News and Stories

	May 2, 2011 First Annual Penny Harvest Run for Change a success! On 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. This year, hundreds of student leaders dressed proudly in green and armed with colorful handmade posters and banners, were sighted running, walking and skipping down the Hudson River Greenway towards Stuyvesant High School, where the event culminated in a Global Relief Conference for the recovery of Japan. These students caught the attention of many early walkers and runners who stopped to watch the many youth who made the early morning trip as far as from the Bronx and Staten Island. Over 166 Penny Harvest schools contributed to the Global Relief Fund for Japan—amounting to $30,340.23 and an additional 5% of the Run for Change! proceeds were donated to further these student leaders’ efforts. The generosity of NYC inner-city students captured the attention of Moms United for Japan and NYC’s Japanese community. They organized an authentic Japanese lunch for students, many of whom would otherwise not have the opportunity to learn about Japanese culture. Japanese graffiti artist PESU was inspired by the community outreach of Penny Harvest student leaders and painted an ineffably beautiful Koi painting on-site to thank them. Also, Ashinaga, one of the three grant recipients of the Global Relief Fund, flew in from Tokyo and Uganda to accept the donation. Supporters of Common Cents like Diahann Billing-Burford, Chief NYC Service Officer made it a point to compliment Penny Harvest students for their hard work, “The impact that Penny Harvest students have on their communities is priceless. They are the future leaders of New York City and should be commended as so.” Good news for those who didn’t get a chance to attend or support a school! The Penny Harvest Run for Change! website will still be active for another week of fundraising. It’s still not too late to be part of the movement. Click here to see the photo gallery from the Run for Change!.
	April 28, 2011 James Covington of Capital One Bank recounts a real-life Sidney Poitier experience Touching on themes of idealism and inspirational leadership, Capital One Bank’s Manhattan Market President, James Covington, recently sat down with Common Cents to recall his time as an 8th grade remedial math teacher in the low-income school district of Charlotte-Mecklenburg in North Carolina. “It was like something straight from the plot of To Sir, With Love – except that I had no script to follow,” said James. “I was the seventh teacher they had that year, and it was only November. I knew immediately that those kids needed more than a math teacher. They needed a strong leader and a role model, someone who could completely reshape their educational experience.” Five years into his retirement, the former Executive Vice President of Marketing at Barnett Bank had been moved by a newspaper article that called out the state’s need for 13,000 teachers. Inspired to serve, James decided to enter teaching. His first assignment – to instruct students of great need who had already failed math up to four times. “I dove in with an idealistic expectation of deftly creating a challenging and motivating learning environment,” said James. “However, I quickly had to adjust my expectations and shift tactics.” James faced disruptive students, flagging interest and unpredictability from one day to the next. Unfazed, he sought the counsel of the assistant principal, who encouraged him to use nontraditional methods to get the students’ attention. Rather than follow standard curriculum guidelines, James found creative, more personal ways to motivate and interest his students, and began to naturally engage them by innovating the curriculum. The students not only became more engaged through his approach, but also raised their previous year’s competency test scores to a 34% pass rate – an impressive number when compared with the rate of failure these students had faced. James modified lesson plans and developed an alternative teaching style that connected to their interests. Putting experience and insight to work, he translated mathematical concepts into exciting real-life applications, such as using cups, gallons and recipes in the context of cooking. Other times, he incorporated travel scenarios, referencing towns in North Carolina so his students could visualize the concept rather than think about it abstractly. When asked for one memory he took away from his year in teaching, James left us with a young girl’s moment of triumph: “This student – her name was Lakeisha – approached me after class. She had always been a very quiet girl. And that day, after failing math the past three years, she came up to me and said, ‘I finally understand fractions!’” James will be joining Common Cents as a Leadership Circle member on April 30th at the Penny Harvest Run for Change! and Global Relief Conference on the recovery of Japan. He will be working directly with students in their decision-making to award grants for the recovery of Japan.
