A panel of judges sat as a series of applicants came before them, each seeking support for their cause or agency. The questions were probing and pointed and the answers provided real insights into both the spectrum and depth of their need.

But this wasn't in some stuffy conference room, it was at Madison Middle School and the judges weren't old men in robes they were middle school students taking part in an annual effort called The Common Cents Penny Harvest.

Mike Beebe, Program Director for Seattle Metro/King County described the effort, "Penny Harvest is a youth philanthropy program. Our main mission is that young people have the tools to make a difference today on the issues that they care about."

In the current program year The Penny Harvest has about 15,000 students participating at 52 schools. They collected $52,000 this year. The schools are in Seattle, Tukwila, Highline School District, Federal Way, and the Bethel School District south of Tacoma, plus Edmonds and Vashon Island.

It began 1991, and involves children between the ages of four and 14 who, through their compassion for others collect pennies and turn them into grants for community organizations. The program has resulted in $8.1 million in grants donated by children since 1991.

The idea behind The Penny Harvest is to show young people they have the ability to make the world a better place by introducing them to the power of philanthropy and service. It's an educational program that introduces students to a range of community organization whose needs and services they were likely unaware of and serves to help those agencies and efforts fulfill their mission.
The collection of pennies, which many see as an under utilized resource has proven to be surprising.

From 2009 through 2010, Penny Harvest students across the country collectively raised $756,273.19 in pennies.

Founder and Executive Director Teddy Gross said, “We at Common Cents regard America’s billion dollar resource of idle pennies, found in startling quantities in the homes of both the rich and poor, as the philanthropic property of young people. For this reason, every penny the children collect is theirs to give away in an educational group process.”

The students at Madison earlier were taking part in a Youth Philanthropy Roundtable which is meant to study community problems to determine which organizations could best alleviate those problems. This week they conducted interviews with those organizations who applied to make grants. Every year youngsters made thousands of cash grants to community organizations, such as homeless shelters, animal rescue organizations, community gardens and senior centers. There's a roundtable at each participating school.

Students who want to do more can complete Neighborhood Service projects. Last year’s hundreds of service projects included teaching English to immigrants; replacing graffiti with inspirational murals; collecting supplies for the troops in Iraq; assisting teenage mothers; and planting community gardens.

Common Cents and their Penny Harvest partners provide thousands of hours in training to more than 800 Penny Harvest coaches (teachers, librarians and parent coordinators) and creates a comprehensive national curriculum guide, which helps teachers connect philanthropy and service to a wide array of classroom subjects, including math, science, English, art and music. Every school also receives crates of materials, including canvas collection sacks, colorful penny bags, stickers, posters and honorary leader pins—everything necessary to conduct a successful Penny Harvest.

The Penny Harvest now operates in 770 schools in the Capital Region of NY, Colorado, Florida, New York City/Metro NY, Ohio, Seattle, WA, and other select schools around the country.

On April 13, Penny Harvest will get a report with all the grant decisions submitted from all the schools.
In mid May a school assembly will be held, complete with the classic "large checks" and the grants will be announced.

The groups appealing to the roundtable for grants this year included:

• Feral Trapping and Friends of the Animals
• Animal Aid and Rescue Foundation
• Council for Children and Families
• Roots Young Adult Shelter
• Youth Suicide Prevention Program
• Childhaven
• Downtown Emergency Services