We are just ending "Pennies for the Playground". We made about $500 and did it as a grade wide competition in our K-2 school. There was some controversy about the competition from a couple of parents but we plan to offer some sort of party to the winning grade. We only needed 3 jars (we used big plastic jugs that held peanut butter filled pretzels from Costco) and put them in the office. We sent out several updates. We got a local bank to count the change for free. It was a hassle to get the pennies to the bank b/c they weighed so much and we had to park in our downtown and use a wagon to get them into the bank. Be sure to call your bank ahead of time to make sure they will count them for you. We sort of got conflicting information about what branch we needed to go to.
I love, love, love the coin drive! I have helped with Pennies for Patients for the last three years and it is the most rewarding experience....as far as volunterring goes.
Each class gets a paper "thermometer" outside their classroom door. I choose to collect the coins daily, the students bring them to the office by a certain time. I choose to go to the bank daily as well, so they know their totals for each day. This keeps them excited about the fundraiser and not forgetting about it. The Leukemia Society provides us with new, innovating ideas to keep the students and community motivated. A small cardboard box is also provided for each classroom to collect their coins in.
We are honored to have a student that has fought the battle with Leukemia, so this fundraiser is near and dear to our hearts. Each year we have topped our goal, the students and staff continue to amaze us!
We had old water jugs (like from Culligan's) - we had one per class the first year, then one per grade level the 2nd year. We told the teachers that if they got more than half way full, to let us know, and we would get them another one.
We counted the money in pounds, and told the kids that each dollar bill would be worth 1/2# ($5 = 2.5 pounds, etc). We had separate envelopes for the paper money and checks, but sometimes the kids threw those in anyway, so we did the best we could.
We had to take ours to a CoinStar and pay to have them "counted". Our bank would not do it for us.16
Often you can get a local bank to run the coins through their counting machines (they can give you a printout of how many pennies, nickels, etc.). Offer to thank them in the school newsletter.
Saves tons of time!
We used 1-gallon Gatorade jugs that a parent bought then donated to the athletics department. They had lids and stayed in the school office. Once a day, kids were called by grade to come and dump their change.
I was thinking of doing one but had not gotten follow through thumbs up from our principal as of yet. I was going to use mason jars and cut a slit in the used flat lids that you are not suppose to use again anyway. The idea was to do it during the lunch hour and the kids could go up and put the money in their class jar then. Then maybe a PTO member would just be around for that lunch period.
