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Seattle, WA—During recess on a warm Seattle day — when they might have been outside enjoying the rare spring sunshine — a group of Maple School students sat down to serious business. As members of a Penny Harvest roundtable at their school on Beacon Hill, these kids were charged with the task of deciding which two neighborhood organizations should receive $600 grants. Maple’s Guidance Counselor and volunteer Penny Harvest Coach, Theresa Escobar, helped the kids make their fi nal decision: “Let me just remind you what you voted for: the International Drop-in Center. They assist the elders in the Filipino community, and they preserve the elderly person’s physical, mental and emotional well-being. …Now, you also voted on Seattle Animal Shelter, however, there are four funds to choose from.” Together, they reviewed their options (Shelter Expansion, Help the Animals, Off-leash Area and Pet Population Control), voted, and ultimately chose to make a grant to their local animal shelter’s Pet Population Control fund.  A thoughtful 5th grader named Sam explained why this fund was his top priority: “I chose it because they could spay and neuter the animals, and that way there won’t be as many stray animals, and then they won’t be euthanizing as many. It’s really sad to hear they’re killing animals.” Classmate Kevin added, “I feel like it’s better not to bring them to life instead of having to make them go through all that pain and suffering.”Penny Harvest is a program of Common Cents in New York, sponsored locally by Solid Ground. This school year-long community service and youth leadership program starts with a comprehensive coin drive in elementary, middle and high schools. Many participating schools also form Philanthropy Roundtables, student leadership teams that help collect the coins at their schools, get input on social issues that their classmates care about, and make community grants to local nonprofi t groups addressing those issues. This year, 55 public and private schools in the Seattle, Highline, Kent, Mercer Island, Snoqualmie Valley, Tukwila and Bethel school districts participated in Penny Harvest, and 45 of them formed roundtables. All told, more than 17,000 students contributed about 108,000 hours gathering coins. This translates to 625 canvas sacks holding 9 tons of coins — for a total of $64,333.73 raised! Because of this year’s great success, each roundtable was given $1,200 to distribute ($200 more each than planned). Maple School’s kids chose to split theirs into two $600 grants. Penny Harvest Program Coordinator Maryellen Ferro said that while several roundtables are still making their decisions, “I expect there to be over 75 grants made to community organizations” in 2008. Maple School’s roundtable is made up of a group of about 25 third, fourth and fi fth graders who have met weekly over the past several months. School staff like Ms. Escobar generously donate their lunch breaks (and considerable energy) to make Penny Harvest roundtables a success. Ms. Escobar started by bringing a “Wheel of Caring” to all 18 classrooms at Maple and led class discussions about community needs. She said, “Then the Wheel came to the roundtable, and we talked about some of the issues that the whole school gave: homelessness, environment, veterans, animals.” She described how participating on a Penny Harvest roundtable helps develop kids’ leadership skills. “All the information is given to them, and then they go back to their classrooms, and they share — so the information gets to all the students through them. It’s still a learning process for this group, but this has helped them take on responsibility.” Several of the roundtable kids are also on Maple’s Student Council — but for others, like one 5th grader named Rodney, “This is the fi rst year that he has become involved in anything like this — volunteer service.” Ms. Escobar added, “I really am proud of them. I felt that it would be hard because I was taking them out of their recess time, and we have been meeting quite a bit. But they all showed up, and they did the work, and they were really gung-ho on it, very enthusiastic.” Tyler, a 5th grader, described the process, “It was fun because we got to organize the pennies, collect ‘em, vote on what we’re going to give the money to — and all the classes had to raise money for what we voted on — and we kinda did it with our friends. We went to classes to collect the money.” Maple School collected 12.5 sacks of coins, a very heavy load, “So we had to use a cart to carry it.” Are the Maple students pleased with their grant decisions? Tyler said, “Yeah, we’re happy. We wanted to give the money to the animals mostly, like most everybody voted for the Animal Shelter; then the other one was the International Drop-in Center.” 4th grader Maria said, “It’s cool. I wanted to help the elderly people get better.” Kevin added, “I feel like it’s going to help them a lot, because a lot of them, they have disabilities and stuff.”  Ms. Escobar admitted that the Drop-in Center choice “surprised me. It’s very narrow because it’s for Filipino elders.” But with the high Filipino population at Maple School, she said, “I think that they could relate to that” more than to other organizations serving the general Seattle population. Jadyn said, “Yes, making a decision about what we wanted to do with the money was really hard, because all of these people need the money, and the money would really benefit all of them, and it was hard to choose.” Sam summed it all up when he said: “I wanted to be involved in Penny Harvest because I like helping the community, and I like to know that I’ve made a difference in other people’s lives. I feel good, and I know that it’s going to a very good cause.” Republished with permission of Solid Ground, Groundviews, May 2008. |
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