Table of Contents:
FAQ
Money Found at School
Mission Trip Money
Money Count Progress
News and Updates
-----
FAQ

What is this charity project about?

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.

I will also be counting up how much money I'm raising to get on a mission trip to Mexico.

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.

Why is the project money going towards Guatemala?

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.

I have made some changes on where the money will originally go because the government in Latin America is very corrupt and any money we send down there will likely go towards the government so what I will do is go with a teacher and buy school supplies and send them down to Guatemalan schools and give children a chance at education.

A donation I made in the past helped trained a teacher so that she may teach the children. I hope to do it again along with school supplies for the children.

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 doing jobs around my town such as recycling center worker, reworking a house with an senior in order for him to move in, collecting recycables and whatever people need me to do.

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.
--------

Money Found at School
This section is the amount of money I find at school each month. I have been collecting money since 2004 and this chart is for my 2007-2008 school year.

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
--------

Mission Trip Money Made
This section is money made from mostly recycling. I am being employed at my local recycling center and I am also collecting recyclables from around my town. Recyclables I am collecting are soft drink containers, metal and plastic.

Originally this was suppose to help with the fundraising but I signed up to go on a mission trip next Spring Break so I'm doing a second fundraising. Recycling is going to fund for most of my mission trip and part of it will go to the Loose Change Project.

Bags Worth Collected: 14

Money Raised: $100 / $2500
--------

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): 42%
Pennies ($0.01): 75.5%
Overall: 86.3%

-----

News and Updates

July 20, 2008: YEEHAW! I just struck Gold! I'm volunteering at a rodeo to help relieve pressure for my mission trip funding and further more I'm collecting loads of recyclables to further pay for my mission trip! 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.

-----

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