United Way of Greater Knoxville News

Knox County School students raised over $29,000 for the local community by collecting spare change.

United Way of Greater Knoxville (UWGK) is pleased to announce that Knox County School students raised $29,131.51 in spare change to be invested into the local community during the 4 Weeks 4 Change fundraising drive.  The funds will be included in UWGK’s combined fundraising effort for 2009 and allocated to over 45 partner agencies throughout the Knoxville community. 

“Small amounts of change may seem insignificant all by itself,” Ben Landers, President and CEO of United Way of Greater Knoxville, said, “but when we all come together and combine our efforts, spare change has the potential to make such a great impact on our community.” 

The school with the highest amount of money per capita raised was East Knox Elementary with an average of $3.19 per student and a total of $1,588.40.  In appreciation, East Knox Elementary will receive a Smart Board to be used in one of the school’s classrooms.  In addition, pizza parties were awarded to the winning grades of each of the over 40 participating schools, most of which were elementary. 

“I am proud of our students and the effort they put into collecting spare change for our community,” said Scott Bacon, Supervisor of Business Partnerships with Knox County Schools, “they really stepped up to help in a time of need.” 

While counting the change, UWGK staff started noticing that students were not only including change in their collection boxes, but other items as well, such as: coins from over 34 different countries, fossils, sunflower seeds, Chuck-E-Cheese tokens, keys, buttons, trucks, feathers, rocks, and all sorts of other items valuable in the eyes of young children.   These items, many of which have little or no monetary value, are worth just as much when intentions are taken into consideration.  Maybe we can all learn from the hearts and actions of these students. 

United Way of Greater Knoxville, on behalf of the Knoxville community, would like to thank the principals, teachers, students and parents of the Knox County School System and Webb schools, Dr. James McIntyre, Scott Bacon, Terry Bateman, Roger Underwood and the Spare Change Committee for making this such a successful fundraiser.