Culture

100 Million Pennies in NYC

by Brian A Kennedy | December 11, 2007 at 06:04 am

1336 views | 10 Recommendations | 3 comments

Ever seen $1 million in pennies? Yesterday a variety of NYC luminaries joined public school kids in laying out 100 million pennies to donate to charity. Unfortunately the article doesn't state how they're planning on cashing them in...

NEW YORK - One hundred million pennies for your thoughts on the latest display in Rockefeller Center. New York first lady Silda Wall Spitzer joined hundreds of public school children on Monday to unveil a mass of $1 million in pennies collected for charity. The display, called the Penny Harvest Field, includes an estimated 100 million pennies — plus a few nickels, dimes and quarters that slipped in by mistake.

The exhibit, 30 feet by 165 feet, as long as a city block, is the culmination of the nonprofit organization Common Cents' 17th annual Penny Harvest, a national educational program designed to teach children about their value as contributors to society. Hundreds of thousands of city students from more than 800 schools spent the weeks between Oct. 22 and Thanksgiving going door to door and collecting the pennies, which will be donated to organizations of their choice for causes such as protecting the environment and helping the elderly.

The exhibit was designed by architect James Polshek and will be on display in Rockefeller Center, near the famous Christmas tree, through the end of the year.

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somewhatfrank

at 07:09 on December 11th, 2007

It was like a river of pennies. I have never seen so many in all my years. I wanted to swim in them but then realized they may be dirty pennies.

ifindtrends

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 10:14 on December 11th, 2007

Brian A Kennedy, Good stuff.

That's pretty amazing. I think it is great that they thought of a creative way to collect money for charity and getting the kids involved is even better.

I agree, I would hate to be the one rolling those up.

uzi

at 10:21 on December 11th, 2007

I pass by the area often since I study in the city, but had never noticed this set-up before. First thought my friend and I had was "Whoa! These people just never stop coming up with ideas to make yet more money". However when we read the project's description on the introduction panel, we felt admiration for both the innovation and generosity of these people since all the revenue will be given to charities.