FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mark Weller
800/561-7909
A great ‘Pennies for Lincoln’ fund-raising event is unfolding
this week as the city of Lincoln, Nebraska wraps up its campaign to
raise $17,500 for a new sculpture of Abraham Lincoln, ‘The Rail
Joiner’.The statue is referred to as the ‘Rail Joiner’ because Lincoln
is depicted joining together two fence rails.This act of joining rails
symbolizes President Lincoln bringing a divided nation together.
Mr. Jim Hruska (pronounced ‘ruska’) of Lincoln has been collecting
pennies for 30 years and has decided to donate them to the “Pennies for
Lincoln” campaign. Indications are that Mr. Hruska’s three-decade
collection ranges from 30,000 to 50,000 pennies. Said Mr. Hruska, “I’ve
been collecting pennies of all types since I went away to college in
1969. But when I heard of the public arts project and its connection to
the Lincoln statue,donating my pennies to the community seemed a very
fitting and worthy use of the coins.” Mr. Hruska can be contacted at
(402) 421-1617. Ms. Shelley Clayburn’s sixth-graders at Rousseau
Elementary School have volunteered to help sort through Mr. Hruska’s
penny collection.
Ms. Diane Gonzolas, of the Citizen
Information Center for city of Lincoln (402/441-7831), has said that
when the students are finished, the pennies will be taken to Lincoln
Federal Savings Bank to be counted, which is anticipated to take place
today at 3 p.m. (EST). Lincoln Mayor Don Wesely will be accompanying the
students to the bank. The Information Center and Americans for Common
Cents will have knowledge of the final penny count. The statute of
Abraham Lincoln will be placed at the east entrance of the Justice and
Law Enforcement Center prior to its May 5 dedication.
Mr.
Hruska’s donation is part of a larger penny fundraising effort, ‘Pennies
for Lincoln’, which is being conducted by Margaret Berry of the Lincoln
Arts Council (www.artscene.org/pennies) and community partners. The
fund-raiser began on February 12, 2000 – President Lincoln’s birthday.
Aside from Mr. Hruska’s pennies, 36 elementary schools, civic groups and
clubs have contributed almost $9,000 in pennies for the statue of
Abraham Lincoln.
The ‘Pennies for Lincoln’ initiative is
another in a long list of fund-raising examples highlighting the utility
of the penny. Each year, millions of dollars are raised for great
causes through these simple, yet potent, donations.
Similarly,
the students of Columbine Elementary School in Littleton Colorado have
been saving their pennies to donate them to Project Hope, a fund
dedicated to rebuilding the high school library where several students
were slain last year.
Americans for Common Cents is a
broad-based coalition of business and charitable organizations dedicated
to keeping the penny. The coalition was formed in 1990 in response to
Congressional threats to eliminate the one-cent coin.