The students at I.S. 77 in Ridgewood put their pennies together in January to raise over $3,850 for the Pennies for Patients fundraiser for leukemia research, with one class raising $540.
In total, the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students raised $3,851.48, which will be donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, which funds research into curing both leukemia and lymphoma, and provides free information, education and support for not only patients, but survivors, families, and healthcare professionals as well.
The Pennies for Patients fundraiser began on Friday, Jan. 6 and concluded on Tuesday, Jan. 31. During that time students would give their spare change, ask their family and friends to participate by donating, and raised money by selling paper pennies that were hung throughout the school, and red and yellow Pennies for Patients bracelets.
“The whole school participated,” said Rose Kohlhagen, teacher at I.S. 77 and coordinator for the Pennies for Patients fundraiser. “It’s just amazing. The kids were just unbelievably generous. We’ve never raised so much money. It seems each year we beat the last year’s total. I have to thank my two co-coordinators Ladan Simani and Scott Horodyski.”
Each year during the fundraiser the school holds a competition to see which class can raise the most money. This year, the 29 students in Ms. Taylor’s 808 class raised $540, earning them the honor of being top fundraisers in the entire school, and being the class that has raised the most money since I.S. 77 started the Pennies for Patients fundraiser 15 years ago.
“We’ve never had a class raise over $300 before, so this is huge,” Kohlhagen said.
