Common Cents To Convene 4th Annual Run For Change, Celebrating A Year Of Service By Nyc Students

NEW YORK - June 4, 2014 - PRLog -- COMMON CENTS TO CONVENE 4^th ANNUAL RUN FOR CHANGE, CELEBRATING A YEAR OF SERVICE BY NYC STUDENTS
Elementary and middle school students raise Quarter Million Dollars and donate it to local community needs

NEW YORK, May 30, 2014 – Common Cents (http://celebration.commoncents.org/Event2011/AboutCC.aspx), creators of the Penny Harvest, a 23 year old educational organization in over 600 schools and specializing in social-emotional learning through youth philanthropy and service-learning, will celebrate the “Power of Schools Doing Good” at the 4^th annual  “Penny Harvest Run for a Change!” This city-wide event will take place on Saturday, June 7^th at Pier 84 Hudson River Park in Manhattan and conclude at PS234 on Greenwich/Chambers Street. Through the Penny Harvest, NYC students allocated a little over a $215,430 which they gathered themselves and then transformed into neighborhood grants and service projects of their choice.

At the Run for Change, students graduating from their elementary and middle schools will be honored by City Council Member Helen Rosenthal, District 6 in a special “moving up” ceremony. Following the Run/Walk festivities will be a Schools of Excellence Showcase and an interactive iThinkOutsideMyBox (http://ithinkoutsidemybox.blogspot.com/) art installation created by New York native David Everitt Carlson, for all to contribute. All funds donated through the Run for Change will aid in continuing the operation of the Penny Harvest to enroll and serve up to 1,000 inner-city public schools next year.

“The Penny Harvest proves all children can succeed in school, yet the dropout crisis continues.  We want a way to mobilize public awareness that Common Cents is part of the solution to the dropout epidemic and disconnect felt in schools,” says Teddy Gross, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Common Cents.

Empowering students to become change makers, the Penny Harvest connects classroom instruction to real-world issues. Penny Harvest schools, led by a volunteer educator, are provided resources and tools to empower students to become civic leaders in their school and community.  The results, neighborhoods are enriched with grants and community service, all raised, awarded, and performed by students. Schools are enhanced by an empowering ethos of civic responsibility. Most importantly, participating students are inspired to develop their academic ambitions by experiencing morally valued accomplishment within the school setting.

The Run/Walk will feature student leaders, parents and supporters from schools and communities across every borough in NYC as they celebrate a year of service. There will be family fun activities before and after the run.

About Common Cents and the Penny Harvest

Common Cents (http://www.commoncents.org/) creates innovative school-based programs that foster student engagement through service-learning.  For the past 23 years Penny Harvest students have collected over $10 million in pennies, volunteered over 29 million service hours, and awarded over 16,000 community grants to help New York City neighborhoods and organizations.  The Penny Harvest currently reaches over 1,000 schools nationwide in New York, Los Angeles, Ohio and Colorado.  To learn more about how you can be involved and support Common Cents, creators of the Penny Harvest, please visit www.theRunforChange.org.

Special media opportunity:  9:30 AM inner-city students and educators will celebrate a year of service to NYC.

For Information Media: Not an official record
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