	April 27, 2011 Run Prep: Day of(Video)
	April 26, 2011 What!? Common Cents Staffers sighted in NYC working hard for this Saturday It’s been 47 days since Common Cents announced the Run for Change! We’re heading for the home stretch! Everyone has been preparing for what will be remembered as a celebration of student service. Residents of the West Village have reported seeing a woman in pajamas running along 12th Avenue in the early morning hours. When reading about herself in the newspaper, Common Cents’ Director of Finance and Administration, Sharon Alexander was quoted as saying, “They put my story in section A, page 3. When I win that race I’ll be on the front page!” While many find Sharon’s dedication silly, it has inspired Teddy Gross, Founder and Executive Director of Common Cents. So much that Teddy has suggested a new somnambulistic exercising routine for his employees. Out of his 29-person staff only one person attended his first 3 a.m. training session: an intern in dire need of university credit. In light of his staff’s disinterest in his extreme training method, Teddy decided to reach out to his base. Penny Harvest coach Link Ann from Honest Abe Charter School has spent her spring break leading a callisthenic group for other runners. “It takes 200 muscles to take one step. So you can imagine how in sync your body needs to be to run—it’s all very zen.” As for the children participating, they seem to be taking a rather relaxed approach to the run on April 30th. Although avid Penny Harvester Stu Dent is excited for the Run of Change! but he isn’t fazed by the competition, “I’ve been running my whole life. If anyone knows what it takes to win—it’s me!”
	April 21, 2011 Rosemarie at Citi Capital Advisors exemplifies service-learning leadership Rosemarie Mohammed at Citi Capital Advisors (CCA) may not have been a Penny Harvester while she was in grade school, but she is no stranger to service-learning or philanthropy. As an Upper West Side native, Rosemarie worked with the Red Cross at Lincoln Center, Meals on Wheels, The Brownstone Pre-School and several other organizations. Today she continues sharing the importance of service-learning in school education by involving CCA’s employees with Common Cents. “My sister and I were drawn to volunteering at a young age,” says Rosemarie, “I have fond memories of the children I helped and the people I worked with.” It is fitting that Rosemarie has become a supporter of Common Cents for over three years now. Notably, last year, Rosemarie and CCA raised about $5,000 in toys for their annual toy drive. Rosemarie reached out to Common Cents which helped CCA combine their toys with the toys collected for the annual P.S. 136 toy drive. The gifts were then donated to a nearby shelter. What Rosemarie and Citi Capital Advisors did in 2010 is worthy of praise, but what they’re doing this year is sure to top everything! As of today Rosemarie has raised over $12,000 as she is representing CCA at the Penny Harvest Run for Change! “I’m glad that, as an adult, I have the chance to give back the way I once did as a student.” Rosemarie represents an important corporate leader who has experienced service-learning as a young student and continues the spirit of giving back to neighborhoods in NYC.
	April 20, 2011 Run Prep: Practice Makes Perfect (Video)
	April 19, 2011 Young Runner but Unstoppable Fund Raiser! Sam Gallen packs a punch. The dapperly-dressed drummer at Riverdale Country School is the youngest runner at the top of the leaderboard for the Penny Harvest Run for Change! “I see grown-up runners raising a lot of money,” says Sam, “but I see a lot of grown-up runners who haven’t raised any money at all. I still can’t believe that I raised $1000! And I’m just a kid!” Sam has captured the attention of his classmates at Riverdale and has even created a buzz here at Common Cents Headquarters. “The key part of my fundraising was sending out e-mails.” Sam’s first donations came from family members he initially reached out to. Little did Sam know that his family would forward his e-mail to their friends. The remaining three-quarters of Sam’s total came from people outside his family. “I received donations from my grandparents, but also my hockey coach—even my dad’s old college friend!” This has also served as an opportunity for Sam to share the work he has done with the Penny Harvest. Last year, Sam, along with the other student leaders of Riverdale donated over $2000 to charities in New York City. In particular, Sam presented Project Happy with their $207 award at last year’s Check Assembly. “Sure, collecting the pennies and competing with classes is fun” Sam says, “But I felt like I learned a lot about a range of issues. Knowing that Project Happy is going to make a lot of kids happy because of me and my school made me feel really good, too!”
