Helping A NYC School, One Penny At A Time

What Started As A Math Project Has Become A Student-Led "Stimulus Package" At A Harlem School

(CBS)  Schools everywhere have been forced to cut back in these tough times. But some kids in New York are trying to make up the difference. They're starting small, but thinking big as CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston reports.

What's a penny worth? At the Children's Storefront School in Harlem, a lot more than meets the eye.

"We are going to have a billion pennies in Harlem," Steve Bergen told his class to surprised replies of "In Harlem?"

Bergen, a computer teacher, launched the penny project to help students grasp huge numbers, in part because the students had heard the words billion and trillion more and more often in the news.

They say they really are learning math from collecting all those pennies. And they seem to teach Bergen a thing or two. They calculated that while a million pennies would fit in a classroom, a billion pennies would take up the entire street.

So the first goal is a million pennies or $10,000.

The Children's Storefront is a private school that doesn't charge tuition. It depends on donations to meet its annual budget of $4 million, so the penny project, which began as a math lesson, quickly became a fundraising tool.

"$10,000 would be extremely helpful to us. That would go right back into our operating expenses and would help pay someone's salary," said Kathy Egmont, head of the Children's Storefront School.

"Eighty-five percent of our kids come from below the poverty line," Bergen said. "By getting them to connect the pennies with Obama's stimulus package, we are in effect getting them to create a stimulus package here in Harlem."

I order to reach their goal of a million pennies, Bergen reached out to other schools.

They've talked via the Internet phone service Skype to counterparts from Rhode Island to Germany, each school offering a donation of pennies - and a cultural exchange.

So far, the students have raised 55,000 pennies. It's not a lot of money, but, Bergen says, that's not the point.

"The whole metaphor here is that little things add up," he said - a valuable lesson for children everywhere.

[bearswife11]

I don't believe enjoylife is putting the children and their school down. They are referring to our illustrious government taxing everything to pay for Obamas "funny money" he keeps printing. The school is doing something constructive.

[gramto8]

Don't let Obama or Pelosi hear about the pennies because they'll tax the hell out of them. Remember the Democrtic motto besides not having morals or ethics......if it moves, we'll tax it.

Posted by enjoylife63 at 12:19 AM : May 18, 2009

I would hate to be you. Regardless what your signature here says, I somehow feel that your only 'enjoyment' in life is to try to put others down.

These kids and their teachers are doing something good for the kids (teaching them what the really big numbers look like in a form to which the kids can relate) as well as doing something to help their school by using the same collection afterwards for needed supplies and/or equipment.

Is it absolutely necessary that someone like you put them down or turn the story into yet another chance to down our President who has done more good in his four months on the job than his predecessor did in eight full years? I already know your answer. Judging from your past conduct on these blogs, even my note will be another opportunity for you to complain of the present administration. I wonder if you have ever complained of the prior one's wasted spending and 'lost' money.