Nickel & diming

The next time Peggy Wright visits her bank, she'll start the required paper work for a $500 bond for her granddaughter, Lindsey. But this money didn't just come to Wright overnight.\nFor the last few years, Wright has been collecting leftover change she found while cleaning or that was lying on the sidewalk.\nWright, a custodian at the Main Library, said she usually finds anything from two to 80 cents to a dollar everyday. \n"Some days it is really good," she said. "It looks like students had a coin fight or something because there are coins lying all over the place. On other days, you really don't find anything much." \nStill, Wright said change adds up pretty fast. \n"Every day when I go back home, I empty all the change into a pound coffee can," she said. "I really don't know how much there is in it. Maybe it's $15, maybe $20, maybe $30. I don't know."\nA walk down a few streets on campus reveals it is not unusual to find loose change lying around. Glinting in the sun in the crevice of the sidewalk might be a shinning quarter. A worn-out penny might be camouflaged by the flooring. Other places like the Indiana Memorial Union or bus stops outside the Village Pantry stores are often hot spots for some change hunters.\n"Those stores are open 24 hours, and people who go there at night are either so sleepy or so tired that they do not really bother to bend down and pick up a dime or a quarter that falls when they pull out their car keys," said senior Kyle Springman. \nOn a good day, Springman said he could find three or four cents, a dime, a nickel or a quarter, but he admits he likes to do so when no one is looking.\n"I guess it gets kind of embarrassing if someone sees you pick up a cent from the street," he said.\nSpringman's friend and senior, Bill Trovinger, on the other hand, has two bottles full of change but does not remember how long he has been collecting it. \n"There's change lying all over my house," Trovinger said. "I don't like carrying change, and I guess that is the attitude of most people. It takes up a whole lot of space, makes pockets heavy and jingles. So (people) just don't bother when it drops off. But it does come in handy when you are short of money." \nMost shops have a few cents and maybe even a dime or two lying on the cash machine or in the "give a penny; take a penny" box. Sugar and Spice at the IMU often has a few cents on its machine or at the counter. \nSenior Kristen Setterlof, who works at Sugar and Spice, said it's just a way to help customers who are missing a penny or two.\nSpringman added it would be prudent to take care of change and save it up as it adds up to a lot without one having to work toward it. \nWright said it is important students learn the value of every cent, every nickel and every dime. She said if you simply save up all the change you have, the next time you want a dollar, all you have to do is dig into the penny jar and you'll find a treasure. For Wright, it's just a matter of appreciating what you have.\n"Most of the students here do not know the value of money," she said. "They have never been hungry and do not know what it is like to have to work for a couple of cents so you can buy your one and only meal for that day."\n-- Contact staff writer Hina Alam at halam@indiana.edu.