Children collect, donate 600,000 pennies

Saturday, November 21, 2009

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These students collected about $6,000 in this year's Penny Harvest.

POLK COUNTY (Bay News 9) -- A group of students are giving thousands of dollars of their own money to charity.

Students from North Lakeland Elementary School recently carried 28 sacks weighting 30 to 40 pounds to a special cart.

Each bag was filled with pennies that the children painstakingly collected on their own time.

Isabella Chamorro, 9, says she is very happy that the whole school participated.

"We went door to door and asked everybody if they wanted to help," said Chamorro.

All of the pennies will go to the National Penny Harvest, created by the Common Cents organization.

More information

For the past 17 years, children between the ages of four and 14 have been collecting pennies and turning them into grants for community organizations.

This year, six Polk County schools participated.

Together, they collected 600,000 pennies - or $6,000.

Students at each of the schools will get to decide which charity their money will go toward.

At North Lakeland, the school's organizer says the class that collected the most pennies will be treated to a pizza party.

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