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It is called the Loose Change Project and the premise is simple: collect $100 worth of each type of Canadian coin for charity. It will add up to $600 Canadian upon completion along with other projects.

Months after this blog was made, I got into two other charity projects being a mission trip to Mexico and my family is sponsoring a child in Peru with a dollar a day.

The Mission Trip to Mexico will take place in April during Spring break where I among other schoolmates will go towards a place in Mexico to help them with various tasks and learn about their culture. I am collecting some spending money and charity money to be sent down to the Mexican children just like I am doing for Guatemala. A portion of any money made from recycling or donations from my school will go towards this. I hope to make a amatuer documentary for this.

A man came into my house and my mother and I decided to sponsor a child in Peru named Carlos who has suffered from malnutrition once and live in poor conditions but at least has some fresh water in his back yard. I'm going to learn from this experience while he gets aid from my family. I'm going to keep a section dedicated to him and will be updated to see how he's doing.

Where will the money go once collected?

I have talked to a teacher at my school who is also the president/volunteer dentist for Kindness in Action which is a volunteer organization dedicated to oral hygiene for people in developing countries and it is decided that I am sending the $600 to students in the country of Guatemala that is located in Central America just East of Southern Mexico.

The $500 I am collecting from mainly recyclable material is coming with me to Mexico to be distributed to an orphanage during the mission trip.

After the previous two are done, any money I get from finding, recycling or donations go towards Carlos for the dollar a day policy.

Why is the project money going towards Guatemala, Mexico and to Carlos?

Despite the economic growth for Guatemala that started in 1996, the year after the end of the Guatemalan civil war, Guatemala remains a developing country struck with rural poverty where 60% of Guatemalan households are below the poverty line with high rates of illiteracy, infant mortality rate and malnutrition.

Mexico suffers the same thing as Guatemala. I am heading to an orphanage where I'm guessing is underfunded and could use some extra cash to go towards education or upgrades/repairs.

As for Carlos, he lives in a house made from adobe with a slate/tile roof. He attends primary school. His school and nearest health facility is 45 minutes away from his house and his family of four uses an open field for a latrine. We are going to pay a dollar a day and this should not be a problem because my two previous projects are near completion.

Where will you get the money?

I will collect the money from whatever sources except the bank because using the bank would be cheating. I will primarily collect the coins by finding whatever money I find in town (I find tons at school) with some help from my friends. I will also add on any loose change I have left from purchasing items and will even trade coins for other coins once I'm done collecting those types of coins. I designed this to be a fun project for myself when it comes to collecting.

As for the mission trip, I'm making my cost to a whole lot lower by participating in various fundraisers.

What can I do to help?

There are a number of sites that you have to click a simple button and it will redirect you to a page full of advertisements that will generate money to pay for things that will help not only Guatemala, but will help other developing nations in need. You can help feed them, you can help them gain literacy, you can help give them child health care and you can help save their rainforests all by a click of a button on each of the sites in the previous links I have given you in this part of the FAQ. Try to click each button once per day and it will make a difference not only for Guatemala, but for other developing nations God wants us to help.

Buying Guatemalan Artisan Crafts will also help the Guatemalan kids and their families. The items were made by Guatemalan children and possibly adults as part of their education that can be purchased by you in order to help them out.

Another way is to join into the charity. Try raising fundraisers that will collect money that will go to schools in Guatemala. You can collect recyclable soft drink containers, you could also collect money from the floors at your school or whatever you want. Try to make the fundraiser fun for you.
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Money Found at School
This section is the amount of money I find at school each month. I have been collecting money since 2004.

2007-2008

September: $3.61
October: $7.98
November: $7.65
December: $8.35
January: $6.98
February: $8.86
March: $4.17
April: $10.05
May: $5.36
June: $7.11

Total: $71.12

2008-2009

September: $45.53
October: $6.03
November: $9.26
December: $6.05
January: $3.56

Total: $70.43

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Money Raised for Mission Trip
For the mission trip to Mexico, I am raising at least $500 to take down to the orphanages down there to spend it on supplies that will benefit. I'm hoping it can be converted to Pesos so it can be spent to buy more school supplies down in Mexico and the money for the supplies will go towards Mexican merchants.

