Common Cents Mission: Common Cents, creator of the Penny Harvest, nurtures a new generation of caring and capable young people between the ages of four and 24 by enabling them to strengthen their communities through philanthropy and service-learning.

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What's New at Common Cents and the Penny Harvest
ENROLL YOUR SCHOOL NOW: Sign up your school and join the 904 schools who have already signed up for the 08/09 school year!

NY1 News (Staten Island) names Penny Harvest students at P.S. 6 in Tottenville New Yorkers of the week.

Long Island Penny Harvest School, W.T. Clarke Middle School, is featured on  ABC-7 News "Above and Beyond: Inspiring Students and Teachers," special.


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NEWS RELEASES


View from the helm

September 11, 2008
Puget Soundkeeper Alliance Director Sue Joerger reflects on accepting a Penny Harvest Grant from Adams Elementary School.

Students at Brighton Elementary help animals in need

September 11, 2008
Proving their compassion for animals, this was the second year in a row that PAWS received a grant from Brighton.

Who’s missing from Service Nation? A commentary from Teddy Gross, executive director of Common Cents

September 11, 2008
Tonight ServiceNation (a coalition of 110 organizations that has a collective reach of some 100 million Americans and is dedicated to strengthening our democracy and solving problems through civic engagement and service), kicks off a two day summit on service in New York City. Service-learning leaders from around the country will gather to consider a comprehensive approach to building a service movement. A publication, entitled Service Nation captures the organizers’ agenda and comprehensive approach to building a service movement in this country. As part of the ongoing planning process for this summit, Teddy Gross, executive director of Common Cents, has written a brief comment on one significant omission in the current plans: the service of children.

Volunteers Package Program Materials

September 3, 2008
Over the weekend of August 22-24, nearly 200 Common Cents volunteers gathered at The School at Columbia to assemble 4,355 boxes of Penny Harvest program materials in preparation for the new school year. The kits included Penny Harvest curriculum, penny bags and the other materials needed by 500,000 students across the country for a successful Penny Harvest year.

Canyon Creek students help military families to 'Be Brave'

September 2, 2008
Four-year-old Declan Inderbitzen's daddy won't be back from Iraq until next April, but thanks to some students from Canyon Creek Elementary School in the Cherry Creek School District, he has a reminder of his dad that he can hug, squeeze and take to bed. Through the Penny Harvest project, Canyon Creek students collected $1,250 worth of pennies, said Emily Gay, a Canyon Creek teacher who helped organize the project. "Penny Harvest shows students they have the ability to make the world a better place by introducing them to the power of philanthropy and service."

Penny Harvest Students “Reach Out” to Save Local Food Pantry

August 21, 2008
Six months ago, Thomas Neve was faced with a tough decision. Demand for Reaching Out Community Services, the food pantry he runs in Brooklyn, was at an all time high and their current location was getting cramped. He would either have to start turning people away or invest in a larger space. For an organization solely dependent on donations, this wasn’t an easy choice. But turning away clients wasn’t an option, so Thomas moved the Reaching Out facility and hoped for the best. Students from 12 Penny Harvest schools came to the rescue by donating enough money to keep Reaching Out open.

Press Clippings from Seattle

August 17, 2008
View Press Clippings of the Penny Harvest Program in Seattle!

Staten Island students unite to celebrate Accomplishments

May 29, 2008
“I learned that if you care enough about something, you can make a difference,” explains Justin, a Penny Harvest student leader from PS48 when asked what he learned most from his participation on a Philanthropy Roundtable. On May 6th, Justin joined 250 of his peers from schools across Staten Island at a borough-wide event celebrating the difference each of them have made in their community this year.

Seattle Penny Harvesters make tough decisions

May 21, 2008
A group of students in Seattle decide how to use their round table grant money.

Penny Round Up!

May 12, 2008
Have you ever had to spend two hours looking for pennies? Well, I have, and let me tell you, it was worth it. It was for an event at my school called the Penny Harvest. No, it’s not putting pennies in the ground and digging them up in the fall. It’s collecting pennies to donate to services and organizations such as the Red Cross. Believe it or not, our school, Mary Lin Elementary, was the first school in Georgia to collect pennies for the Penny Harvest.

