What can you buy with a penny?

Not much, especially these days.

But if you get a bunch of pennies together, you can do quite a bit.

In Youngsville, 22,000 pennies collected by Youngsville Elementary School students will help the Youngsville Public Library purchase summer program enrichment materials, new books for the library’s children and youth collections and additional manipulatives for the library’s monthly sensory story program.

The library certainly could have made good use of the $2,200 donation. But, library officials, not to be outdone by the students, decided to donate half of the money back to the school to help the elementary school purchase new playground equipment for kindergarten and first grade students.

“This is a great example of how powerful people – and especially kids – can be when they work together for a common cause they are passionate about, like community awareness and the concept of paying it forward,” said Kristy Wallace, Youngsville Public Library director.

Who says you can’t do much with a penny?