Bonus Money Raised: $500.00

---(COMPLETED)---
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Money Count Progress

This section of the blog post is for a public record of the collection of the coins. It will be updated every time I collect enough loose change to roll them up into coin rolls. These percentages do not include coins that have yet to be rolled up into a coin roll.

Toonies ($2): 100%
Loonies ($1): 100%
Quarters ($0.25): 100%
Dimes ($0.10): 100%
Nickels ($0.05): 100%
Pennies ($0.01): 100%
Overall: 100%

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Carlos Blog
This part of the blog is dedicated to Carlos to show any progress he is making through this sponsorship program my family has entered.

Currently waiting to hear from him.

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News and Updates

February 10, 2009: I have finally completed the money for Mexico. All I need are many nickles and I'm done completely.

February 6, 2009: After a long hiatus, made a major update regarding information, a new section and extra projects near completion.

October 17, 2008: I have finally completed the pennies and now have only the nickels to deal with. From the looks of it, it's far from over.

September 30, 2008: I have made a personal record of finding the most money at school in a month. I have found money from three different countries this month.

July 26, 2008: I just received a phone call last night from a woman who is in charge of the Rodeo fundraising. Apparently I got three people who want to donate their bottles to my cause. One even has a garage full of bottles that sounds like it could be worth quite a bit. I even changed some more plans but am still collecting the $600 for the Guatemalans.

July 20, 2008: YEEHAW! I just struck Gold! I'm volunteering at a rodeo to help relieve pressure for my mission trip funding and getting bottles for a bonus when I donate. Today I just collected six bags worth of recyclable material. Major profit will come of this!

July 7, 2008: Added additional information about my second fundraising for my mission trip.

June 29, 2008: I have made some major changes and updates in the information and organizing. It's almost done and I hope to complete it by the end of the summer.

June 18, 2008: I have completed my school year with a grand total of $70.99 found in my school for the entire year. Stay tuned for next years because I got a feeling that it will drag on to next school year when I'm in Grade 11.

June 7, 2008: The dimes are complete and now I only have to worry about the Pennies and the Nickels. Hopefully I should get them done over the summer but it will most likely carry on to the next school year.

April 30, 2008: I hit the mother load this month! I found $10.05 at my school, started to bring in money made from recycling by collecting recyclables around my town and I am putting up some more progress charts for these collectings.

January 25, 2008: I have finally finished up the quarters and now I only have three coin types left to do.

December 1, 2007: Ah great, it has been proposed to stop the production of pennies due to production costs. This may make my project harder to do. On the other note, I have added an overall percentage in the money progress section.

October 28, 2007: New minor information concerning currency exchange has been added to the FAQ.

October 20, 2007: Blog has been set up and is awaiting suggestions and comments.

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Below is a picture of the coin rolls. It will be updated every once and a while.

Updated: 02/17/09 6:36 PM Log in to comment! | Share this!

The People Have Spoken

34 Comments

Oct. 21, 2007 | 3:58 PM Hybrid-Of-Souls says:

That looks like a box full of tampoons.

Oct. 21, 2007 | 4:22 PM Heinrich responds:

They look more like Cuban cigars to me so I usually call them "Penny Kid Cigars" because I rolled up whatever loose change I found at school and as a result, the people would call me the 'Penny Kid'. =P

Oct. 23, 2007 | 9:01 PM ripoffhitman says:

ya, I agree with them looking like cigars. And cool someone actually gives a shit about other people enough to do something for charity.

Oct. 23, 2007 | 11:49 PM Heinrich responds:

Thank you. I became interested in helping Guatemalans when I was in Grade 8. In Grade eight, I collected money off the ground at school and kept them in a glass chest to see how much money I can find at school in one school year. Halfway through the year, my mother suggested donating the money to charity afterwards and I took the suggestion. My mother is a big time person to thank for my generosity towards the Guatemalan.

That year, I found $95 dollars in loose change and donated it to charity where it bought a whole bunch of soccer balls for the Guatemalan children to play with. I brought joy to the children and I felt great afterwards. I found an additional $5 after the $95 was donated so I found $100 in my school during a school year, amazing what you can find at school, huh?

