St. Aidan's First Grader's 'Penny Lane' Benefits Food Pantry

By Zachary Englis

It isn’t every day that a six-year-old has the opportunity to name a hallway in his school.

That chance came recently for Cash Evans, a first grader at St. Aidan’s in Williston Park. His father, Joseph Evans, and mother, Noelle Fiallo-Evans, won the opportunity for their son at the school’s auction night fundraiser last year and now it was up to Cash to do something constructive with this special opportunity.

With some family encouragement to do something “altruistic” according to his father, the six-year-old came up with a “penny harvest” to benefit the St. Aidan’s Parish Food Pantry, collecting loose change and “pennies” in bins to be compiled to raise money. Thus, the normal school corridor was transformed into “Cash’s Penny Lane.” In addition to collecting pennies, paper pennies were sold for $1 to have people’s names hung on the walls of the hallway.

At the end of the school year, “Cash’s Penny Lane” helped raise $500 for the St. Aidan’s Food Pantry. A presentation ceremony took place on June 21, Evans’ seventh birthday, capping off the year-long fundraiser.

“It made me feel really good and I did it so people in St. Aidan’s could bring pennies to the hallway and the pantry would have more money to buy food and the people who didn’t have any food could have food,” the young Evans said. “Before the hallway, I thought of helping people in different ways. Now I feel great about helping people.

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