Battling for a good cause, the Penny Wars at East have been a tradition for more than 15 years, bringing students and teachers together.
The fundraiser, which ran in the month of February, supports the engineering club, with half of the proceeds helping to fund materials and trips, while the other half is donated to the UW-Madison Student Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. The group “builds a better world by educating internationally-responsible engineers and students,” according to their website. The group is active in Guatemala, Uganda, Nicaragua and Puerto Rico.
“Our belief is that a true partnership with our host communities, and community participation is crucial to the success of our projects,” according to the Engineers Without Borders website.
Students earn points for their class by adding money – pennies, any change and also cash – to their designed container. Silver coins deduct points, making strategy a key part of the competition.
Four math teachers – Cynthia Chin, Alex Conner, Philip Galarowicz and Karen Paschke – led the charge. Some teachers ran their class contests for the entire month, though Paschke’s Penny Wars only ran the week of Feb. 24-28. She set a goal of $1 per student, and the results exceeded expectations, nearly doubling her target.
“The Penny War is fun. I wouldn’t want to do it more than once a year, but I always enjoy it,” Paschke said.
With years of tradition and enthusiasm, the Penny War continues to prove that a little friendly competition can make a big difference. The classes that participated raised around $800.