In grade 9, I continued to help Guatemala by collecting money at school and money made from collecting recyclables from around my town. With the combined profits, I made and donated $130 to Mayan women who happen to be survivors of the Guatemalan civil war that ended in 1995.

Now I'm currently working on my current project and I thank you for your support.

Oct. 24, 2007 | 1:46 PM MaestroRage says:

I'm very happy to see you taking such a serious attitude towards this! There are so few people who would do what you do. If I could bust out a 20 and give it to you right now I would, the best i can do at the moment is go to those links, learn more, and click on the sponsors.

Good work, keep up the good fight! The children will thank you.

Oct. 24, 2007 | 6:25 PM Heinrich responds:

I am overjoyed that you took your time to comment on this blog post!

And thank you for your generosity and support and be sure to check out the links that are listed in the fifth question in the FAQ every day. A click for that one button on one of those websites will help make a difference.

"Few of us can do great things, but all of us can do small things with great love" - Mother Teresa.

Take care and keep up the good work on your audio. I'll be sure to get back to reviewing your audio once I have motivation for reviewing again.

Nov. 11, 2007 | 9:25 PM Imacow says:

I had like 65 cents worth of Canadian coins when I went to Nova Scotia. But then I lost them =(

Nov. 11, 2007 | 9:52 PM Heinrich responds:

American coins are not uncommon where I live. I have collected American coins for a while from various sources and kept them in a metal air force mug. I have $15.06 worth of American coins so far.

Nov. 14, 2007 | 12:37 PM aldlv says:

thanx for helping my country dude...

Nov. 14, 2007 | 6:04 PM Heinrich responds:

No problem. I'm more than happy to help out your people.

Nov. 14, 2007 | 8:22 PM Makaveli says:

Wazzup. I myself really underestimated the value of oral hygiene. Good thing your doing.

Nov. 14, 2007 | 8:28 PM Heinrich responds:

Thank you for your comment.

As for oral hygiene, it's especially bad in Guatemala because the people over there drink so much pop because pop is cheaper than fresh water in Guatemala. A teacher at my school served as a dentist to clean and remove teeth over there and he said it wasn't a pleasant sight.

Updated: Nov. 29, 2007, 5:48 PM

Dec. 23, 2007 | 11:05 PM idiot-buster says:

have a marry christmas !!!!

Dec. 23, 2007 | 11:11 PM Heinrich responds:

And you have a Merry Christmas as well!

Dec. 26, 2007 | 8:46 PM FrozenFire says:

You are a saint :3

:D <3 The charity :)

nice idea

Dec. 26, 2007 | 8:58 PM Heinrich responds:

Thank you very much. This isn't my first major charity act but it's definitely going to be my biggest!

Dec. 30, 2007 | 12:52 PM theultimategamer7211 says:

at first i thought that the picture was a picture of explosives...........

Dec. 30, 2007 | 2:26 PM Heinrich responds:

Haha, if they were explosives, I would have one hell of a Canada Day!

Jan. 5, 2008 | 10:21 PM KarpaL-TunnaL says:

I think this is a good thing you're doing, saving all those tampoon coin rolls. :3

Jan. 5, 2008 | 10:45 PM Heinrich responds:

Thanks. Judging by the penny rolls, I guess I'm going to need a bigger box.

Jan. 15, 2008 | 10:45 PM aldlv says:

happy new year... =D
(a little bit late... lol)

Jan. 16, 2008 | 6:24 PM Heinrich responds:

Haha better late then never.

Happy New Year!

Jan. 28, 2008 | 5:11 PM aldlv says:

you already finished the half... nice work dude... =D

Jan. 28, 2008 | 8:43 PM Heinrich responds:

Haha, now that the larger coins are dealt with, it's going to get easier to collect the smaller coins due to extra spending money that will get me more of the smaller coins.

Updated: Jan. 28, 2008, 8:44 PM

Mar. 10, 2008 | 8:41 PM Hybrid-Of-Souls says:

Amazing on how much change can be dropped at school, huh?

Mar. 10, 2008 | 10:13 PM Heinrich responds:

Oh don't get me started on Grade 8. I found over $100 worth of change at school within that school year.

