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Home > The Alliance in the News > 2007 Alliance News Items > Pennies for haven: Queens kids collect 27,000 stray coins to aid pups and kitties at nabe center

Pennies for haven: Queens kids collect 27,000 stray coins to aid pups and kitties at nabe center

by John Lauinger, New York Daily News

Friday, April 27, 2007

The tots at Dry Harbor Play School may still be learning how to count, but they already know that pennies can add up in a big way.

About two dozen kids from the Glendale, Queens, preschool donated a wagon full of the coins and a few bills — more than $300 in all — to a local animal rescue program yesterday.

Bobbi and the Strays, a nonprofit outfit that takes in homeless and abused cats and dogs, runs a storefront adoption center just blocks from the school.

"We gave them pennies so this way the cats and dogs can be safe and healthy," said Lorelie Conklin, a gregarious 4-year-old from Howard Beach as she and a few of her classmates played with a large gray cat named Simon at the pet center.

Cate Hughes, 4, of Glendale, donated a $5 bill. "I got it from shoveling snow," she said. "I was saving it to buy a special toy, but I gave it to the puppies — to help them."

The children's generosity left their teacher overjoyed.

"I'm so proud of them," said Roberta Maureau of Glendale, who has taught at the city Parks Department-run preschool for more than 10 years. "We collected 27,000 pennies in a week and a half."

That makes $270; the rest was donated by parents.

Bobbi Giordano, who founded the animal rescue program in 1998, said the sight of the kids wheeling the wagon down the road brought tears to her eyes. "I wanted to cry," the Ozone Park resident said. "I got all choked up."

She said the children's pennies will go a long way: The organization cares for about 125 cats and dogs at any given time and hopes one day to open a bona fide animal shelter.