Annual penny drive funds scholarship

Students at Bryan Elementary School collected a total of $3,743 in an annual drive that benefits a scholarship fund.

Nevada Daily Mail

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. Some organizations and individuals have been collecting pennies since last year's 100th day celebration. A total of $3,743 will be shared between the kindergarten and first grade scholarships as a result of these donations.

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 the 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. Both 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 2018 and 2019. This year's kindergarten class's collection totaled $2, 564.39. The first grade class's collection totaled $2,521.89 which will be added to the amount that they collected last year, bringing the total of their scholarship money to $4,467.95. 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. This is the 11th year that pennies have been collected at Bryan for the scholarships during the 100th day celebration. The first scholarship to be awarded will be for the senior class of 2008.