FaceBook.

The Daily Collegian - 01/28/08
Pennies for NY Charity
Rockefeller Center exhibit displayed to show the success of the seventeenth annual Penny Harvest.

NY1 - 01/03/08
Tens Of Millions Of Pennies For Charity Gathered From Huge Pile
Vacuum trucks used to suck up the 300 tons of pocket change from the Penny Harvest field at Rockefeller Center.

The Current Events News (News for Kids) - 12/31/07
Every Penny Counts: Children save pennies to help others (pdf file)
New York City school children participate in the Penny Harvest which results in a massive display of pennies at Rockefeller Center.

KUSA-TV (Colorado) Channel 9 - 12/20/07
Penny Harvest
Adam Schrager reports on Denver 4th graders who are collecting pennies for the Penny harvest program.

News Channel 5 (Nashville) - 12/05/07
Students Collect Pennies For Charities
Students in Nashville, TN collect more than 750 pounds of pennies. (Video clip included)