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New York fourth-grader collects over 200,000 pennies for cancer patients

GLENS FALLS, N.Y. (WTEN) – A New York fourth grader raised over $2,000 for area cancer patients.

The Cancer Center at Glens Falls Hospital will benefit from a $2,100 check handed over by local fourth grader, Jack Sweet.

Jack made it his mission to collect spare change during Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and he raised more than twice as much as he was hoping for.

“After NEWS10 came here and they took me on the news, people heard about it from Catskills and from everywhere,” he said.

Jack said one of his biggest donations was from a hair stylist who donated one week’s worth of tips. In the end, Jack collected 210,000 pennies. The money will be used to provide gas cards to cancer patients.

“This will help relieve the anxiety of anyone that’s wondering how they were going to pay for everything,” Christina Britton with the Glens Falls Hospital Foundation said.

Ever since Jack’s grandfather was diagnosed with breast cancer, he’s had a passion to help others and to change the way people think about the disease.

“A lot of people think that breast cancer can only happen to girls, but it can also happen to boys, so we were kind of all shocked,” he said.

This is the third year Jack has been doing Pennies for Pink at his school, and it’s something his teacher said improves the school district as a whole.

“He’s a great role model,” Jackson Heights teacher Brian Donohue said. “A lot of the kids look up to him. He’s a great leader. I think the kids look up to him, so many of the kids try to emulate his giving attitude.”

Jack will be in middle school next year, but he said Pennies for Pink won’t end.

The gas cards will be given out in $25 amounts to any patients at Glens Falls Hospital who are struggling to get to their appointments.