A penny can make change

As you may have seen in some of my previous articles, I am a runner. I love to start my day by lacing up my running shoes and taking a journey, by foot, around the streets of Atlanta. It’s a highlight. As the cool kids say, it gives me “all the feels.”

I don’t need much motivation to pound the pavement, but as luck would have it my friend Cara added a boost to my running encouragement a few years ago. You see, Cara lost her mom after a brave battle with colon cancer. As a way to honor her mom’s legacy she began picking up spare change during her morning runs and donating the money to charity. A penny here. A dime there. Slowly and steadily she began building quite a collection of coins. All in honor of Mama T.

Cara’s story spread and other people (including me) began picking up all the change we found. It became a “thing” of neighborhood and running community lore. She even presented her story at TEDxPeachtree and I personally witnessed her telling fellow runners about this quest in midst of running a half-marathon race.

What I find most interesting about this story is it is based on transformation. In terms of currency a penny is a cent. It’s a single coin. Most people think it is worth next to nothing. People walk by pennies all day and don’t give them a second thought. They are useless.

However, when you add a penny with another and another, you suddenly go from having a little to a lot. Ten cents become $1.00. Then $5.00. Suddenly Cara and her crew of “change finders” were collecting more than $400.00 a year. Yup. That’s right. Hundreds of dollars in loose change. 

Without the dedication and devotion of this band of misfit runners and friends, this money would continue to lie in the dirty cracks and crevices of Atlanta’s streets. Unusable.

Instead, this money is actively transformed into donations to community programs, matched by a generous Atlanta-based foundation.

What little pennies do you have lying around that you think are useless? A random talent or skill you never use. What if you coupled it with different skills from yourself or other people? These talents may not look alike on the surface, but by joining them together, suddenly you’ve built a foundation upon which you can transform yourself.

We all have these items in our toolbox. On their own they may not seem like much, but when you pair them with other abilities, they become great gifts.

Don’t let them go to waste. Mama T would tell you that “useless” penny is worth so much more. It can become a legacy of change.