Going Green with Common Cents

April 30, 2008
The Student Community Action Fund (SCAF) Council is a high school service group run by Common Cents that aims to help the world through youth service and global awareness. Each year the SCAF Council chooses a global issue of focus, and this year they decided to address global warming.

What is a Penny Harvest field trip?

April 15, 2008
One Friday morning in early April, twelve fourth and fifth graders left their building to go on a “field trip”. They didn’t visit a museum, see the animals in a zoo, nor learn about the fish in an aquarium; instead they went to visit a day care center around the corner from their school. These students were representatives from the “Donation Foundation”, the Philanthropy Roundtable at PS 398 in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn’s PS 230 visits “Penny Harvest Headquarters”

March 26, 2008
At Common Cents, we are versed in talking with students about how they can positively impact their community. We also know how to advise adults on how they can talk to children about issues that matter to them. So, when seven young philanthropists visited our office on Friday, March 9th we not only had a great time, but experienced first hand how intricate this experience can be.

Volunteers help make leader pins for Penny Harvesters

March 17, 2008
On Sunday March 9th, about 200 hundred volunteers gathered at The School at Columbia University to participate in the second annual Leader Pin Event. The goal to make 30,000 leader pins was not only accomplished but surpassed with volunteers making 31,140 pins in less than 4 hours!

Penny Pin E-Vite - February 11, 2008

March 13, 2008

Penny Pin Volunteer Thank You

March 12, 2008

Penny Harvest Press Clippings from Colorado

March 3, 2008
View Press Clippings of the Penny Harvest Program from Colorado!

Penny Harvest Coach Writes about Community Service for “Manner of the Month” Website

February 27, 2008
Deanna Chappell Belcher, Service Learning Coordinator and Penny Harvest Coach at The School at Columbia University, recently wrote an article on how families can support their children getting involved in community service.

NYC firefighters thank Penny Harvest students from PS27 in Brooklyn

February 15, 2008
Last year, students from PS 27 in Brooklyn chose the New York Says Thank You Foundation as one of their grantees. Recently, the foundation’s founder and executive director Jeff Parness reported back to the students that their gift helped rebuild the home of a family from Groesback, TX after it was destroyed by a 2006 F3 tornado.

Judith Shapiro joins Common Cents as Board Chair

January 28, 2008
Common Cents is pleased to announce that Judith Shapiro, President of Barnard College, has accepted the position of chair of the Board of Trustees of Common Cents, effective immediately.

Elementary Kids collect a ton of pennies

January 28, 2008
Students, staff and families from Veeder and Roessleville Elementary Schools gave their pennies a purpose this year. The children spent the fall collecting their unused coins for the Penny Harvest Program — an initiative sponsored by the National Educational Leadership Institute, The Community Foundation, local businesses and other foundations.

Common Cents wins NY1's New Yorker of the Year Award

December 31, 2007
This year, New York 1 News chose Common Cents as the winner of the New Yorker of the Year award. Common Cents was selected for the honor because of its longstanding commitment to New York City youth, and the work done through the Penny Harvest to teach elementary and middle school students the value of giving back and good citizenship.

1st Annual Penny Harvest Count-a-Thon was a success!

December 24, 2007
The First Annual Penny Harvest Count-a-Thon was a success with over 2 million pennies collected by Colorado school children!

Penny Harvest invites local schools to engage youth in philanthropy and leadership

October 4, 2007
Area schools have until October 15th to register for Penny Harvest, a youth philanthropy and service learning program specifically designed to engage students with their community, according to Program Director Mike Beebe. Beginning on October 22nd, students will be collecting pennies, pooling them in schools, turning the coins into dollars and allocating those dollars into grants to community groups that they have selected.

Volunteers assemble over 3000 Penny Harvest Kits

August 30, 2007
Ever wonder how Common Cents gets program materials into the hands of over 500,000 children across the country? The answer is with lots of help from our friends! On August 18th and 19th, nearly 200 volunteers, along with Common Cents staff and alumni, participated in the Second Annual Kit Assembly Event.


 
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