Jill Barbarise is a sixth grade teacher at Roosevelt School and the faculty coordinator of the school’s Peer Leadership group, which encourages youngsters to get involved in a charity or community-based activity.
In November, around Thanksgiving time, Barbarise addressed the members of the Peer Leadership group and told them about a needy family in the township who had recently fallen on some tough times.
“As soon as I knew about the family and their needs, it prompted me to ask the kids to help,” Barbarise said. “They’re always asking to see if they can do some sort of community service and wanting to raise money.”
With that, the idea for Roosevelt’s “Pennies from Heaven” project was formed. After Barbarise received approval for the fundraiser from the district’s peer leadership coordinator, Cathy Campen, the students were asked to collect as many pennies as they could find and bring them into school to place them in a gigantic water bottle.
Barbarise had no idea what she was getting into. She was hoping to get a few dollars to help the needy family during the holidays. However, the kids went penny crazy and dollar wise.
“The whole school started bringing their pennies in,” Barbarise said. “Kids were bringing in their piggy banks and emptying all the pennies out of the banks.”
Students throughout the school went on penny hunts. Teachers joined in the penny celebration.
“Teachers were coming in and emptying penny jars that they had sitting in the house,” Barbarise said. “It was something to watch.”
“I would go through the house and whenever I saw pennies, I grabbed them,” said 11-year-old Katya Bonilla. “I told people that I needed pennies, so they gave them to me. I wanted to help the people who needed help.”
“We really don’t use pennies that much,” said 11-year-old Oscar Gami. “People never think too much about pennies. They’re almost taken for granted. So we tried to get as many pennies as we could get.”
No one could have ever imagined that the Roosevelt crew would have collected nearly 3,000 copper coins to be placed in that water jug.
There was only one problem – getting the pennies out and arranging them in order to make the presentation to the needy family.
“The kids would spend hours in the classrooms rolling the pennies,” Barbarise said. “They would rush to lunch and bring the lunch up to the classroom, just to roll the pennies. If we got to $20 in a lunch hour, we were lucky. Collecting the pennies was the easiest part. Getting 30 pairs of uncoordinated hands to roll the pennies was another. We had pennies spread out all over the floor every day.”
Thirteen-year-old Nathaniel Carmichael devised a system that both helped his math skills and made the process more expedient.
“To get to 50 pennies, I would put them in five piles of 10,” Carmichael said. “Everybody chipped in with the counting. Even people that were not part of the Peer Leadership group were coming in to help us roll the pennies.”
Carmichael said that he collected all the pennies that were hanging around his house as well.
“It made me really feel good to help someone,” Carmichael said. “I will never take a penny for granted ever again.”
“It’s only one cent,” Bonilla said. “But when you put them together, then those pennies can go a long way.” Barbarise never told the students who exactly the needy family was and will not reveal the identity.
“They didn’t know who it was for, but they understood that it was for someone in the community,” Barbarise said. “The family was presented the check recently and I know that they were very grateful.”
In this case, these kids truly collected pennies from Heaven.
“I enjoyed being a part of it,” Bonilla said. “I never thought we could collect so many pennies. It really is a good feeling.”
“I’m really surprised we collected so many pennies,” Gami said. “I didn’t think there would be that many. It was a lot of work, but it was worth it, because we got to help people who needed it.”
And that’s what the Peer Leadership group is all about.