A Lesson in Stretching the Money

The students at William Green Elementary School in Lawndale are penny pinchers and proud of it.

As part of a lesson in distances and measurements, the youngsters have been asked to collect $844 in pennies so they can lay them in rows totaling one mile in length.

The “Mile of Pennies” project has sent some youngsters delving into their piggy banks and scouring the sidewalks around their neighborhoods. Some even examined the cracks between the cushions of the living room sofa.

“A lot of people don’t want pennies, so just look on the ground for them,” said 9-year-old Chijioke Asomugha

The search for the copper-colored coins began Nov. 8 and will end Friday. As Thanksgiving approached, the penny prospectors had gathered almost $500--enough to stretch 3,000 feet.

After the students complete the task they will learn a second lesson--a lesson in charity. Every penny collected will be donated to the victims of last month’s Bay Area earthquake.

Some students have already learned the importance of sharing.

“I’ve learned that there’s people that need your help,” said 7-year-old Lisa Roberts, who said she has so far collected about $10. “They lost almost all their belongings and stuff like that.”

The students have been collecting the pennies in plastic sandwich bags and have used masking tape to link the coins into one-foot strips of 16 pennies. Each day, teachers collect the strips and keep track of how many pennies each class has collected.

On Friday, the students will assemble on the playground and lay the pennies on the pavement to show how much money each classroom has collected.

“It’s fun for them, and every Friday we take a count,” said Principal Diana Taylor, who came up with the idea for the collection.

She said the students have been very enthusiastic about collecting and donating the pennies, and so far there have been no complaints of missing money.

“The hard part will be getting the pennies off of the masking tape,” she said.