St. Dominic kicked off their first big house event by bringing back the popular Penny Wars to earn spirit points and raise money for the American Heart Association.

Starting on Monday, February 24, the six houses had buckets in the main lobby during Empower Hour for money collections. Many families began to target the Gaudium house who won the first house competition.

“It was really hard going into Penny Wars already having a target on our backs, but I’m proud of our house. While we may have had the most cash in our bucket, we also had the most pennies as well. I’m excited for future competitions,” Gaudium Head of House Jamie Wilmes said.

The week quickly picked up speed, with coins and bills flowing in the jars. The houses were in a tight race. House Temperantia went from fifth place on Thursday to first place on Friday morning.

While Penny Wars may have been a competition, it brought students and houses together. Spanish teacher and student council moderator Mrs. Jennifer Phillips directly saw the impact Penny Wars had.

“I will remember how the students tried to learn the house names. It was enough for many to say the green house, purple or the red house. By Friday, everyone was chanting Caritas, Gaudium, and Gratia! It was amazing to see. The whole week was memorable!  It was a great week to be a Crusader!” Phillips said.

On Friday, secret house plans went into effect. House Caritas had bins full of pennies, House Temperantia had three $25 penny blocks and House Gaudium brought a five gallon bucket filled with pennies. Many houses, such as Dignitas and Virtus, gave money to a single person to go buy hundreds of dollars worth of pennies. However, the war was not over. As soon as a large sum of pennies was collected for one house, a sea of silver and green quickly piled up in their bucket.

After a crazy, fun week of Penny Wars, students had to wait until the next week to find out the results. Virtus walked away victorious, with Gratia, Caritas, Temperentia, Dignitas and Gaudium following behind in that respective order.

The true winners were the American Heart Association, as St. Dominic raised $4,792.08 for them. The money will help with research and funds for transplants.

“One of our pillars is service, and it is important to know we raised money for the American Heart Association. Also, it is important that we feel joy as a community. I think that was the greatest gift we received this week as a Crusader community,” Phillips said.

Penny Wars was a huge success, showing lots of hope for the future of the house system. While Virtus may be the champions of this competition, houses are ready to dominate in the future.