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Run for Change! RecapMay 3, 2012Sunday, April 29th, 2012, marked the second annual Run for Change! A 5k Walk, Run, Rally to celebrate the hard work of the thousands of students, teachers, and friends, who all work to help make the Penny Harvest the largest, and most successful, child-philanthropy program in the nation! Common Cents featured in New York TimesApril 3, 2012The Penny Harvest and Common Cents’ Executive Director Teddy Gross were featured in today’s New York Times. And we finally set the record straight: we’re not fundraisers, we raise children. P.S. 48 learning onsite by going the extra mileMarch 30, 2012The roundtable of P.S. 48 William C. Wilcox immediately knew animal issues had to be one of the causes they donated to this year Rebound Harvest for P.S. 46January 1, 2012When thinking about last year’s harvest, Penny Harvest coach Susan Tasso couldn’t help but feel disappointed. After many consecutive years of abundant harvests of 25 sacks or more, P.S. 46 in Staten Island had only managed to collect nine. Susan, a paraprofessional and 8 year Penny Harvest Coach, knew she had to make a change. Co-Coaching Leads to Greatness - The Russell Sage Five Pasta BanquetDecember 1, 2011A few weeks ago I had the privilege of being on hand for a momentous occasion at JHS 190 Russell Sage in Forest Hills, Queens. It was the 1st annual Pasta Banquet, a glorious feast of five different pasta dishes, fresh French bread, enough soda to quench the thirst of a small army, and a plethora of delicious desserts. Leading in Service: Introducing our new Penny Harvest staffSeptember 1, 2011Common Cents is proud to announce a whole fleet of new staff members! Common Cents partners with Rothschild FoundationJune 1, 2011Common Cents recently received a grant from the Edmond de Rothschild Foundations. Common Cents and The Rothschild Foundation have a shared passion for philanthropy and education. First Annual Penny Harvest Run for Change a success!May 2, 2011On Saturday, April 30th, the first annual Penny Harvest Run for Change! kicked off with a day along Hudson River Park of honoring youth service as New York City students, teachers and supporters of Common Cents turned up in what has, in only twenty years, become the largest child philanthropy program in the country which emphasizes service-learning through school communities. Since 1991, Penny Harvest students have contributed $8.6 million to improve their neighborhoods in areas of health, environment, human rights, disaster relief, children and the elderly. Common Cents works with Definition 6 to launch Penny Harvest campaign in New YorkApril 12, 2011Common Cents, an educational organization specializing in hands-on learning announced today that it has launched a Times Square billboard to decry the school drop-out rate and link the fight to save our schools with its Penny Harvest program. The entire design work for the ad was created pro-bono by Definition 6, a unified marketing agency. 19th Annual Penny Harvest Kicks-offOctober 25, 2010Starting this week, students at a thousand schools nationwide - nearly 500,000 students total - began scouring their homes and neighborhoods for idle pennies as part of the 19th Annual Penny Harvest. From now until Thanksgiving, Penny Harvesters will go door-to-door with their families asking neighbors to help them better their communities by donating spare change. New Supplemental Materials for Penny Harvest!September 29, 2010NEW THIS YEAR: Personal Financial Literacy Supplement (mapped to state standards!) and Philanthropy & Foundations Supplement. Learn More About Penny Harvest!August 20, 2010Intersted in Penny Harvest, but wanna learn a little more? Check out our videos, slide shows and blog! Common Cents announces 2009/2010 Schools of ExcellenceJuly 1, 2010Penny Harvest schools in New York City work hard every year to bring philanthropy and service to their schools and communities. Some schools go above and beyond this duty— their actions and innovations lead to fresh ideas, lesson plans, and harvesting and teaching strategies, many of which may later become standard Penny Harvest practice, adopted into our core curriculum. These leaders are Penny Harvest Schools of Excellence. Now Enrolling Schools for the 2010-11 Penny Harvest!May 28, 2010We only have 25 spots remaining for the 2010-11 School Year. Click here to learn more... Common Cents celebrates a magical evening of storytellingMay 18, 2010Five talented storytellers took the stage last night at an event to benefit Common Cents and its popular service-learning program the Penny Harvest. Almost 300 friends and benefactors of Common Cents filled the cozy restaurant, City Winery, which was specially decorated for the occasion, to listen to the stories, sip wine, and participate in a silent auction. National Penny Harvest Roundtable for Haiti winners announcedMay 12, 2010Last week Penny Harvest students voted to donate $27,518, raised by more than 150 Penny