A Sussex Middle School student helps count pennies.
The Sussex Middle School Builders Club recently sponsored a fundraising event that raised $1990.66 for the Make A Wish Foundation. This year the Builders Club members, from the 6th through 8th grades, voted to run a Penny Wars Contest.
During the Penny Wars fundraiser, which lasted three weeks, each homeroom was given a milk jug to be filled with pennies or paper bills that would count towards positive points. Students were able to sabotage other homerooms by putting silver coins like quarters, nickels and dimes, into the classroom jugs. The silver coins counted as negative points.
Fueling the competition was a promise of a pizza party to the winning homeroom from each grade. The 6th grade saw the tightest race for the winning homeroom; roughly 500 pennies separated first and second place.
Builders Club members spent several days counting thousands of coins.
Before the fundraiser was conducted, the Builders Club voted to donate the money to the Make A Wish Foundation.
According to the Make A Wish Foundation website, the organization creates, “life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.”
Builders Club members involved in the event were: George Orellana, Shivani Kapadia, Ilirian Dalipi, Mikaelyn Walsh, Mackenzie Fisher, Lily Glanville, Abbigail Gulick and Brooke Wagner. Seventh Grade Social Studies teacher Kerri Freda is the advisor for Builders Club.
Builders Club is a student and community service organization for middle school students and was originally developed and modeled after Kiwanis International.
