Saving pennies added up in a big way this week for elementarystudents in the Brookhaven School District.

Students banded together to raise almost $4,000 for Kids Kingdomthrough a coin drive that ended Friday.

“We’re just appreciative and excited about the effort they havemade,” said Linda Kergosien, whose 8th grade Quest class atAlexander Junior High School was in charge of the effort.

The Quest students have been instrumental in many of thefundraising events for Kids Kingdom, but they wanted to findanother way to impact the effort to create a 10-acre community parkin April.

“They can see what they did really made a difference,” Kergosienremarked.

The students started the fundraiser two weeks ago by visitingeach classroom in grades K-6 to encourage all students to getinvolved in the contest to raise money for Kids Kingdom.

During the contest, students placed pennies, nickels, dimes andquarters in containers in their homerooms.

“Any change they put in the container added points to theclasses’ total and any folding money they put in other classes’containers deducted points from the other classes,” said Pat Smith,a fifth grade teacher at Lipsey Middle School.

Classes had fun competing against each other while workingtoward a common goal. Teachers explained how the students enjoyed”bombing” other classes’ containers with dollars bills.

One student even donated a $20 bill he had received forChristmas, Kergosien added.

If the students heard another class’s container was getting fullof coins, they would “immediately put bills in there,” saidSmith.

“I have never seen a fundraiser work as well as this one. Itreally motivated them to give,” she said.

Students were also driven by the opportunity to win an ice creamparty by accumulating the most points. The class with the highestpoints in the entire district will participate in a balloon releasenext week.

“The teachers themselves have said they had a lot of fun withit, too,” said Kergosien, pointing out how supportive theadministration was during the coin drive.

The fundraiser was suggested by Kids Kingdom architects who havewitnessed how effective and entertaining the fundraiser was inother towns.

Other towns, such as Clinton, reported raising around $2,000 intheir coin drives when raising money for their community parks,said Kergosien, adding that she was thrilled when the moneyexceeded that amount Friday.

The coin drive in the Brookhaven School District not only helpedraise money for Kids Kingdom, but also brought in otherresources.

A number of parents and teachers signed up to work during thefive-day construction of the park, which will be located just offIndustrial Park Road, in April.

Brick and picket sales also increased significantly during thetwo-week fundraiser. Sally Doty, co-chair of the Kids Kingdomeffort, said over 100 bricks were bought in memory of or in honorof someone this week, bringing the total to about 300 bricks.

Dwana Wright, chair of the brick and picket sales, looks to sella few hundred more bricks to local residents in order to build asidewalk inside the park.

“It’s a community wide program and we hope everyone will getinvolved,” she commented.

Bricks and pickets can be purchased by picking up forms at anyof the area banks until March 2, which is the deadline.

They will also be available for purchase March 1-2 at theExchange Club Park, where a two-night fundraiser will behosted.

“They’re going to have the rides open, games and food and allthe money will go to Kids Kingdom,” said Doty.