Stop throwing those pennies away! In 1987, Mike Hayes of Illinois wrote a letter to Chicago Tribune columnist Bob Greene asking for everybody who read the column to donate just 1¢ each for the purpose of sending him to college. His thinking: Who needs a penny? Everybody has at least a few of them lying around, right? His thinking paid off…literally! In just a month, Mike received 2.8 MILLION pennies, or $28,000!
Most people who donated to his cause sent more than a penny, of course. Some even wrote him letters of admiration for coming up with the ingenious idea. The donations were enough for tuition, and Mike did, in fact, use his “hard earned” cash to go to school. He went on to graduate from the University of Illinois with a degree in Food Science. On a side note, when Mike originally told his dad what he wanted to do, Mr. Hayes laughed at him and called the idea dumb. We figure he probably took back his comment when the pennies started rolling in by the truckload. Now, if everybody reading this would just send me a dollar…