M.S. 51 Students Raise Over $14,000 for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

Most kids know the saying, “a penny saved is a penny earned,” but students at have learned that if they raise as many pennies as possible, they can help kids with cancer.

Students from M.S. 51 on Fifth Avenue, from grades six to eight, have raised a total of $73,340.99 since 2003 for the Pennies for Patients charity, which benefits The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. But this year, in just three short weeks, the middle school raised $13,776.66, a record-breaking amount of money raised during a single year in any city school.

Nance Speth, the Assistant Principal at M.S. 51, is proud of her school’s accomplishment. But, she is even prouder of a particular sixth grade homeroom, class 612, for raising the most amount of money in the entire school, a cool $1,400.

“These are our sixth graders, so this was their first year and they could not have done better,” Speth said, explaining that most years the school raises just under $10,000, but this was the second year the school raised more than ten grand and class 612 had a big hand in this year’s success. “Every year we have a goal of $10,000 and each year we try to raise a little bit more than the last. But this time we flew past our goal.”

Speth said that each homeroom, 43 in total, think of creative ways to raise money for blood cancer research and patient services, for children in particular. Students start with collecting their own spare change and then use teamwork to raise more money, from bake sales, to raffles, to auctioning off services and goods. To see a video about the charity, click here.

The Assistant Principal said that students came up with some of the most creative fundraising techniques by far this past March.

One seventh-grade class formed a cleaning service and sold their time to teachers to clean their classrooms. Another class came up with a raffle entitled, “Curing Leukemia One Pie at a Time” where three kids bought nine cream pies to throw at a science teacher during lunchtime.

“That was very funny, for the science teacher wears a tie everyday,” Speth said. "He was a perfect candidate for the event."

A different class thought of an idea to raffle off the science teacher’s iconic tie, a clean one, for $100.

But class 612 came together with bake sales, had their parents and grandparents donate goods to raffle off, like make-up kits and jewelry and even a ukulele for $100.

Salwa Najmi, a student from class 612, told Patch that the fundraiser was a wonderful experience and she is proud of her class for raising the most amount of money in the school.

"It feels really good, we worked really hard and I feel that we deserve it,” Najmi said, whose class will receive a gold pennant and a 2012 Life Saver Award for raising over $2,012. “Also, it is great to do this all for charity."

But, for Najmi, the fundraiser also hit close to home for her aunt died from breast cancer five years ago.

"It always feels good to help out and hopefully the medicine and treatment the kids can now get helps them get better and prevents their family from losing someone like I did," Najmi said.

Another student from class 612, Maven Nzeutem, said that she enjoyed going head-to-head with the other classes in her school to raise the largest sum of money for Pennies for Patients.

"Our teacher told us how she is very competitive and I am also very competitive. We worked everyday to raise money—either make and sell cupcakes, cookies or other things. We sold anything that we had,” Nzeutem explained. “I just wanted to raise a lot of money for kids with leukemia and feel proud that our class raised the most amount of money in the school.”

But Speth said the fundraiser was not just about beating other classes for the chance to win a gold, silver or bronze pennant, which were awarded to the homerooms that made over $300, $200 and $100 respectively. Rather, Pennies for Patients was a chance for the teachers to educate their students about leukemia and lymphoma and raise money to help sick children. 

“We tried to stress that it wasn’t a competition, although we loved the competitive spirit, but rather it was a charity to help kids with cancer. They really got that,” Speth said. “Our science teachers taught kids about cancer and how it affects the body. At the end our kids really understood that the money they raised was going to a great charity for a great cause—to help kids fight serious diseases.”

And although the fundraiser was not just a competition, Speth said the school is ready to get creative and competitive in order to beat their record and help even more kids in need.

“Watch out for us next year,” Nance said.