They emptied piggy banks, did extra chores at home and sacrificed their spending money. And when the barrels of change and bills had been counted, the students at Spencerport's Cosgrove Middle School had raised more than $4,300 to benefit the Red Cross' tsunami disaster relief fund. "At first, I thought we might raise $500," said teacher Mike Zeman, who spearheaded the effort. But with the enthusiastic support of the school's Service Club, the students rose to the challenge. "Jar Wars" called for students to collect pennies and rolls of pennies for points. Other coin or bill denominations in their barrels were subtracted from their totals, which meant that students threw quarters and dollar bills into other class barrels - and of course, the faculty barrel - to reduce their competitors' totals. As students got off the buses each morning, they crowded around the barrels, dumping coins, rolled change and bills to the cheers of classmates. On the final day, the students raised more than $2,100 - with the school record for most pennies raised in one day going to the sixth grade students, who put in 336 rolls of pennies, and tossed in an additional 19,291 loose pennies to total 36,091 pennies collected in one day. Thanks in large part to the other coins tossed in their barrel, the faculty lost the competition. The eighth grade came in second, followed by the seventh grade. Christy Rittenhouse, who coordinates special events for the Greater Rochester Chapter of the American Red Cross, came to the school to personally thank the students. She met with the Service Club and told them how much their efforts would benefit the victims. She also was a special guest at a celebration assembly for the sixth grade winners. Zeman also congratulated the students for their efforts and said he was "shell-shocked" by how much money was raised. "You should all be very proud of the contributions you made to our world community," he said. "Our small community here has certainly left the world a better place than we found it." |
