Oct 29, 2008 8:01 pm US/Pacific
Kids Make Every Penny Count
Jefferson Award Winner: Dagmar Serota
OAKLAND (CBS 5) ―
On a sunny autumn afternoon, 11-year-old Minnie Ito is doing something she hasn't done before: she and her Lakeview Elementary School classmates are raising money to help children in their Oakland community.
"We're helping hungry kids in Oakland," she tells a bank manager along Lakeshore Avenue.
Handing out penny collection jars to local merchants, the students are learning that whatever your age, you can make a difference. It's exactly the lesson Dagmar Serota had in mind when she started the program "Good Cents for Oakland."
"I teach them that they can make decisions, they can be powerful in their community, they can be advocates about what they care about," Dagmar explains.
Before the first penny is collected, Dagmar and her volunteers work with participating elementary schools to get kids to vote on an issue they care about.
"They might choose animals one year, the planet the next, but a wide variety of issues," she says.
Teacher John Panagos says the process empowers his students.
He says, "We haven't had anything like this in the past and this idea of service learning is very exciting for us."
Dagmar adds, "There are studies that have been done that say that children involved in service learning are twice as likely to stay involved as adults."
This year, eight schools will participate in Oakland's Good Cents penny round-up. And after weeks of researching, collecting, and sorting through pennies, the students will make a donation to the local non-profit of their choice.
And it all adds up. Some schools have raised as much as $1200 for their pet project, everything from planting trees to after school violence prevention programs.
Back on Lakeshore, Dagmar is encouraging the students to be polite.
"Who are we going to help?" she asks the group.
"Kids!" they shout.
"What is the best city?"
"Oakland!"
So while Dagmar and Good Cents for Oakland may be teaching kids a valuable lesson in civics, that's not all that inspires fifth graders like Minnie Ito.
"I know that I am helping Oakland and the kids who go hungry or doesn't know how to read and doesn't have education," Minnie says. "I feel really happy to be doing something in a great project like this."
"We would love every child to know that they don't have to accept the problems around them," Dagmar says. "A lot of kids in Oakland see problems in our community and they might feel powerless and we want to give them that power."
So for teaching children that they can make meaningful changes in their communities, one issue, and one penny at a time, this week's Jefferson Award in the Bay Area goes to Dagmar Serota.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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