By Jolene Farley
Hills-Beaver Creek Elementary School students are saving their pennies and spare change this month and bringing the money to school.
Each classroom has a can for students to drop spare change into for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Pennies for Patients program.
Elementary Administrator Jil Vaughn said students scrounge up change around their homes and deposit the money into the cans.
"At the end of the month, I take the cans to the bank and they count them up," she said.
The program raises funds to find cures for the blood diseases leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma and for patient services.
"This is just an annual thing that we do as a benefit for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society," said Vaughn. "The classes are highly competitive."
The school has participated in the program for several years, according to Vaughn.
Kindergartener Madison Fick, 5, who has donated several times this month, said she hasn’t broken into her piggy bank but has asked her mom and dad for their spare change. She said she likes to bring change because "it’s nice to help people."
The program runs for a six-week period. The class collecting the most pennies and other spare change in the school will receive a pizza party. Top schools in the area win gift certificates and electronics.
Five million students in 10,000 schools across the country raised $9 million through Pennies for Patients last year.