AZ students collect pennies for centennial project
July 19, 2011Amanda Bellanger/KTAR (March 4th, 2011 @ 9:17am)
Karen Churchard, director of the Arizona Centennial Commission, said the project is about education, as well as refurbishing the dome.
“The history of our Capitol — how many pennies would it take if you literally pasted them on the dome? That’s more than 48 million pennies.
Which, Churchard said, is an interesting way to tie the penny project to Arizona’s history.
“We’re the 48th state in the union. Abraham Lincoln was the president who signed Arizona into a territory in 1963. Who’s on the penny? Abraham Lincoln.”
Churchard said, “We’re asking schools to collect pennies up until April 15 of this year. We’ll have all the pennies collected and counted by mid-May, shine the dome most likely in the fall of this year.”
The goal is $65,000 or 6.5 million pennies.