LEWISTON – You might think pennies are nearly worthless, but Evan Mancini knows they can work miracles.

In his hands, more than 80,000 pennies have paid for food and textbooks for children in India.

They have paid for a blind child and two teenagers to go to school, and have helped a priest look after 30 of India’s most desperate children.

For more than a year, the 9-year-old has collected coins from friends and classmates, driven by a mission to help the poorest of the poor “so maybe they can live in a better life.”

The Holy Cross School third-grader says he has no plans to stop.

He was 7 when he came up with his plan. During a monthly Mass for Holy Cross students, Evan, then a second-grader, listened to a local priest talk about Mother Teresa’s work in India.

“I learned how people were poor, without food, and they were dying just because of a lack of love,” Evan said. “I thought, They should be treated just like us.'”

Good idea’

At home that night, he stood silently in the middle of his mother’s birthday party, consumed by the the thought of people living – and dying – half a world away. He wouldn’t dance at the party. He wouldn’t eat dinner.

Driven by a need to do something, Evan asked his mother about sending food to India. His mother suggested money.

Evan decided on pennies.

“Because people don’t really use pennies. They use dimes and quarters and dollars,” he said. “With pennies, they could throw a few in.”

The next day, he gave up recess to discuss his penny project with the Holy Cross principal.

“He has a loudspeaker. I thought he could spread the word to the whole school,” Evan said.

The day after that, he talked with the priest whose homily inspired him.

“I told him that maybe we should start that so maybe people can get some textbooks, some clothing, some new shoes. Maybe even a house,” Evan said. “He said, That’s a very good idea.'”

Happy children

Holy Cross students and their families have left hundreds of dollars in Evan’s large plastic containers marked “Pennies for the Poorest of the Poor.” The money went to a priest in India, who helped the region’s poor.

As a thank-you, the priest sent photos. When he looks at them, Evan likes to linger over his favorite: a snapshot of smiling schoolchildren.

“One of them has a homework assignment book. One of them has a drawing one, it looks like,” he said. “They look happy.”

When he entered third grade this fall, Evan continued with the penny project. Students dropped pennies in small handfuls. A few left whole bags filled with change.

Evan has become so well-known for his penny drive that friends and family now save their coins for him. An aunt pays him $1 in pennies for every book he reads. Evan drops all of his own spare change into his classroom container.

“He’s basically cleaned out his piggy bank,” said his mother, Lisa Mancini.

Just three months into this school year, Evan has already raised $450. Last year, he raised $360. He dreams of expanding the project, placing containers in other local elementary schools. He dreams of raising $750, $1,000 or more this year, all for India.

“I’m hoping through the whole next years, when I’m in junior high, we can raise even more,” he said. “It just floors me how much we can raise.”