Archive: Around Town

Leave it to Lansing High School students to make fundraising fun.  This year the Student Council (SCO) has been finding unique ways to raise 'Pennies For Patients,' a national fund raiser for the benefit The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society .   'Stall The Teacher' had participating teachers counting student-donated pennies before they could start teaching that day.  Some kids got really into it and some of the teachers did.  A cake wheel raised almost $200.  A rave for charity and a raider ball tournament were part of the effort.  But a recent competition raised $421.11 as students from each of the four classes sabotage their competitors' penny jars.

"Pennies For Patients is a charity the student council has supported in the past," says SCO advisor Heather Miller.  "They try to give to one big event.  It's for children with lymphoma.  Every week for about a month we do a different type of fund raiser to get kids involved."

'Silver Sabotage' had a simple concept: the class with the most pennies in its jar wins the competition.  But any silver or coins reduces the total number of points.  So if a freshman puts a dime in the sophomore class's penny jar containing ten pennies, it reduces their points to zero.  The more pennies, the more money, and ther more sabotage the more money.  So no matter which class wins or loses, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society wins both ways.  "I called it a Penny War," says SCO Representative and freshman Casey Phlegar.  "You put pennies in your jar and you put silver and dollar bills in the other classes' jars.  You get more money, but it's also a competition."

This year it was the freshman class that blew away the competition with the most cash, while the juniors ended up with the most points.  Freshmen raises $45.13 in pennies, while their jar was sabotaged with $155.40 of silver and bills.  That landed them with the lowest point score of -110.27, but the highest total of $200.53.  Miller says there was so much cash in the freshman jar that they needed a second jar.


The sophomore class came in second with $18.50 in pennies, and $73.05 in sabotage, giving them the next lowest score of -54.55 and second highest total of $91.55.  The next best total of $79.29 came from the seniors, and $49.74 raised by the junior class.

Phlegar says that SCO has a lot on its plate this year, and she expects its activities to increase next year as well.  The organization is holding its second annual 'blackout dance,' also to benefit the Lukemia Society.  She says the council has been working on improved communications between students and cafeteria staff to have foods that students want, and this year purchased four chairs with funds they raised for the senior lounge.  SCO representatives met with Superintendent Stephen Grimm yesterday to offer their perspective on impending budget cuts.

According to Miller this year's Silver Sabotage was a success, and she thinks it will be repeated next year.  The winning class gets The winner of Silver Sabotage gets $200, funded by SCO, which will be used for their senior trip.  "I think this is a great start on getting people excited and involved," she says.  "We even had people not on the student council helping to count the money afterward, because they really wanted to know who won."

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