Students at Edna Drinkwater School raise money for Ukraine with penny race

NORTHPORT, Maine (WABI) - There has been a friendly competition going on at the Edna Drinkwater School in Northport this week.

They’ve been doing a penny race to support the families and children fleeing Ukraine.

“We are trying to give the money to Ukraine, especially to the people who are escaping and leaving their own homes to move to a safer location, and we’re trying to give them money so they can live safe there and live as far away as possible,” said fourth grade student Esme Field.

A penny race is simple - all pennies are good, but all silver coins and dollar bills drop you into the negatives.

Students have spent the week filling up the jars in each grade to try and end up on top.

“We’ve been collecting pennies and nickels and dimes and quarters so we can sabotage other people’s jars,” said fourth grade student Ava Hall.

“It’s been amazing just watching them all crowded around down there trying to put their quarters in the buckets, and then we had $20 bills going in,” said fourth grade teacher Dana Bierwas.

Bierwas says it was a great way to get the students involved and created a fun math activity when it was time to count the money.

“There was a lot of working with decimal points and fractions and multiplying and adding, so they had a lot of great math skills that were incorporated, and then the fifth grade teacher is going to take the data sheets, and they’re going to a do a project with the data later,” Bierwas said.

After all was said and done, the school raised over $1,800 in just one week and the seventh graders came out on top.

“I am just in awe of these kids. I mean, we are a very small community, and as you’ll find out, they raised quite a bit of money this week. I am floored with how much they raised,” Bierwas said.

“It feels good. It makes you feel happy that you’re helping other people, and usually people are trying to explain the more money the merrier, but every penny, every dollar, everything counts.” said Paige Sinclair, a fourth grade student at the school.