KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Every penny counts.
For several years now, Knox County's Richard L. Bean Juvenile Service Center on Division Street has been collecting the coins, hundreds of thousands of them, for a very good cause -- to ensure children have decent underwear when they're sent home from detention.
On Tuesday, FirstBank representatives joined Juvenile Court Judge Tim Irwin and Service Center Director Richard Bean in gathering up the 130,000 pennies, most already boxed up.
The bank will ship them on to the Federal Reserve, representatives said. More importantly for the service center, the $1,300 in coins will be put into an account and used to buy underwear for boys and girls in need as they're about to go home.
"We're here to help kids," said Bean, who has led the service center for so long the building is named after him.
Bean claims he himself rolled almost all the coins taken away Tuesday.
He started accepting the penny donations in 2011. Over 12 years, some $19,000 has been raised, including the latest amount from this week.
It'd be incorrect to assume children ages 12-17 all have what they need when they come into the juvenile system, Bean said. Some lack even the fundamentals such as reliable underwear.
The "pennies for undies" drive has proved an easy and successful way to help children.
Now that the bank has hauled off the latest pile of pennies, Bean said he's ready to start over. One penny at a time.
