By CHRIS DANIELS
After just six weeks of collecting the unloved five-cent coin, the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation now has an extra $20,000 in the bank.
The foundation began asking for the coins after reading a Weekend Herald story describing how pedestrians refused to even pick them up from the footpath.
Taxpayers were being forced to pay for millions of freshly minted coins every year, as they disappeared out of circulation and into piggy banks and jars.
Some of the biggest heroes of the campaign were the children of Swanson Primary School, who began collecting the coins after the death of a classmate from leukaemia.
A special plaque of recognition now takes pride of place in the school after the children raised $807.70 for the foundation.
A grand total of 409,893 coins were found in piggy banks and under sofas across the country to give to the foundation, which handed them over to the BNZ.
This added an extra $20,494.65 to the foundation's bank account to spend on helping leukaemia patients and their families.
The foundation has now switched its attention from picking up small change to gearing up for its annual appeal week, which runs from November 14 to November 20.
However, the BNZ will still accept donations of coins and pass them on to the Leukaemia and Blood Foundation.
Small change adds up to $20,000 help
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