Monday morning at 7:30 am marked the beginning of a new type of class warfare: the Penny Wars. Running until the February 1, the Penny Wars is a fundraiser for change — literally and metaphorically.
Four containers will be placed in cafeteria during first and fourth lunches, each labeled with one of the high school caste names. Pennies are positive; a penny dropped into class’s respective container is counted towards that class’s total. Any silver change, (i.e. nickels, dimes, quarters) count as “negative” change. Any silver change put into a container will be subtracted from that class’s total by their respective amounts.
At the end of the week, each class’s change will be counted and whichever class has the largest total wins the satisfaction of being the Penny Wars Champions. All the change collected by the Penny Wars benefits Students Organizing Labor Equality (SOLE).
SOLE is a club whose goal is to buy fair trade products for the school. The “fair trade” movement is an organized effort to promote higher standards of environmentalism and fair wages for all workers. The movement seeks to push consumers to buy products from manufacturers, growers and producers who give their workers fair pay and treatment.
The Penny Wars will help SOLE buy fair trade products for the school in their personal contributions to the movement. Club member Elizabeth Maclellan helped shed some light on where the money fundraised will go.
“We haven’t quite decided where the money will go yet, but we’ve recently found a new source of better quality fair trade soccer balls that we might order,” Maclellan said.
It all depends how much money the fundraiser can bring in. Maclellan predicts a “rivalry between the upperclassmen, but you never know.”
Maclellan was also able to give some insight on the beginnings of the fundraiser.
“It took SOLE a few weeks to get Penny Wars set up. We came up with the idea during a meeting, and tried to figure out how we could make it happen. We ran the idea by our advisor, Mr. Everett. After his approval, we had to fill out a few forms for Mr. Devoll and Mr. Parker about using the cafeteria during lunches and what we were planning,” she said.
The idea was sparked from its low overhead.
“The Penny Wars are always a fun way to compete with other classes, and they don’t really cost anything to set up. It’s a perfect fit for a SOLE fundraiser,” Maclellan said.
By Jessica Correia
