Samo student hopes “Pocket Change” will make big change for local charities

Before you mindlessly pocket the 21 cents left over from your vanilla latte purchase, consider the impact some loose change could have on another person’s life.Samo student Justin Sardo (’14) recently formed Pocket Change, a club that collects students’ and teachers’ change, and once a month donates it to a different organization or charity.“If everybody at Samo donated a quarter a month, we could raise about $800 a month for a charity and for organizations that can use that money,” Sardo said. “So we need to utilize that, and even if people just donate a couple of quarters or something like that to compensate for other people, it should benefit a lot of people. So my idea was that people could easily donate their change into some sort of box.”Sardo and a few friends have placed donation boxes in each of the house offices. The boxes have an indication of what charity the money will be donated to that month — every month, the subject of the donations changes. This month, for example, the money will be donated to the Ocean Park Community Center (OPCC).“I really hope that people can get involved, and are willing to offer up a couple of cents, a dime or just a nickel or a quarter as they’re walking by,” Sardo said. “I don’t think enough people are involved in charity because it kind of seems like a distant thing.”Sardo was inspired to start Pocket Change after hearing about an organization that a friend of his at Boston University started.“His idea was basically that everybody in his college donated a quarter a month,” Sardo said. “There were about 16,000 students so that would be about $4,000 a month for charity. It just seemed like it was such a simple thing. I myself, have never really thought much of coins, it’s change that you have in your pocket; you don’t think you can do much with it.”Sardo has already gotten other students involved with the Pocket Change project.“I’ve helped generate certain ideas on poster logos and the operations containing the boxes and supplies that we needed to get the coins and money from different house offices,” Clint Nicholson (’14) said.Ryan Roberts (’14) credits his participation in Pocket Change to Sardo’s passion regarding making charity accessible to Samo.“Justin came to me one weekend overcome with excitement,” Roberts said. “He explained the basic idea, and from there the whole thing grew into the club that exists today.”Nicholson is hopeful for the project’s success.“I think it’s a very different type of club that helps charities, because it does not only help one specific charity,” Nicholson said. “So I hope that we can get a lot of publicity and generate a lot of attention towards it, so that it can be very successful in donating to other charities.”Pocket Change club adviser Chon Lee said he’s known Sardo for a while and thinks that he will guide Pocket Change in a good direction.“I knew that as a leader, as a president, [Sardo] would guide this club in the right direction, because I usually don’t take on many or any clubs that I don’t believe in,” Lee said.Roberts believes that, with the help of some publicity, Samo students will become aware of Pocket Change and realize how easy it is to make a difference.“Once the students start donating, the potential of Pocket Change is limitless,” Roberts said. “I think we really can make a difference in the community if Samo is willing to participate.”Sardo only has one more year at Samo, but he still has goals for the future of Pocket Change.“Hopefully, if time permits, I’d like to possibly expand to other schools and have other kids institute similar things,” Sardo said. “I think it can be [expanded to] all district schools and it’s an easy thing to implement.”cdebeus@thesamohi.com