Gause students hold ‘penny war’ to benefit Washougal public library

One penny at a time, Gause Elementary School students defied all expectations en route to raising more than $600 for the Friends of the Washougal Community Library. Gause students collected $630 for the nonprofit Friends group with a “penny war,” held the last week of March, during the school’s annual book fair. “This was a fun and exciting event,” Gause Principal Tami Culp said. “The students and staff were really engaged and raised quite a bit of money for a penny war.” A penny war is a fundraising competition where two or more groups collect coins and bills, scoring points based on the amount and denomination collected. The Gause Elementary Booster Club organized the school’s penny war, counted the pennies and chose a recipient for the donation with input from the school’s librarian, Perri Price. “Our group has monthly meetings, and we had thrown out in the last couple years, ‘Let’s do a penny war,’ ” Gause Elementary Booster Club President Nicole Mitchell said. “Then our librarian, who stays in touch with the Washougal library, said that we should organize a penny war and give the proceeds to the Friends (of the Washougal Community Library). Immediately, we all jumped on board and started to plan it out.” Two student teams and a faculty team competed in the penny war. “We tracked it every day and kept a nice tally for the kids to see which team was in the lead, which helped to ramp up the donations,” Mitchell said. “They seem to really enjoy it. They especially noticed when the staff fell further and further behind.” The Boosters set an initial fundraising goal of $100 and said they were stunned when they counted the money after the first day and realized that there was almost $200. “All of us were so surprised,” Mitchell said. “We were like, ‘We’re going to have to figure out (another goal) to keep this going.’ ” In the end, the winning student teams were able to hand Washougal Community Library Manager Zoe Nash a check for $630 during an April 25 school assembly and, as an extra incentive during the penny war, throw pies into their teachers’ faces. “They seemed to like the idea of competition; that seemed to be the biggest consensus,” Mitchell said. “When they came in throughout the day for their library time, or before or after school, they would always look at the buckets to see what team was winning and get super excited to bring more in the next day.” The money will be added to the Friends’ fund that supports ongoing programming at the Washougal public library, including the library’s Reading in Action program currently being held at Columbia River Gorge Elementary School. “It feels amazing to be able to give back to somebody rather than holding the money for school,” Mitchell said. “I hope that students get a good feeling about helping others. They weren’t necessarily just trying to raise money, but raise money for a good cause to help the local community. I hope they understand that, even though they’re elementary students.” FVRLibraries plans to construct a 13,000-square-foot library building in downtown Washougal, estimated to cost $11 million. FVRLibraries has committed a little over $4 million to the project, and the FVRL Foundation has contributed $165,000 while raising $535,000 of “additional committed funds,” according to the FVRLibraries website. The Friends of the Washougal Library group has raised $300,000, leaving a gap of about $5.9 million. According to FVRLibraries, the vision is to someday “create a library that is welcoming, cozy, and inspirational — a library that strengthens the downtown experience of Washougal, reflecting its climate, landscape and culture while remaining flexible to the future needs and aspirations of the community.” The FVRLibraries board of trustees has placed a levy lid lift request on the August ballot, asking voters to restore the levy rate to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. According to an FVRLibraries staff report, the new Washougal library building’s fate is in the hands of voters. If the levy is approved, according to the report, FVRLibraries’ budget would be sustained through 2040, allowing the district to continue investing in library materials, programming and new buildings, including completion of the Washougal Community Library in 2027. If the levy fails, FVRLibraries will not pursue construction of the Washougal Community Library “or any other facilities,” according to the staff report. Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669; doug.flanagan@columbian.com

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