JAMESTOWN, N.Y. – Jamestown High School students raised $6,000 dollars for their annual “Penny Wars” fundraiser.

Of the total, $1,500 will be deposited into the school’s new RISE (Red & Green In Support Of Everyone) Fund. The fund aims to provide assistance to JHS students who may have experienced various hardships throughout the school year. The remaining $4,500 will be donated to a senior at Jamestown High School, who wishes to remain anonymous. The student has underground treatment for Ewing Sarcoma, a rare and aggressive malignant bone cancer. A message of gratitude from the student’s family was read during the event.

Finishing in first place with 179,030 points was the Senior Class of 2025 (Ashley Merchant, advisor), finishing in second place with 62,849 points was the Sophomore Class of 2027 (Marygrace Anderson and Heidi Maggio, advisors), finishing in third place was the Junior Class of 2026 (Bobbijo Gibbons and Alex Kyler, advisors) with 61,194 points, and finishing in fourth place was the Freshmen Class of 2028 (Sara Henry and Alycia Johnson, advisors) with -9,858 points.

Cardboard checks, made possible through a donation by Nick Fiorella of Jamestown Container Company, was presented during the ceremony. 

“Penny Wars has been a great JHS tradition for the last 25 years,” said JHS teachers Betsy Rowe-Baehr and Tage Hall, co-advisors of JHS Student Organization. “Each year, we put on Penny Wars as a friendly competition for a good cause as a way to help someone in our school family. Our students are excited that their impact will be able to extend beyond just the holiday season through the creation of the new RISE Fund.”

For 26 years, students have spent the holiday season raising money for a worthy cause within the JHS family, raising nearly $100,000 for various causes across the community. Students spend the month of December leading up to the last day before the holiday break raising money for the cause. All pennies count as “positive” points and all silver and dollar bills count as “negative” points. The losing classes each are “slimed” by the winning class.