Congratulations to all the Penny Harvest students throughout the Columbus area! Together they raised a GRAND TOTAL of $41,372.43 in a tremendous endeavor to make their communities a better place to live.

The 5^th Annual Purpose for our Pennies event was held on December 12^th marking the end of the first of three phases of The Penny Harvest, Gather Pennies, when the $41,372.43 was raised. 

Through the fall, students in grades pre-K through 8^th in 43 schools from Columbus, Dublin, Worthington and New Albany, raised as much loose change as possible. 

So, what will the schools do with all this money? That question will be answered in the coming months during the Roundtable Phase. Ultimately in March, during the last phase of Penny Harvest aptly named ‘Take Action’, the entire school will vote and decide which nonprofit(s) will receive their ‘treasure’.

All this seems like a nice activity but why is a program like Penny Harvest so important for kids? 

The Penny Harvest shows young people they have the ability to make the world a better place. Penny Harvest uses community service as an educational strategy and empowers youth to make a difference in their community. The driving principal of the Penny Harvest is students make all the decisions.

The students have thousands of dollars to give away.   But collecting the money was the easy part. Now, the decisions will be made in the coming months as to where it goes. The choices are sometimes difficult, because so many need help. But the students learn valuable lifelong lessons; that is much better to give than receive and that every penny counts.