Mortar Board, a senior honor society, has started a new fundraiser called Penny Wars that they hope to continue in the coming years.
Dylan Crowell, Mortar Board fundraising chairman and history major, got the idea for the fundraiser from his student council days in high school where penny wars was an annual, competitive fundraiser between the individual classes.
He pitched the idea at a Mortar Board meeting.
“One year, as a school of 800 students, we raised about $1,500,” said Crowell. “…When we were discussing ideas of fundraisers, I didn’t want something that is generic, like bake sales.”
Penny Wars was a competition between all seven colleges.
Each college had a jar set up at the information booth in the SUB where students could come donate.
According to Cody Parker, Mortar Board vice president and agribusiness major, a penny was a “positive input” toward a college.
Nickels, dimes and quarters were considered negative inputs.
“Therefore, say a student from the College of Arts and Sciences put a quarter in the College of Business’ jar. Then 25 points would be deducted from the College of Business’s total score,” Parker said.
Paper money would deduct 100 points from a college’s total score.
“…We totaled all of the money from each of the jars and in the end Graduate Studies came out with the least in the hole, therefore, they where the winners,” Parker said.
Mortar Board’s Penny Wars took place Oct. 14 – 19. They raised approximately $200.
Parker said that Mortar Board plans to make Penny Wars an annual event and they will look towards different ways to improve on the fundraiser.
Hannah Guilbeau, Mortar Board president and kinesiology major, hopes to improve advertising the event, extending operation hours and methods of getting the student body more involved.
“The money we made will be used to fund our book drive Nov. 11 through 22,” said Guilbeau. “Mortar Board’s national project is Reading is Leading. Therefore, our chapter will hold a book drive and collect children’s books to donate to a local school.”
Guilbeau encourages students to not forget that every penny counts.
