As a way to generate funds for next year’s prom, Class of 2026 has planned a Penny Wars fundraiser from January 8th-19th that creates competition between the different programs areas for rewards.

“Our idea behind Penny Wars [is that] it’ll be a sophomore class fundraiser that will be divided up into programs, and some programs will be paired together [depending on the size of the program],” Dance Commissioner Ava Kamman said. “One of the other [STUCO] members’ old school did Penny Wars so we took inspiration from that and brought it here.”

The students are encouraged to put pennies and bills valued up to ten dollars into their own jars, and put nickels, dimes, and quarters into other program’s jars in order to subtract from the opposing team’s total. 

“[During] sophomore year and junior year we have to fundraise as much as we can because juniors plan the prom, and they pay for it,” Student Council member Danica Ruiz said. “We’re trying to fundraise as much as we can for our junior year so that we can have a good prom.”

Student Council has embraced the competitive side of students by encouraging them to add more money into other programs’ jars, which eventually would contribute to more donations for next year’s prom.

“We don’t have an exact goal for this fundraiser, we just want to be able to get as many donations as we can,” sophomore PA Class Senator Joanna Mengistu said. “We are encouraging the teachers to inform students about the fundraiser and how it’s going to work as well.”

Students have expressed interest in the fundraiser, and are hopeful that the outcome will be successful as this impacts the students and their peers. The students that win will earn cookies and ice cream.

“I’m really excited to see how this fundraiser plays out,” sophomore Jenny Nie said. “I hope that people will help and work hard to contribute because I want to have a fun prom with my friends my junior year.”