And if you think that's crazy, try my little "Penny Kid Theory":

There are 3500 high schools across Canada. If each school loses $10 in loose change at each school within a year that means $35,000 is wasted in the hallways each year in Canada alone. If every school each wasted $100 in loose change then as much as $350,000 would be wasted every year.

Pretty crazy possibility, Eh?

Apr. 8, 2008 | 11:09 PM ruinnewb says:

Your photoshop skill's are awsome! :3

Apr. 9, 2008 | 12:07 AM Heinrich responds:

Thanks man! I love making photoshops to entertain you guys on the BBS.

Apr. 24, 2008 | 4:41 PM MrFlopz says:

Walls of text scare me

Apr. 24, 2008 | 6:01 PM Heinrich responds:

Fear the text!

Apr. 27, 2008 | 1:51 PM pledge07 says:

Good luck with your project, and I hope you meet your goal!

Apr. 27, 2008 | 6:38 PM Heinrich responds:

Thank you. I was hoping to achieve my goal by summer time but it seems I jumped the gun a bit. Hopefully I'll get it done during summer.

May. 6, 2008 | 9:14 PM Music-story says:

Well, I have to say your idea for raising money is unique. Finding that much money in loose change is difficult, but like you said, fun. Your also being environmentally friendly by collecting bottles and bags. You may not have much money now, but looks like you put a lot of effort in...that's what counts. In the real world (not NG world) hopefully you keep your "good cause" as anonymous as possible. Good luck.

Bye for now

May. 6, 2008 | 10:14 PM Heinrich responds:

Meh, I don't care if I get reconized for my deeds or not. My only concern is to get some children a chance at education and do God's bidding.

May. 19, 2008 | 9:10 PM Osuka says:

you can also send paper money? because that box of coins looks really heavy o.o

i hope that money goes to help the poor people, the authorities is latinamerica is really corrupted.

May. 19, 2008 | 9:16 PM Heinrich responds:

Once I collect all the coins, I'll take pictures to prove that I did it and go to the bank to swap all these coins into paper money so it will be easier to carry afterards.

As for the corrupt government, I'm going to be buying school supplies with a teacher at my local store to be distributed among school children so not one cent of the money will be taken by the government. The soon-to-be educated children will be the future government.

Updated: May. 19, 2008, 9:17 PM

May. 21, 2008 | 9:07 PM iamawesomedealwithit says:

if i could i would totally give you some money - sry i cant tho :(
well i hope you get all of the money you need & more!

~Have A Nice Day!~
-Iamawesome( & so are you!)

May. 21, 2008 | 11:06 PM Heinrich responds:

Thank you for your comment and generosity at heart. Just click on the links where it will lead you to a site where you only have to click a button to give to charity without any of your money being touched.

Jun. 4, 2008 | 2:23 PM Eddie says:

Level up! :O

Jun. 4, 2008 | 5:44 PM Heinrich responds:

It's clobbering time!
*Swings around flail*

Jun. 27, 2008 | 12:30 AM Saku-Tatsuya says:

I remember you showing me that collection a little while ago.

Jun. 27, 2008 | 2:13 PM Heinrich responds:

Yup. Pretty amazing, Eh?

Jul. 6, 2008 | 9:55 AM Killers123 says:

It's great to see someone here actually help out.

You actually inspired me to do some of this in my spare time!

Jul. 6, 2008 | 1:53 PM Heinrich responds:

That's great! Tom Fulp did say that he's going to make an attempt to implant more charity into Newgrounds and I'm glad that it's slowly turning into reality!

Good luck!

Aug. 27, 2008 | 7:59 PM Whirlguy says:

Wow! Sounds like some project!
So kind of you, and inspiring aswel actually.
I see you've collected quite alot so far.
Good luck with all that! =D

Aug. 27, 2008 | 9:49 PM Heinrich responds:

Thanks, dude! I would have a longer time collecting if it weren't for some friendly donations.

Sep. 3, 2008 | 9:02 PM TheRadicalOne says:

I just noticed how mind-blowingly awesome you are, and wanted to state that here.

Sep. 3, 2008 | 11:04 PM Heinrich responds:

Thanks! <3

Sep. 4, 2008 | 10:19 PM Tiago11103 says:

i bet you can get some 'school supply person' to give you a discount or something if you explain the cause.

good luck.

