CAL students raise $1,100 in penny war for University of Iowa Children’s Hospital

Despite being on separate teams, CAL students worked together to raise money for children in need.

Over two weeks in Sep-tember and October, each grade at CAL was challenged to raise funds through a “pen-ny war.” In a penny war, pen-nies brought in by students count as positive points for their respective class. Silver coins and bills, however, count against a class’s total. Therefore, students could give an opposing class coins worth more than a penny to hurt that class’s total points. After the two weeks, the classes’ totals were added and a winner was announced. The honor of top penny pooler went to the pre-school class.

Even though some money was positive and some was negative for each class, all money was welcome. After all the money was tallied, CAL students had raised more than $1,100, all dedicated to the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

The idea for the penny war was pitched by CAL K-6 Re-source instructor Chelsea Knights. Knights said she was looking for both a way to help some of her students build social and mathematical skills when she heard an ad on the radio for Star 106’s (Mason City) Kids Helping Kids Campaign, which raises money for the children’s hos-pital.

Knights pitched the idea to Principal Abby Meyer and soon, the “war” began. With a student body hovering just over 100 students, Knights said she wasn’t sure what to expect as far as a total went, but the response left her speechless.

“When I would take the money to the bank and get the totals, it brought tears to my eyes knowing our kids raised that much money,” she said.

Sixth grade instructor Kel-sey Enslin said her students dove into the challenge with-out much urging by her or other staff. The enthusiasm in which they participated, En-slin said, showed a drive to not only compete, but help children along the way.

“I was amazed how much money they brought in,” she said. “That’s asking a lot of kids to bringing money for other kids, but right away, they understood that it goes to kids that are sick and this is a better thing than spending it on themselves.”

Aside from the competi-tion, Enslin said the challenge lent itself to life lessons, in-cluding the fact that any indi-vidual can influence positive change.

“As a sixth grade, we learned about self-empowerment and how we can make a change,” she said. “We talked about how it’s empowering others by bring-ing money and trying to change lives for kids who aren’t as fortunate as we are.”

Following the competi-tion, Jared Allen from Star 106 visited CAL students to accept the check and com-mend the students for their efforts. Knights said students saw videos about the hospital, the Iowa Wave during Iowa Hawkeye home football games and the University of Iowa Kid Captain programs, which helped drive home the fact that their playful competi-tion will make life better for children who could very well be their students and friends.

“I think it hit them that it could be one of them,” Knights said. “They helped kids their age. You could tell they’re proud of themselves.”