On Friday, May 14, Lower School students participated in a very special Check Presentation Ceremony, the culmination of this year’s Lower School Penny Harvest.

The Penny Harvest was created by Common Cents, an educational, not-for-profit organization, which specializes in creating and managing service-learning programs for young people.

Starting in the fall, Lower School students worked together to raise money by reaching out to friends, family, and other members of the Riverdale community, giving class presentations, leading assemblies, and collecting their own pennies. The goal of the Penny Harvest was to beat the “25 Sack Challenge:” filling 25 sacks of pennies, or 750 pounds.

After raising the money, a Philanthropy Roundtable was formed. The point of the roundtable is for student leaders to study community problems and work together to determine which charitable organizations in the area could best alleviate those problems. After research, site visits, and in-school presentations, the students determined which organizations would receive cash grants with the pennies collected earlier.

The students selected several organizations in the greater NY area to receive a total of $2,500 in grants. Dorot, PEP for Seniors, Food Bank for NYC, ASPCA, Chess in the Schools, the City Parks Foundation, Mentoring USA, Care for the Homeless, and Project Happy received checks that varied from $100 to $350. Representatives from many of the organizations were on-hand to receive the checks.

To read more information about the organizations and why the students chose these organizations to receive the cash grants, please download their presentation.