Ohio 3rd-grader leads penny drive for family shelter

ROBERTA REDFERN

The Toledo Blade

TOLEDO

Angelica Dowiak had an idea.

The 9-year-old’s fundraising plan — sketched on a sheet of paper with a red marker and complete with an illustration of a penny-filled jar — was simple: “Look for pennies all around. Help raise money. by asking for pennies.”

Her target for the money was children in need at Beach House Family Shelter in Toledo.

For five days, the precocious, blond-haired, blue-eyed child solicited pennies from those around her: neighbors, friends, family members, someone walking by on the sidewalk. People pulled pennies from their pockets, from the depths of their couch cushions, and from the crevices of their car consoles.

“People don’t really give up their other money, so if they just give up one cent, pretty soon you come up with a dollar,” the little girl explained.

A dollar, yes. But when she was done, young Angelica had not the $30 or $40 her family and teachers expected, but just short of $388. That’s almost 38,800 copper coins.

Last Thursday, Angelica presented the money to Tammy Holder, Beach House executive director, to use toward feeding and clothing some of the hundreds of homeless kids who come through the agency’s doors every year with their families, seeking food, shelter, and hope.

“Never did I imagine she would get this much money,” said Laura Golbinec, intervention specialist at Imagine Madison Avenue School of Arts, which the girl attends as a third grader. “I was amazed.”

The charter school stresses community service every year in individual classrooms to help develop character, Golbinec said. However, this year the school decided to coordinate efforts and have all the classes do the various service projects they came up with during one week. They titled their efforts, “The best community service week ever.”

The 557 students in kindergarten through fifth grade cleaned the playground on the school’s newly expanded grounds. They created and sent cards to Heartland of Perrysburg nursing home residents and to those serving overseas. They planted flowers at local businesses, raised money for the Toledo Area Humane Society, held a professional attire drive, and brought in cans of food for local food-bank donations.

Each year, Golbinec said, one or two students want to break out on their own and raise funds through an idea they have. Angelica came up with “Pennies for Possibilities.” Two other students, Maniya Pickett, 11, and Raeonna Walker, 10, both fourth-graders at Imagine, raised about $200 for the Ronald McDonald House.

Angelica’s idea developed from the mind of a child, a child who sees her family struggling financially. Her father, Walter Dowiak, is unable to work for the last half dozen years after suffering a disability.