Last week our school’s six houses competed in the infamous Penny Wars. We had fantastic participation, and all money was donated to a great cause.

Penny Wars used to be a big deal here, but unfortunately it went away many years ago. Last year, the student council and the House System worked together to bring back the competition to St. Dominic.

Due to COVID precautions, Penny Wars looked slightly different this year. To adhere to social distancing guidelines, we couldn’t have a single collection site like last year. Instead, there were six buckets for each house in every house hallway. Coins in other houses’ buckets counted against them, but coins in your house’s bucket counted positive for your house.

To support your house even more, you could purchase house spirit wear including sweatshirts, crewnecks and t-shirts. For every item you buy from the spirit wear shop, a dollar would be counted positively towards your house total.

By the end of the war on Friday, the totals were counted and the results were very impressive. In sixth place was Gaudium with -$445, fifth place was Caritas with -$430 and fourth was Gratia with -$392. On the leaderboard was Dignitas in third place with -$265, Temperentia in second with -$200 and the winner was Virtus with -$121. Congrats to House Virtus, who won 25 points, putting them in fourth place for the House Cup with 79 points.

“I’m so excited that we won. Winning Penny Wars was a good boost of points for House Virtus. We really needed that win,” Virtus family leader Julia Rankey said.

In total our school raised $3,213.87! All pennies will be donated to the American Heart Association to help fight heart disease and other heart-related illnesses.

“I am beyond proud of our students and staff for coming together to prove why St. Dominic is the best,” house coordinator Mrs. Schuler said.

Our house competitions continue this week with the Quizbowl, so be sure to be at the top of your game and help your house earn points for the House Cup!