In a system-wide effort, Bowmar Elementary School was named the champion of this year’s Penny Harvest.

The school raised $2,678.28 making them the top earners among all public and private schools participating in the two-week fundraiser for the Warren County Children’s Shelter. The big win was announced to the students Friday at school.

“We were very shocked that we won. Very shocked. We were surprised, and we were excited about it,” said Pam Parman, guidance counselor and Junior Lighthouse Team sponsor.

The fourth grade Junior Lighthouse Team made the Penny Harvest their service project and set each individual class’ goal at $50. Every class that met the goal got to have extra time in recess the last two days before the holiday break. The class that raised the most money duct taped their principal Jason Bennett to a wall.

“It was a win-win,” Parman said. “They had two incentives.”

The winning class was Amy Kilpatrick’s kindergarten class raising $372.76. The class will also receive Wendy’s kids’ meals along with the top earning class from every elementary school.

“It was close. We had three classes that were close (to winning),” Parman said.

She said the five-member Junior Lighthouse Team kept up with the money totals by charting the numbers on poster board hung in the hall, and they kept the students updated with the totals during the morning announcements.

“We tried to keep it fun so the kids would buy into it, and it worked. They did good,” Parman said.

From Dec. 5 through Dec. 16 students brought in their donations that were placed in buckets labeled for each teacher. The fourth grade team would come to school early to man the buckets, and they used their special area time to count and record the money for each class.

“They learned a lot from it. They learned a lot of responsibility and stepped up,” she said. “They were willing to do it. They did awesome. They dressed up as the pig.”

The Penny Harvest pig mascot costumes were used at each school with students, teachers and administrators dressing up to bring in the bacon. She called it fun and exciting for the children.

Parman gave all the credit to the Junior Lighthouse Team for making the fundraiser a success and noted fourth grade teacher Avery Hamilton, the team’s co-sponsor. In addition to learning responsibility, Parman said, the students learned from counting, recording and charting the money raised while giving their time to make it possible.

“They’ve definitely taken ownership of it, which is awesome when you can see kids do that,” Parman said. “It was a very awesome educational experience.”