	April 14, 2011 Witnessing Self-Actualization at the Penny Harvest David Dillon, a Program Fellow of the NYC Service Corps program joined Common Cents last summer. In his laid-back and warm manner, he recounts an intimate story of his personal investment in education and the need to overcome challenges of stigma. This reference point has given him the context to deeply understand the importance of the Penny Harvest program to affect students positively for success. A stack of worn file folders rested on the knees of David Dillon’s guidance counselor. The half-names of doctors and therapists were creased over the edges of jaundiced medical documents. Cramped in the guidance office at his high school, David was warned that his recent Traumatic Brain Injury would hinder his chances of succeeding at the college level, being told that he’ll “overwhelm himself.” The experience of being told, “you’ll fail” shook him to the bone “That woman didn’t know me. I learned how to walk again. Speak again. Tie my shoes again. I overcame so much and it seemed so anti-climactic to stop there and call it a success!” says David. While he gives credit to his parents, teachers and rehabilitative therapists for their support, David wanted to do what he could to empower those who need it most. After spending a year teaching English abroad in Korea, David came to Common Cents. “I remember the first time I went to visit a roundtable meeting at P.S. 335,” David recalls, “When I left, I was laughing and crying.” The students passionately discussed the issues in their neighborhood ranging from homelessness to domestic violence and even AIDS. “What really resonated with me was when I looked over to the teacher, Ms. Jarvis. She furrowed her brow and had this dismissive look on her face. I thought to myself, here it goes, she’s going to tell them, they can’t handle it.” Instead, Ms. Jarvis reminded her students to survey the entire school. They had to choose an issue that reflected the concerns of the entire student body. “I felt like I re-lived that moment from the guidance office all over again. Only this time I saw what it was like to be told, you can do this.”
	April 13, 2011 Run Prep: Looking good! (Video)
	April 12, 2011 Common Cents Works with Definition 6 to launch Time Square billboard (Video)	Click here for press release
	April 11, 2011 The Penny Harvest Raises the Bar for M.S. 381 A student triumphantly states, “Let’s organize a walk to support military families!” Another student muses, “We could raise awareness for our local animal shelter.” A student in the back makes a heartfelt and soft-spoken announcement, “I think it would be nice to create a school garden [in memoriam of our teacher and fellow classmate].” These aren’t the words spoken by the superintendent or the principal or even the teacher, but those of the 2011 Roundtable Helpers at M.S. 381. Penny Harvest coach Debra Sigismondo has fully embraced the idea of Service-Learning. While her students are presently designing their own service project, they have plenty to boast about when it comes to their very own school-mentoring program! Once a month, the sixth, seventh and eighth graders of the Roundtable pay a visit to the special education class of P.S. 197—a school located in the same building. “They may look like big tough guys,” says Debra, referring to her students, “but when they are around these younger students, they are a bunch of softies.” They have deemed their mentoring program, Reading Buddies. The roundtable students assist the younger students with their reading skills, arts and crafts activities, and serve as role models. Considering they made a name for themselves in both school communities, all eyes are on the Roundtable Helpers and their next service project.
	April 7, 2011 The Wisdom of Working at Common Cents Lashon Allen’s introduction to Common Cents first came in 1996 as an Americorps Vista volunteer. Today she continues dedicating her time to Common Cents working in personnel and administration keeping the staff happy with her warm smile and humor. Despite being a busy mother of four, she makes the grueling commute by bus and a train from South Brooklyn to the Upper West Side. Additionally she takes our mission to the Park Slope Food Coop, where she has been volunteering once a month for the past 23 years. Lashon is rallying Food Coop members to join the Penny Harvest Run for Change! on April 30th. When asked what has kept her here, Lashon poignantly says, “I fell in love with the simplicity of the Common Cents mission: taking something as small as a few pennies and recycling them into something bigger. It has made such an impact on people, year in and year out.” In particular, Lashon remembers attending a district-wide roundtable, where the students discussed the best way to allocate the $5,000 they raised from the Penny Harvest. According to her it was a big event, “There were so many people there – the District 13 Student Council, parents, and teachers!” Yet, it wasn’t the attention that the event garnered that Lashon recalls best; it was the dialogue among the students. One of the student non-profit representatives there was making the case of supporting Teenage Single Mothers. “This one boy raised his hand and said, ‘Well, who is encouraging teenage fathers to step up?’” He wanted to research support services of teenage fathers. This evoked an approving consensus from everyone in the group. It was a special moment. Lashon smiles, “That boy learned something that day.”
