If you are interested in donating, please contact the school at 589-4374.

Connections Article Fall 2008

Defining 1,000,000

Million Penny Committee sparks imaginations
to honour the memory of late staff members

We’ve all seen countless drops of rain or grains of sand on a
beach—but how many people can say they’ve seen one
million of anything in exact, quantifiable terms?
These are the sorts of questions that used to come into Randy
Engstrom’s head all the time.
Mr. Engstrom, an industrial arts department head at St. John’s
High School, died in June of 2004 after a battle with brain cancer.
Six months later, another staff member—educational assistant       
Steve Slack—died of the exact same type of brain cancer.
Before Mr. Engstrom died, he had a typical conversation with                           
(now retired) caretaker Chris Baker. The two wondered how many
people had truly been able to say they had seen one million things.
“My husband used to use that to stimulate conversation and the
imagination,” said Susan Engstrom, Randy’s widow and a St.
John’s educational assistant. “How far would a million things
stretch? How high would they stack up? It really made people
think.”
Today, that conversation is still supplying much food for
thought at St. John’s.
Ms. Engstrom, special education teacher Randy Cameron and
art teacher Michael Bridgford-Read decided to make that conversation
into a reality. The Million Penny Committee was born.
Its goal is to collect one million pennies in time for St. John’s
100th anniversary in 2010. Mr. Bridgford-Read and his art students
(past and present) plan to place every penny side-by-side in
the school’s gymnasium. Other schools and groups will be invited
to visit and see the display, expected to take up an area of 50 feet
by 78 feet.
Eventually the pennies—$10,000 in all—will be donated to
Cancer Care Manitoba and the Canadian Cancer Society.
“We’re already starting to realize how much a million pennies
really is,” Mr. Cameron said, gesturing towards several ice cream
buckets full of pennies. “That’s 20,000 right there, and that’s
nothing yet.”
Students are already calculating how much 1,000,000 pennies
will weigh—although the variable weight of American and Canadian
coins can make the arithmetic tricky.
“We’re really learning from this—a million is a lot,” Ms.
Engstrom said.
The project has also raised a few eyebrows at local banks, when
the organizers come in to cash donated cheques and paper
money—all in return for pennies.
“You actually have to give the bank a day’s notice before you
do it,” Mr. Cameron said.
Although the school has already amassed 300,000 pennies in a
large—and very heavy—bin, they have quickly realized that to
meet their goal, they’re going to need the help of other Division
schools and the community-at-large.
Organizers are asking if other schools and companies will join
in the penny collection. They will drop off a bin at any school and
business and collect full containers upon request. To join the cause
call the school at 589-4374, or email Ms. Engstrom at
sengstrom@wsd1.org.

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