Children Helping Children: Never Underestimate the Value of a Penny

It all started with a vision. What would happen if all of the communitys children collected as many pennies as possible? People had done it with paper clips, so why not try it with pennies. Many look at pennies as having little or no value; its just worth one cent. But when you put a large amount together it can create a huge value and when a lot of people join together to do small acts of hesed, it can make a huge difference.

So we set a goal, and we planned a dream. The children would collect pennies and the money would go to help the children. Our motto became, Children Helping Children. Our goal was simply: to collect as many cents as possible. All proceeds would go to SBHs Dress A Child program, which helps needy families purchase clothing for their children.

After months of planning, and many meetings, we finally put the pieces into place. Magen David Yeshivah, Yeshiva of Flatbush, Yeshiva Shaare Torah, Yeshiva Derech Eretz, Barkai Elementary School, Ilan High School, Hillel High School and Brooklyn College Hillel House all agreed to participate in this community-wide event.

Each school was given a large lucite box to put in the lobby of their school. Over the course of two weeks, the students were asked to fill up the box with as much spare change as possible. Immediately, kids were pouring money into the boxes, and the boxes were filling up quickly.

In fact, a few boxes broke because of the weight of all the money. This project went much better than we had ever anticipated. We had mobilized kid power to make a real difference.

After the two weeks, we headed over to the schools to pick up the moneyand we were in shock. The amount of money that the schools collected far exceeded our expectations. Just getting it back to the SBH office was a challenge, you see the money raised weighed over 300 pounds! We then began the process of totaling up each school.

All of the schools did an amazing job. The winners, based on money raised per student, were  Yeshiva Derech Eretz HS, Barkai Yeshivah and Ilan High School.

The winner, based on total money raised, was Yeshivah of Flatbush Elementary School. But the real winners are all of the children who will benefit from this amazing effort by all of the children.

Every small act of hesed and every act of charity can truly help someone in need. A special thank you to all the mothers and student captains of each school, who worked so hard to make sure that the project ran smoothly. Wed also like to thank all the schools for their involvement in this project and all the students for their participation and cooperation. This project could not have come to fruition without the help and effort of everyone involved.

In the end, we can all learn very important lessons from the children of our community: the power of tzedakah is immense and never underestimate the value of one person, or even one penny. When we all come together, we are able to achieve amazing things beyond our wildest dreams.
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Shula Mann is a community member. She and Orly Nahum were in charge of the project.