Sunday, November 19, 2006
CANTON (AP) -- Pupils at more than 130 schools across the nation that bear the name of the late President McKinley are being asked to help fund his memorial, which turns 100 next year.
Officials at the McKinley National Memorial in Canton, in northeast Ohio, are sending letters asking children to collect pennies that will be part of the endowment fund used to maintain the monument. They hope to raise 500,000.
The "Let's Do It Again" campaign is a throwback to how the memorial, dedicated in 1907, was built.
"One hundred years ago, school children nationwide collected their pennies to help build a spectacular monument to President McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901," the letter states.
Pupils are asked to start collecting pennies next year and either send them or bring them to the William McKinley Presidential Library & amp; Museum, where they will be displayed. Letters also are being sent to schools that take field trips to the museum.
"I've just always been inspired by the story that the kids made what started to be a small effort, and it turned into the memorial," said Cindy Sober, the campaign's chairwoman.
The current effort is "a fun way to repeat history and to make history," she said.
There are McKinley schools nationwide, including 28 in California and 21 in Ohio.