Curtis and Lee Rowland were long time volunteers at the Roanoke Rescue Mission, even into their 80’s. When Curtis passed away several years ago Lee, his widow, started collecting pennies “by the mile.” Laid end-to-end Rescue Mission director of administration Kim Gembala says that constitutes 84,480 pennies. Lee Rowland kept going well past that goal and has now collected about 22 miles worth of pennies in collection jars she puts out wherever she goes – almost 1,700,00o pennies to date.
All of that money has been turned over to the Rescue Mission, where Rowland in her mid-80’s is still involved with the lady’s auxiliary. The effort has been so successful that Curt’s Pennies became a finalist in a Farmer’s Almanac online contest, Pennies 4 a Purpose, with six other campaigns from across the country. The top three vote getters will each have a $500 check sent to the non-profit they are raising money for. At press time the website had not identified the winners.
“This is just something she could do that keeps his memory alive,” said Gembala, “and it keeps them together connected to the Rescue Mission. The jars are set out “just about any place she [can]. She always comes in every month and reports where she is at.”
Rowland passes the jars out to other Rescue Mission volunteers, asking them to display the jars whereever they go. “This is all her idea – she came up with it on her own,” Gembala notes, “and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger.”
Rowland hasn’t mentioned an end date, so at this point Curt’s Pennies will just keep on going. Winning the $500 from the Farmer’s Almanac contest (a neighbor submitted Curt’s Pennies as an entry) would just be icing on the cake. To date said Gembala, Rowland was already the top penny collector as of several weeks ago.
By Gene Marrano
