Penny Wars

East High School is well known for its sports and academics. However, an equally important virtue the school possesses is that of social work. Key Club is the school’s main activism group, and their most recent project has been the Penny Wars.

A penny war is a type of fundraising wherein multiple groups compete to see which can raise the highest amount of donations. At East High School, the competition is between the graduating classes.

“The freshmen will win,” said East freshman Bradley Frankovich. “They’re new to the school, so they have something to prove.”

“I think the penny wars will be more successful than people expect them to be,” said East freshman Christopher Hussey.

The penny war technique was decided on because it is somewhat of a tradition at East and has been successful in the past.

The penny wars have been going on since Monday, April 26, and decorations and posters have been put up around the school to promote the event.

Money raised will go to the Union Gospel Mission, a Duluth, Minnesota organization which supplies meals to the city’s less fortunate. “We’ve worked with CHUM, the Damiano Center, and the Union Gospel Mission before,” said East junior and Key Club leader Peter Witzig. “But this time, the Union Gospel Mission specifically requested help with getting donations.” The organization will spend the money mostly on non-parishable foods to serve to the poor.

The donations will be counted on Thursday, April 29, and the winner will subsequently be revealed on the daily announcements. Most recently, Mrs. Peterson’s English classes were in the lead.

While the turnout has been slightly lower than the organization expected, they are optimistic about future projects and the effect the Penny Wars have had. “Next, we want to do more creative types of fundraising,” said Witzig. “We’re going to try and do something more fresh and interesting, but we tried our best and put a lot of work into it, and it was a good cause.”

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