Pennies from heaven

How many times have you seen a penny or a dime on the ground and not picked it up? If you’re like me, probably hundreds of times, which means we’ve passed up hundreds and possibly thousands of dollars in free money during our lifetimes!

Leslie, an awesome woman I met when she modeled for a photo shoot I recently did, never passes up a penny. In fact, she tells me she can see them stuck at the bottom of street grates (more about that in a minute), melted into summer streets and buried in dirt. In December 2006, Leslie made a New Year’s resolution to pick up all the change she found lying around. She collected $76.80 in found money in 2007, $148.48 in 2008 and she’s up to $28.33 for 2009. She’s got friends and family giving her their found money for the penny project, as she calls it; sometimes they even text her when they find change in the street: QUARTER! When she tells strangers about her project, they remember; one man she met at a business conference recently mailed her a penny he found.

“This has changed the way I live my life,” she said. “When I’m going somewhere, I can take the bus…or I can walk and probably find pennies. To me, the application to real life is, how many small good things in your life are you overlooking?”

I love this attitude about life! Which is why I’ve started a story on Leslie and her pennies. She wants to use the money she collects to start a non-profit organization that teaches financial literacy to kids or helps military veterans (she’s a West Point graduate). We’re going to hang out again soon so I can witness her eagle eye for loose change. She told me she once crouched over a shallow street grate, chopsticks in hand, to fish out $1.83 she saw in there.

(P.S. The cat picture at the end has nothing do with this story. I just like the photograph!)