A ruler and a calculator showed the children at Poplar Springs Baptist Church, Rockford, what it would take to raise a mile of pennies for Alabama Baptist Children’s Homes & Family Ministries (ABCH) — 16 pennies per foot, or 84,480 coins.
But they weren’t afraid to take on the challenge, according to Angel Alford, youth minister and children’s worker at Poplar Springs Baptist, who noted that the rural Central Baptist Association church has five or six children in its children’s church each Sunday.
“The children read where they (the children’s homes) were trying to raise money by doing the mile of pennies, and the kids got busy asking aunts and uncles and taking jars to put in the stores. It’s just taken us probably two months to get it,” Alford said. In fact, she added the children were more than halfway to the goal in just a couple of weeks.
According to Pastor Joe Camp, each Sunday during the offering, the children bring forward their pennies and fill a small bank shaped like a church. Each time the bank gets full, they roll the pennies, he said. “These kids have been out doing their best to do this and have been so excited about it,” he noted.
Pennies are still coming in — past the set goal. On Sept. 24, a representative from ABCH will attend the service at Poplar Springs to accept a big cardboard check from the children for the total collected.
And the children plan to continue collecting pennies to make a contribution to the church’s new fellowship hall when it is complete — perhaps a refrigerator or stove, Alford said.
“It’s just been a blessing to watch them give,” she said. (TAB)
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