Thanks to lots of enthusiasm and competitive spirit, Stimson Middle School was able to make a number of generous donations to those in need after this year’s Penny Wars!  This is no ordinary penny collection.  There is strategy involved.  Homerooms battled it out the week of March 3rd to see which one would reign supreme in the school’s annual effort to collect money, food and hygiene items for local charities. 

For nearly 20 years, Stimson has held this annual fundraiser in October, just before the holidays.  But principal Michael Duggan decided to move it to March to give food pantries a much needed boost during a time of year when giving is not as abundant.  “Food banks get a lot of support in October, November, and December, during the holidays. But then there's a huge lull after the holidays and food banks are in dire need of supplies after the new year. So I thought that's a good opportunity for us to support our community in a new way,” said Mr. Duggan.

For Penny Wars, each homeroom gets a collection container.  Stimson students are asked to bring in coins, non-perishable food and hygiene product donations to their homeroom every day that week. They can also donate to their homeroom container during their lunch period. 

Pennies equal one point, nickels equal five, and so on.  But what changes the game are the Rules of Sabotage!  Students are allowed to carry out sabotage missions each morning and go to other homerooms and drop items into opponents’ collection containers that take points OFF their collection total. For instance, silver coins reduce a team’s points by the amount of the coin.  A dollar bill reduces the points by 100!  And food and hygiene items can take away anywhere from 50 to 200 points!  

“This is a very engaged and competitive group of kids. And they played it interesting this year. They started out slow on Monday and we were a little concerned. And then the strategy kicks in and Wednesday it just hit and kids were sabotaging each other and it really got exciting. So those last two days, we had to do extended homeroom schedules because there was so much movement in the building,” said Mr. Duggan. 

For the third year, Mrs. Jaime Kurnicki’s homeroom 315 was the winner!  They’ll get to celebrate with a field trip.  The other winners, of course, are the local organizations that benefit from all the money and goods that were donated.  More than 3,000 pounds of food and personal hygiene items were collected.  About 1,200 pounds was donated to the food pantry at St. Hugh of Lincoln Church in Huntington Station, which Penny Wars regularly donates to each year.  800 pounds of food was delivered to the Wildcat Cares food pantry at Walt Whitman High School, which has been providing food to all families in our community since it was founded in 2020 by Whitman student Kristina Lineen.

And for the first time, Island Harvest received a Penny Wars donation from Stimson.  A group of students and teachers delivered more than 1,100 pounds of items to the food pantry which helps thousands of Long Islanders.  They were then invited into the facility to see how the items they donated will become part of food boxes that go out to families, senior citizens, and veterans.

The giving isn’t over yet.  Mr. Duggan says the $1,400 in spare change and dollar bills that was collected will be donated to several charities including the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, the American Heart Association, and the South Huntington Educational Foundation (SHEF) which supports arts, dance, music, and technology programs in the South Huntington School District. 

A huge thank you to the incredible Stimson staff who selflessly gave their time to help count, sort, stack, pack, and then deliver the collected goods to the food pantries.  And thank you parents, staff members, and especially students for your generosity. 

Donated food items fill the forum of Stimson during Penny Wars.

Personal hygiene products, like these toothbrushes, were worth lots of points in the Penny Wars game.

Stimson students helped pack pallets of canned goods for food pantry deliveries.

Stimson staff helped drop off donations at St. Hugh’s church in Huntington Station.

Stimson students help unload all the goods at Island Harvest.

Stimson students get a tour of the Island Harvest storage and distribution center.

Stimson’s top student Penny Wars volunteers with assistant principal Elizabeth Keating were invited to the Island Harvest warehouse.