By Victoria Parks

When the students at Badin High School have Spirit Week, they don’t mess around.

Among the many activities that go on during the week is the Annual Penny Wars. The rules of the war are that the freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes compete to raise the most pennies during lunchtime for three days. While pennies count toward the total, nickels, dimes, quarters and dollars are negatives toward the classes’ grand total. Consequently, freshmen sneak dollars into the seniors’ pot and sophomores may tiptoe to deposit quarters into the juniors’ pot in order to negate their penny total. It is a win-win situation. Together the students raised $2,500.

"That’s as large an amount as I can remember in the last number of years,’’ said Kay Collins, co-moderator of Badin Student Council, which oversees Spirit Week. "The students really came through in a big way."

"That is an incredible amount of money, considering it was raised during three days at lunchtime. That’s roughly four-and-a-half hours," commented Dirk Allen, Admissions Counselor and Public Relations Coordinator at Badin.

Student Council deliberated over the many deserving agencies, organizations and outfits that could use monetary help and decided on Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center serves the medical needs of infants, children and adolescents with family-centered care, innovative research and outstanding teaching programs. Clinical procedures and treatments pioneered at Cincinnati Children’s are used throughout the world. The impact of their medical research breakthroughs has improved pediatric health today and will for generations to come. Medical facilities and innovative health care state-of-the-art medical facilities at Cincinnati Children’s provide innovative care and advanced treatment for pediatric patients in specialty areas including the Heart Center, Pediatric Liver Care Center, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology.

Maggie Brennan, a 1996 graduate of Badin who is on the development staff at CCH, was on hand to accept the $2,500 check before Badin’s Ash Wednesday Mass.

"The money will go to the most critical needs at the hospital,’’ Collins explained. "Student Council had a number of options to consider for this donation, but they felt very strongly that Cincinnati Children’s Hospital was the right choice."

The sophomore class won the Penny Wars competition, while the seniors captured the annual Spirit Week championship.