A Penny Drive to Help All by Amanda

A Penny Drive to Help All by Amanda - August 2021 Scholarship Essay

Two years ago I organized a penny drive within my local school district. All of the proceeds were donated to local patients who were receiving cancer treatment at St. Patrick Hospital. The fundraiser lasted a week, however, it took several weeks before to plan. After getting plans approved, I went to over 25 classrooms to describe and get other kids excited about raising money for cancer patients in our community. I recruited 4 other students to help count and collect the coins. Every day I spent 2 to 3 hours counting, collecting, and recording the coins, along with talking to the students who brought in money. The last day of the school-wide fundraiser was a school assembly where the classes who raised the most on each given day received prizes. Fun rewards such as throwing pies in faces and ice cream parties were given out for classes to celebrate together. Even though these were exciting activities kids wanted to participate in, a lot of them told me their main motivation for donating money was to help people in our town. By the end of the week, our entire school of about 700 students raised a little over 2000 dollars. With this amount, we were able to support cancer patients and their families with smaller expenses such as gas and groceries while they focused on paying medical bills.
Organizing this event gave me more than I could have ever thought, or hoped for.
This event gave me the opportunity to think about my future. I began considering nursing as a career. During this fundraising event, I enjoyed helping others in my community. I knew I was benefiting people that I was close to and would come across frequently. This experience and feeling helped me realize that this is something I want to implement in my future. Ever since I have been looking into nursing programs. My future career, which had once seemed very unclear to me, started with this penny drive for cancer.
My entire school became connected by one overall cause. Many kids felt that the issue was close to their hearts as a lot of them had family members who had been diagnosed with some sort of cancer. Overall the most valuable impact this event had on my life was learning that helping others close to you helps yourself find a purpose. Watching hundreds of younger students be enthusiastic to help people in difficult circumstances showed me how rewarding it is to help anyone you can. This event continuously reminds me why I work hard in giving back to my community.