Most people are arriving and getting settled at work at 8 a.m., but the penny wars are set to begin at Ellis Middle School on Friday morning.
Each sixth- through eighth-grade advisory class is in a competition to see who can raise the most money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s "Pennies for Patients" campaign. This is the sixth year that Ellis has participated in the campaign. They've raised close to $4,000 each year.
Within the last six years, these two cancers have touched the lives of a few students from Ellis, making the students compassionate about doing their part to participate in the fight against leukemia and lymphoma.
Students are invited to participate in the competition by bringing pennies to their advisory classroom to donate to the "Pennies for Patients" campaign. The competition becomes more fun when the value of any silver coins added to a class’ penny collection by an opposing advisory class is subtracted from the class’ total penny amount. All bills added had a positive effect on the class’ total amount of donations.
The advisory class from each grade that has the most money, minus the silver coin donations, is declared the winner and will receive a doughnut party for their efforts.
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The president and vice president of the Ellis Student Council helped to make the campaign a success. Student Council president Anna Bachmeier said, "The campaign started on Feb. 14 with an assembly and a power point presentation by student council officers."
Student council vice president, Bailey Mueller explained one of the contests that has been part of this year’s campaign.
"We had a decorate-the-can contest, where each of the advisory classes in the school could decorate their penny can or make a container to hold the penny can. Judges chose the best decorated container from one advisory class in each grade."
Mrs. Mittag’s advisory class won the decorate-the-can contest in the seventh grade advisory class competition. Seventh-grader Hannah Senne designed the "House of Hope," a white house the size of a doll house. Students could put their donated pennies inside the house.
Bachmeier said this year’s campaign theme is "Every penny counts." Both Bachmeier and Mueller agreed that the best part of the campaign is knowing that you are helping kids fight cancer.
