A group of children at University Baptist Church in College Park are collecting hundreds of dollars to fight poverty. And they're doing it one penny at a time.
Their effort is part of the Penny Project, a program sponsored by Pennsylvania-based nonprofit National Ministries. The project encourages children nationwide to collect $140,000, or 14 million pennies by April 2010 — one for every child in the United States and Puerto Rico living in poverty — and donate them to local organizations that help the poor.
This is the first year for the project, which was launched nationally this summer after First Baptist Church in New London, N.H., collected 60,000 pennies in 2008. University Baptist signed on and set a goal of collecting $1,630 or 163,000 pennies, representative of the number of Maryland children in poverty, according to National Ministries.
The church put a group of its children in charge, which included siblings Jacob, 11, and Joanna Burns, 9, of Hyattsville; sisters Calee, 12, and Haylee Hayes, 9, of University Park; Matthew McIntyre, 11, of College Park; brothers Noah, 11, Samuel, 7, and Jonah Ramsey-Lucas, 5, of Hyattsville; Shawn Turonis, 11, of Hyattsville; and Jakobe Wiggins, 11, of Hyattsville.
"The kids were very excited about it, so they've taken it and run with it," said parent Curtis Ramsey-Lucas of Hyattsville.
They took their first collection Nov. 1, when they brought a toy red wagon to Sunday service. Churchgoers filled it with change — not just pennies, but larger coins too — and have continued to donate.
"They're really trying to help," Jakobe said. "They bring in a few pennies every Sunday or any time they can, and they're really building up."
The donations had built up to $845 — the equivalent of 84,500 pennies — at last count on Nov. 9, Curtis Ramsey-Lucas said. The children are more than halfway to their goal and don't have plans to stop any time soon.
"It feels really great," Samuel said. "I'm hoping that we can do this again to make everybody who needs money a little closer to getting a home and things that they need."
The change is stored in jars and periodically put into a church bank account. It will be donated to yet-to-be-determined anti-poverty groups as well as to Buck Lodge Middle School in Adelphi to help buy school uniforms and supplies for underprivileged students.
Church members said that while the program will assist poor families, it will also help the children who participate become compassionate, generous adults.
"We need more good people in the world," said church member Maria Franchi of Adelphi. "We want this younger generation to be good people."
