By Jessica Lewis, News Editor

With Relay for Life taking place at The University, the initiative to help raise money for cancer research made its way around campus. The Bill of Rights and Alliance Hall Council organized “Penny Wars,” to help raise money that would be donated to Relay for Life.

“The object was to create friendly competition between the two buildings to raise money for a charity as well as to build community in each building,” said Vanessa Parent, the Resident Director for Alliance and Bill of Rights. As an incentive to participate, the winning building received a pizza party funded by Hall Council.

Between the two buildings, running from the end of March until Relay for Life on April 30, a total of $90.35 was raised. “We are not disappointed at all with the outcome of our fundraising, we raised $90.35 just from Penny Wars which, when you think about it, is a lot of people donating the spare change in their pocket over the span of a month,” Parent said.

Penny Wars is a game based upon a point system, not dollar value. Each coin and dollar are given a point amount. In this Penny War, a penny was worth one point, a nickel was negative five points, a dime was negative 10 points, a quarter was negative 25 points and a dollar was negative 100 points.

“The trick is that you put the larger valued coins/dollars in the opposing team’s jar to detract from their point value,” Parent explained through email correspondence.

The two buildings also held a grilled cheese program, where students would donate a dollar. This helped the buildings to raise an additional $45.

The program was advertised through Facebook, e-mails and flyers posted around the buildings. “It was advertised on every floor and in all the elevators,” said Bill of Rights resident Laura Rossano.

Overall, Parent and Hall Council believe that the residents came together to support a good cause.

“For just change,” said freshman and Alliance Hall resident Phil Tyler, “I guess that [$90.35] is not bad.”