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Students at Meadows West collected dozens of bags of pennies, all of which will go to provide clean water to people who need it in impoverished regions of the world. (PHOTO COURTESY OF WINNIPEG SCHOOL DIVISION)

Students at Meadows West School raised enough money before the New Year to bring many lifetimes’ worth of water to people who need it.

The school held a penny drive throughout the month of December for FreeThe Children, bringing in 40 bags of pennies, each of them containing $25 worth of the little copper coins.

According to Meadows West vice-principal Nancy MacTavish, that’s enough to bring clean water to someone for their entire life in the impoverished regions of the globe the money will be sent.

"Every full bag of pennies... brings water to someone for the rest of their life," MacTavish said.

The students gathered up pennies everywhere they could track them down during December. The inspiration to support Free the Children through a penny drive emerged from their participation in WE Day last fall.

"The children had decided (Free the Children) was the group they wanted to donate money to. We had taken the student sto WE Day, and that’s where it all started."

Their efforts for Free the Children make up the school’s "global" initiative, while it’s local initiative takes the form of support for Winnipeg Harvest.