Plenty of penny power

The results are in and they’re good.
The Easter Seals Society held their “Penny Power for Easter Seals” campaign at six district schools last month, and it was a huge success.
“We raised $3,126.63,” said Christa Werenko, chair of administration for the local Easter Seals. “We surpassed our expectations and found it was well received in the schools.”
Werenko was happy with the results considering it was a new initiative and implemented on short notice.
“Next year, we’re hoping to get more schools on board,” she said. The campaign was available for schools throughout the Rainy River School District.
The initiative, which was held across the province, had students bring in pennies and loose change to be collected by each class.
“Each class had a bucket and posters up,” she said.
“The top fundraising class in each school will get a pizza party (courtesy of Pizza Hut),” noted Werenko. “It’s a little incentive for the kids.”
And, as the top fundraising school, Fort Frances High School will receive a plaque from Easter Seals. The High School raised $1,506.83 in the two weeks the campaign ran.
Werenko said that the results were a long time coming since the campaign was such a success and they were doing the counting by hand.
“It took nearly a month to get it all counted,” she said. “There were over 70 buckets.”
Despite the plethora of fundraising initiatives in the community over the last month, the “Penny Power for Easter Seals” found its niche.
“Because it was different and directed to the schools, I think it went over well,” she added.
Werenko said that next year’s campaign will be better organized, including discussing the timing of the fundraising with the schools to optimize their chances of success.
“We’ll work with the schools to look at the time of year,” she noted. “We want to incorporate an education component into it. We want to make young people aware of what it’s like to have a disability.”
In addition to “Penny Power,” the Easter Seals “Paper Egg Campaign” began this Monday. The campaign will run at area businesses and Safeway until April 21. Buy the paper egg for $2, and put the name of a loved one on it. It will be displayed at the location where you bought it for the duration of the campaign.