Chugiak High School faculty and staff gather to show the results of a week's worth of competition to raise money for earthquake relief in Haiti. Star photo by Melissa DeVaughn

A library is a peaceful place for studying, reading books, doing homework and quieting down when the librarian says "Shhh!"

But on Friday, about 30 students and teachers at Chugiak High School broke all the rules, shouting, standing on countertops and jostling for position in their library as the last seconds of a schoolwide "Pennies for Haiti" competition ticked away on the clock.

Lined side by side were giant water jugs, labeled appropriately in colored signs – freshmen, red; sophomores, yellow; juniors, green; seniors, blue; and faculty, black – that were filled to brimming with pennies.

Lots and lots of pennies.

"We won't know until Friday (Feb. 5) which class will win," said Angie Armstrong, student government adviser. "It's going to take us a week to count it."

Armstrong said the Pennies for Haiti project prompted some of the most lively, and friendly, competition she has seen at the school in a long time. The craftily devised competition has a twist – for each penny donated you get a point, but for each nickel, dime, quarter or bill, you are docked an equal number of pennies. So, every nickel that went into the freshman jar minused-out five pennies. For each dollar tossed into, say, the senior jug, the class of 2010 lost 100 pennies.

This kind of competition encouraged big spenders to drop $10s, $20s and even $50s into their competitors' jugs, while dumping their spare pennies into their own class's jug. The result is that a lot of money was collected in the weeklong event. Even a $100 bill went into one of the jugs.

"Originally this was for Make-a-Wish, but then the earthquake in Haiti happened and we wanted them to give back somehow," Armstrong said. "The senior class, by far, has been the most active – and of course the teachers. The seniors, though, they really organized."

A lot of people, Armstrong noted, waited for the last day and ambushed their peers, dropping in dollar bills by the dozens into their competitors' jugs.

"The sophomores really rallied," Armstrong said. "They didn't do much during the week, but today they loaded up."

Armstrong estimates that there is at least $350 to $500 per jug – and some classes had to add a second jug to their event to accommodate all the money. That could add up to as much as $2,000, maybe more.

"There is one individual, a teacher," said co-adviser Lisa Reed, "who donated a lot of dollars. And he used a coat hanger to push the bills to the outside of the jug and line it with the bills so everyone could see them."

This sort of friendly rivalry is what it is all about, said senior class president Brooke Diaz, a few minutes after the countdown for the contest ended.

"First off, our class members were bringing in the money all week," she said. "We were the first ones to fill up fast. The Class of 2010 is very spirited."

Diaz said enthusiasm for the project built as the days of the week passed, and even some of the less-than-spirited students perked up and pitched in.

"This is all going to a good cause," Diaz said. "It's a big deal. It's been the talk of the school."

Hannah Toohey and Mina Sayer, student government officers with the sophomore class, said their class started out slow, but it was not by accident.

"We sabotaged them at the end," Toohey said of the class's surge on Friday to fill up other jugs with "harmful" dollar bills and their own with "valuable" pennies.

"We had an agreement with the sophomores that we won't put money in yours if you don't put money in ours," Diaz said, an agreement to which Toohey acknowledged that the sophomores didn't quite adhere.

"The seniors came out early and put a lot of pennies in, but I think we might have passed them," Sayer said.

Toohey said it was the sophomores' goal to win this first event that coincides with the yearly WACKO week. WACKO, which stands for Wild And Crazy Kid Olympics, pits the classes against each other and their teachers in a week filled with activities to raise money and school spirit.

"The seniors always win WACKO and they're going for a three-peat," Toohey said. "We want that to stop."

Diaz, with a smile on her face, is ready for the sophomores to bring it on.

"The sophomores are like the mini-seniors," she said. "They are just like we were in 10th grade. But they're not going to win. No way."

This article published in The Alaska Star on Thursday, February 4, 2010.