Pennies for the future

The students, parents and staff of Bryan School -- along with community organizations, private donors and other friends of Bryan Elementary School -- collected pennies in observance of the 100th day of school on Jan. 31. Some organizations and individuals have been collecting pennies and holding fundraisers since last year's 100th day celebration. A generous donation of $5,497.50 was the result of this community effort. An additional $2,500 was collected to add to the Penny Scholarship endowment fund established three years ago. The students this year collected $1,070.57 of pennies during the week in which the 100th day of school was celebrated.

All pennies collected each day were counted and sorted by the kindergarten and first grade students. At the end of each day, the pennies were taken to Metz Bank to be counted and deposited into the Bryan School Lucille Smith Scholarship Fund. The late Lucille Smith was the school secretary when the scholarship project was established. This year's kindergarten class will add to their scholarship fund as first graders during next year's 100th day celebration. Scholarships will be awarded through the Nevada R-5 Scholarship Foundation and will earn interest until the students are high school seniors in the years 2022 and 2023. This is the 15th year that pennies have been collected at Bryan for the scholarships during the 100th day celebration. So far, a total of eight scholarships have been awarded to Nevada High School seniors through the Nevada R-5 scholarship foundation. This spring, four additional Nevada High School seniors will receive scholarships. All students who were members of the Bryan School classes at the time the pennies were collected will be eligible to apply for the scholarships.