	April 6, 2011 Run Prep: Getting buff! (Video)
	April 5, 2011 From Pennies in New York City to Water Pumps in Africa “Pumps, piping, levers and pulleys,” Penny Harvest coach and PS 146 teacher Penina Hirshman explains, “are what my students are currently learning about.” You would think Penina was teaching some sort of secondary school engineering lesson, but no, her elementary school students are learning about comparative water filtration systems—a concept that runs congruent to the Penny Harvest grant they are sending to a small village in Africa. Penina’s goal is to have her students learn how water is best collected, transported and filtered. Her class has researched not only the efficient means of water filtration systems within a developed community, but of those in the developing world as well. One country the students studied was by, “watching a fascinating video of a water pump created for a community in Guatemala.” The students have fully immersed themselves in the process by drawing effective water filtration systems. Soon the students will hear back from the small village and learn, in vivid detail, what form of water filtration their grantee decided to implement.
	April 4, 2011 The Kings and Queens of Brooklyn of PS 398 Cara Usatch has led a Penny Harvest royal court at PS 398 every year, for fourteen years. The 2010/2011 Roundtable, consisting of a dozen fifth grade students have declared themselves the Kings and Queens of Cents. On March 30th students came armed with over twenty questions for Darlene Hines, a representative for a nearby family shelter. Darlene came to PS 398 in light of a roundtable discussion between the Kings and Queens. The entire school was involved in creating a 'Wall of Caring', where two of the issues that concerned most students were homelessness and hunger. The students had discovered that some of their fellow classmate actually lived in the shelter. By request Cara brought a representative in to be interviewed by the Kings and Queens. The royal court was lively and inquisitive—seeking out answers as to how they could help beyond providing their expected donation. They wanted to do much more. The Kings and Queens proposed ideas ranging from a canned food initiative to gathering school supplies and/or possibly running a clothing drive. Cara states that what keeps her coming back to the Penny Harvest every year is that it “matters to the students.” As soon as the school year starts, students are eager to improve the well-being of their kingdom. Join teachers like Cara who make the Penny Harvest a success and their schools at the Run for Change! on April 30th.
	April 1, 2011 Friday Reflections: Watching Japan and reconsiderations at home As the heroic workers and engineers work endlessly to bring the Fukushima nuclear plant under control, debates have been sparked in other countries on the safety of nuclear energy. This has become an international environmental and security concern. In Germany’s recent parliamentary elections, it was underdog political party, The Greens, that have ascended into power. Their environmental agenda advocates for alternative energy sources. This recent political about-face for Germany demonstrates how the interest in nuclear energy has wavered—namely in the wake of the Fukushima plant meltdown. And Germany isn’t alone—Sweden, Finland, Switzerland and Italy are exploring other energy options. So what ramifications does the disaster in Japan have on the United States and our 104 nuclear reactors? The residents in and around Fukushima are unsure what’s in store for them as the disaster continues to unfold. Will this disaster manifest into a Chernobylesque devastation or a haphazard rescue effort akin to Three-Mile Island? What can be determined is our silence on discussing the matter of nuclear energy—a resource that contributes to only 20% of our energy consumption. Perhaps it’s time that the over 300 million American citizens consider why 3 million Americans are living within a 10-miles radius of a nuclear power plant. Each one of us should ask ourselves, “Is it really worth the risk?”

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