Four Te Awamutu Lions Club members spent an afternoon last week sorting and bagging piles of old cash – all of it obsolete currency and all intended for a good purpose.
It’s head down for the Rosetown Lions ladies as they carefully go through the coins. Photo: Viv Posselt.
They were playing their part in the Lions Clubs New Zealand’s ‘Heads Up for Kids’ initiative, launched in 2010. It asks Kiwis to donate unwanted old decimal, pre-decimal and foreign money, which is turned into Kiwi dollars to help fund education programmes.
Lions teamed up with Resene on the project, the company turned their network of stores into collection points for old coins and banknotes, foreign currency and hoarded loose change.
Ice-cream tubs find a new use as ideal coin sorters.
Even almost empty, this once-full bucket of coins weighs quite a bit.
To date, the initiative has seen Lions collect over 28.8 tonnes of coins and thousands of banknotes, bringing the total raised to close on $612,000. It is thought there are many millions of dollars in old coins and banknotes still unaccounted for.
Many young people have benefited from the initiative. They have received scholarships to organisations such as Spirit of Adventure, and the Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre.
Rosetown Lions member Janet Louw helped steer the club’s latest collection, bringing home a hefty bucket of coins and some banknotes collected in Te Awamutu outlet before calling on some of her Lions colleagues to help with the next step.
The women spent several hours sorting the coins in line with ‘Heads Up for Kids’ requirements before bagging them up ready for transportation to Wellington.
Sorting coins for ‘Heads Up for Kids’ are Rosetown Lions club members, from left, Dawn Copeland, Jennifer Maughan, club president Nellie Harris, and Janet Louw. Photo by Viv Posselt
