Neveln Elementary School students know how to help out people in need. Last week, they raised $1,378.28 for Japan’s relief efforts.

“If it happened here, we’d want other people to help,” said Olivia Johnson, fifth-grader and Neveln student council co-president.

Neveln’s student council originally wanted to put on a fundraiser for Relay for Life, but changed their minds the day a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck Japan, creating a 30 foot tsunami that engulfed a large part of the country’s eastern coast and damaged several nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeast Japan.

Last week, Neveln students held penny wars, where each class competed to raise as many pennies as possible for Japan, while silver coins and dollars would make a class total go down. The action was fierce, with some teachers intentionally poisoning other teachers’ class totals with silver coins, knowing the effort was going to a good cause.

“Initially, the money was supposed to go part tsunami, part Neveln,” said Michelle Hammero, student council adviser. “We had so many students request that the money go directly to Japan that we decided to give it all to Japan.”

One week later, Hammero took five carloads of pennies, dimes, nickels, quarters and dollars to the bank, more than $1,300 afterwards.

“I was very surprised that we were able to do that,” she said.

The money will be donated to the Red Cross’ tsunami relief efforts. Hammero hopes to put together a poster once she knows where the money was sent to, in order to show Neveln students how they impacted Japanese lives.

“It was devastating,” said Caitlin Kaercher, fifth-grader. “There’s still damage and … people who need help over there.”