Harvest schools across the country, to four organizations providing disaster relief in Haiti. The students participated in a National Penny Harvest Roundtable, which allowed them to democratically decide how to distribute the money amongst each organization. Common Cents receives grant from State Farm Youth Advisory BoardFebruary 25, 2010On Monday, February 22nd, State Farm’s Youth Advisory Board presented $64,064 to Common Cents in support of the Penny Harvest Program. The check presentation ceremony took place at State Farm’s New York City Office. Penny Harvesters are already responding to the crisis in HaitiJanuary 29, 2010Since the earthquake in Haiti two weeks ago, Common Cents has been flooded with phone calls and e-mails from concerned Penny Harvest coaches wondering how their schools can help the recovery efforts in Haiti. As Penny Harvest schools enter the second phase of the program, students have begun forming Philanthropy Roundtables at their schools. The Roundtables are a distinctive feature of the Penny Harvest which give children the power and the freedom to decide how to spend their harvest funds. A key issue for our students in the coming weeks will be exploring different ways to take action and help the people in Haiti. Penny Harvest Coaches gear up for Roundtable SeasonJanuary 24, 2010Last December, Claire Streit, a Penny Harvest Coach at PS 85 in The Bronx, visited a food pantry with a group of her students. The particular group of students she brought to the pantry for a service project were notoriously difficult and had a reputation for being trouble rousers in the classroom. However, the moment they entered the pantry, Claire began to see a transformation in each of her kids. The students witnessed firsthand the need within their own community, and the dignity that the staff treated clients with as they served them hot meals. “They were being empowered to help, to do something real,” Claire said. “I just sat in the back of the room and cried, I could see my kids growing up in front me.” Panel of experts tackle dropout crisis in discussionJanuary 20, 2010Every 26 seconds a child quits high school. This is the dropout epidemic, and it plagues 1.2 million students a year. So far, tactics to improve graduation rates have been rather, it seems, ineffective. The graduation rate of 2007, according to some studies, is largely similar to the rate from thirty years earlier. But the world has changed since 1977. A high school diploma is no longer enough to guarantee a job, and the doors to upward mobility are slamming shut. In a panel discussion last Thursday at Philanthropy New York titled “Opening a Second Front Against the Dropout Epidemic,” experts spoke about a new tool to engage students and combat apathy— service-learning. New Training Materials PostedJanuary 20, 2010All materials from the Spring 2009/10 Professional Development Trainings have been posted under the Coaches Tab. Former board chair John Hobbs diesJanuary 14, 2010John Hobbs, a former board chairman of Common Cents died Jan. 3 of natural causes at his home in Charlemont, Mass. He was 73. He is survived by two daughters and a son. John was an acutely intellectual man, with an untiring interest in creatively analyzing difficult problems – particularly the problems of human development, and of institutional development; and even more so, the problem of how the two interact. He was also an exceptionally kind and modest person. Celebrating the Generosity of our YoungstersDecember 1, 2009At the beginning of December trucks will be rumbling through New York City carrying an unlikely load— hundreds of thousands of pounds of pennies. Last year the Penny Harvest collected about 700,000 dollars, primarily in copper (or zinc—pennies haven’t been primarily composed of copper since 1982). Though it only took about a month for students to collect the coins, and will take two weeks for Common Cents to pick them all up, it will take the bank four months to count and sort all the coins. Ballston Spa Schools kick-off the HarvestNovember 19, 2009Students in the Ballston Spa Central School District have started their annual collection for the Penny Harvest program once again this fall. Each of the six schools in the district are collecting pennies, and other donations, as part of the nationwide program that teaches youth to give back to their local community.Last year, students collected an incredible $8,000. Common Cents Hosts Penny Harvest Conference for TeachersOctober 20, 2009This October was the first time in several years Common Cents held a city-wide Penny Harvest professional development session. Common Cents periodically holds these sessions to bring together educators from across the city. The conference brought together new and experienced coaches from New York’s 5 boroughs to sit together and learn about the program, discuss Penny Harvest plans for the upcoming year, and share stories and lessons from their schools. |
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