Gatewood Elementary students have just gathered a quarter-ton of pennies — but that’s only half their charitable work. Teacher Darren Radu, who also shared the photo, explains:

Over the past 4 weeks, kids from all classrooms worked together to bring in close to 500 pounds of pennies (and other coins) as part of the 2010 Penny Harvest. The bags of coins were shipped off to the local Penny Harvest offices last Thursday.

The next steps for the kids (in the New Year) will be to convene a Philanthropy Roundtable, where students from each grade will come together to research organizations working for justice in the community, country, and world, and determine which organizations are in most need of support. The Philanthropy Roundtable will then allocate grant funds from the pennies raised to these organizations. One of the Roundtable’s most important criteria is ‘leverage per dollar’ – the Philanthropists use their research to allocate funds in a way that works most effectively to make a positive difference in the world. Last year, Gatewood students awarded Penny Harvest grants to PAWS, Haiti Relief, the Mockingbird Society, and Child Haven. They had some guidance from teachers, but did most of the research and made the final decisions on where to send the money themselves.

The attached photo shows some of our many ‘harvesters’ with a few of the 30-pound bags they filled.

Big gratitude to the Gatewood community, families, and friends, for supporting this worthwhile work!

Darren Radu
4th/5th Teacher at Gatewood Elementary

ADDED 7:12 PM: Via Facebook, Stacey tells us Madison Middle School collected for Penny Harvest too – about 300 pounds.