I wonder what you could do with just a single penny? Not a lot you might think. In fact, so worthless do most people think that the humble penny is that an incredible 2 million coins are thrown away in the UK every year, many of which are deliberately tossed aside into bins. That pails into comparison to the staggering $68 million thrown away in America every year. We are literally throwing money away!
Look After the Pennies
Back in 1987, a teenager in America called Mike Hayes had a bold and ambitious plan to fund his college career entirely through crowdfunding, even if that term hadn’t yet been coined (as it were…).
A college education doesn’t – and didn’t – come cheap. For a four year degree programme at the University of Illinois, Mike Hayes knew he’d have to raise $28,000. His parents couldn’t afford that, and Mike didn’t fancy being shackled with the burden of huge student loan debts for the rest of his life. So he came up with what was a pretty wacky – but quite brilliant – idea: he would ask 2.8 million people to each send him one penny.
Now this was the 1980s – we’d practically only just come out of the Ice Age. The world wide web was still two years away; social media was the stuff of science fiction. Mike Hayes likewise had the small problem of not actually knowing 2.8 million people. Undeterred, he decided to write to the well-known journalist Bob Greene at The Chicago Tribune newspaper with his simple and uniquely original plea and, having captured the imagination of the maverick reporter – who held a loyal readership nationwide of many millions – Greene ran the story publishing Mike Hayes’s short appeal letter in full which the journalist simply signed off in bold with the message: QUIT READING: GO PUT A PENNY IN AN ENVELOPE!
Incredibly, the appeal worked. As we would say now, it ‘blew up’, it ‘went viral’. People loved the idea, and were inspired by the concept that by just sending a penny to a stranger they could help change a life. In the end, close to 3 million pennies – or $30,000 – were posted to Hayes, many accompanied by impassioned letters of support and encouragement from those who’d been moved and inspired to act.
Little Things; Big Impact
At our start of year assembly, I shared Mike Hayes’s story as a wonderful example of how creative thinking and collective goodwill can combine to truly make a difference. As a UK supermarket’s motto puts it – every little helps.
In schools, too, the small things really do matter. Where each and every day, as students and staff we have the opportunity to invest in ourselves, the chance to do the little things that add up, in the end, to something altogether more valuable. Small pennies of effort that, little by little, stack up.
But we also have the opportunity to invest in others, and invest in our community. Because the small things really do matter when it comes to who we are and how we are as individuals and as a community.
The little things, in my view, are hugely valuable. Greeting one another with a smile. Saying hello. Asking people how they are. Picking up the piece of litter on the ground and putting in the bin. Saying thank you to the member of catering staff who serves you your lunch; asking them how their day has been. Staying behind after sports practice and helping the coach to gather in the equipment. Holding a door open for someone. Helping someone who’s struggling with their work.
These are all little things. Tiny little pennies of effort that cost us so little, but are so, so valuable.
The Power of Collective Endeavour
In Japan, the concept of ōsōji (which translates roughly as ‘great cleaning’) is a deeply-ingrained cultural ritual. From the very earliest age, children are taught about the value of collective endeavour, and the importance of service within their community.
As such, each and every day, students and staff have time allocated for the task of cleaning classrooms and corridors together. It’s not left to a janitor or a housekeeping team; it’s everyone’s responsibility to keep the schools clean and pristine. In so doing, children quickly learn about the importance of looking after one another and the value of working together to achieve a collective goal.
It’s testimony to the power of shared endeavour. Cleaning a school is a huge operation, but if everyone plays their part – if everyone puts in their little penny of effort – then those big things can be achieved, and achieved remarkably quickly. No job becomes too big when the entire school community gets stuck in. Every little helps, after all.
Playing Your Part
We’ve experienced something of the extraordinary power of collective effort during the past year having launched a fundraising appeal for a new Performing Arts Centre at Oswestry School, a transformational facility that will be a gamechanger for both our school and for our local community.
The fundraising target we set ourselves would be no small feat – an eyewatering £1.5 million would need to be raised towards the cost of the £2.3 million state of the art facility. There were many who said it was an impossible dream, many who doubted we’d even get close.
Our belief, however, was that with collective endeavour and a shared purpose, the vision could become a reality. An extraordinary collective effort has borne that out, where our community – and the wider community – have got behind the vision and played their part in making the so-called ‘impossible dream’ a possibility, and indeed a reality. Over a million pounds was raised in less than a year through a wide variety of events and individual fundraising efforts, whether it was selling Plum Puddings at Christmas, a pupil who undertook a litter-picking fundraising effort, or a pair of parents who cycled 1000km culminating in a final leg from Bristol’s Old Vic Theatre – the oldest continuously operating theatre in the UK – all the way back to Oswestry School and what will be the newest theatre in the country! Perhaps best of all was the whole school 24 hour fundraiser that saw the entire community of pupils, staff, parents and alumni come together for a collective effort that raised over £30,000 through a wide variety of weird and wacky activities. For my part (somewhat boldly in hindsight) I committed to running 50km on a treadmill (with a ruined hamstring to prove it…!).
It just shows what can be achieved when you do it together. The pennies become pounds. The seemingly impossible becomes possible. Dreams become reality.
We’re thrilled to have recently been named as Finalists in the Independent Schools of the Year Awards for Outstanding Fundraising Achievement recognising the collective efforts of our community, and with work having commenced on the project early last month, we’re greatly looking forward to curtains up in 2026. I’ve no doubt that the new Performing Arts Centre will in time become a treasured facility for our school community and our local community, and what’s most special of all is that it has been made possible by our community; the collective efforts of so many have made it happen. Every little really does help.
Peter Middleton 