Sep. 4, 2008 | 10:32 PM Heinrich responds:

I could do this but problem is, I get the supplies from Wal-Mart and I don't think they'll give discounts.

However, I can collect school supplies being wasted in the hallways and garbages and send them down to Guatemala to further convert waste into donations.

Thank you for the idea though. Your idea just gave me an idea!

Sep. 7, 2008 | 4:09 PM aninjaman says:

Those coin rolls look like something to smuggle drugs in........ are you smuggling drugs over the Canadian border to America?

Sep. 7, 2008 | 6:24 PM Heinrich responds:

Err....No I'm not....good sir....I assure you they are coins--

Ah forget it! The jig is up! Take him out, boys!

*Pulls out tommy gun*

Sep. 9, 2008 | 6:25 PM Bovineoverlord says:

It's really sweet and thoughtful of you to be doing this, but I have a question:

How do you find so much money at school?

I mean, where I go, you might see the occasional penny on the floor, but not 71 bucks' worth. Can you give me some tips on getting money? I'm saving up for an electric guitar and an amp.

Sep. 9, 2008 | 10:07 PM Heinrich responds:

Thanks and I guess it depends on how wasteful your school is when is comes to coins. I see kids throwing coins all over the school where I live and the rest is up to Lady Luck whether you find them or not.

As for tips on how to save, you'll need a good amount of restraint from spending. I recommend a job that won't get you spending money as that was my mistake where I worked at a café a year ago. Then, you can select a certain percentage of your pay and place it somewhere safe. My mother collected loonies and kept them in a jar. After a few years, she had over $1300 worth of loonies saved up. You could try collecting types of money (like $5 bills for example) if you love collecting things and then spend it. Much of the fun in my charity project is all the collecting.

Another way is if you are a fan of soft drinks or know a place full of soft drink containers, try grabbing some of those and get them to a recycling plant for extra cash and bonus if you can find any scrap metal like copper wire. These days, more and more people are turning their garbage into gas or groceries through recycling and getting money. Since you are 15, I don't think you'll have to worry about gas and groceries.

These are what I can think of at the moment. I'll post more if you need it.

Sep. 12, 2008 | 7:48 PM RKthrilla says:

I should do this with my good ol" fashion american coins.. Although I would keep it for myself... Im a jackass...

Sep. 12, 2008 | 8:58 PM Heinrich responds:

Meh, at least the collecting will be fun.

Sep. 15, 2008 | 3:57 PM Nikenick says:

Could you please go to the Newgrounds Photoshop Headquarters and rate my work, I think you're a pretty good photoshopper and I want to hear your opinion about my work.

Sep. 15, 2008 | 5:51 PM Heinrich responds:

Sure, If you want me to comments on your, work, I'll head straight over there.

However, I would appreciate you sending me a PM than getting off-topic on my post for next time.

Oct. 1, 2008 | 8:00 PM Hybrid-Of-Souls says:

Cool, looks like you're almost done.
Though, why such a hard time finding nickels?

Oct. 1, 2008 | 8:45 PM Heinrich responds:

That is what I'm wondering. I'd figure I would finish the pennies last but it seems to be that nickels are hardest to obtain due to being less common to get a hold of.

Oct. 8, 2008 | 6:38 PM Kevin says:

Almost Done!

Oct. 8, 2008 | 7:39 PM Heinrich responds:

I'm getting closer and closer!

Jan. 4, 2009 | 2:28 PM lawlmaster says:

nice job you are doing there!Hopefully some people will get the supplies they need!

Jan. 4, 2009 | 4:07 PM Heinrich responds:

I have faith that they'll get the school supplies needed for a good education. Making a better future for Guatemala will be a slow but steady process.

Jan. 28, 2009 | 8:50 PM GenArmegeddon says:

I miss your MS Paint School Pet Peeves Posts :(

Feb. 2, 2009 | 6:35 PM Heinrich responds:

I miss that topic too. =(

May. 9, 2009 | 5:36 AM iscrulz says:

I would send you Canadian coins I get because they don't work in the vending machine. Alas in would it be a nuisance.