How many of us have come up with a really good idea that we’ve thought about, talked about but never got around to doing? Chris Everett isn’t one of those people.

Last January he attended a $250 a plate luncheon to hear Bill Clinton speak about Africa. At the end of his talk, Clinton encouraged everyone in the room to do something that would make a difference for suffering people on that continent.

Driving home, Chris began to think that it was relatively easy for those who could afford a $250 lunch to do something but not so easy for many others.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized that even the poorest among us can afford a few pennies, and for many of us those pennies are lost money, money thrown into a drawer or a container at the end of each day and forgotten, “dead money”. He didn’t want to ask people for $100 or $50, he just wanted them to contribute money they did’t want.

By the time he got back home, Chris was totally committed to his “Pennies from Heaven” project. He wanted to help hundreds or thousands of people collect their “dead money” and bring it back to life so it could make a difference for suffering people in Africa.

More specifically he was committed to making a difference for people in Zimbabwe. He chose Zimbabwe because Bill Clinton had mentioned that the countries around Zimbabwe were all being helped either by his group, Medicine Sans Frontiers or the United Nations but Zimbabwe was suffering because none of those organizations was willing to work with Robert Mugabe, the President of Zimbabwe.

Working on a much smaller scale than those organizations, Chris committed himself to find a way to help.

One person definitely can make a difference but that person can’t do it alone. They can only do it if they can inspire others to catch their vision. In Chris’ case he began by inspiring his Daybreak Rotary Club to fill a large carboy with their “dead money”.

“Do that and we will have raised $500 for AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe,” he told them.

Soon after that he connected with the four other Rotary Clubs in Nanaimo and they were quick to jump on board as was the Rotary Interact Club (high school Rotary Club) that organized a fundraising project for Zimbabwe AIDS orphans last fall.

With his team in place, pennies as well as nickels, dimes, quarters came rolling in.

In fact there was so much “dead money” collected, counting became a problem. It would have taken days or even weeks to count it by hand -- Enter Bruce and Jennifer Pletsch of Complete Vending Services.

Using their special change-counting machinery, Jennifer counted and rolled over 200,000 pennies. In fact the exact final count was 207,045. Another $4,000 plus was collected in nickels, dimes and quarters.

Given the unbelievable inflation rate in Zimbabwe, it’s difficult to say just how much of a difference that $6,000 will make but it’s safe to say that $150 will pay the annual school fees for an AIDS orphan as well as provide them with a monthly food allotment to take home.

Next year, if he has any energy left at all, Chris would like to see the project continue; however, he hopes to delegate some of the responsibility to other Rotarians. He’d like to find someone who would be responsible for working with schools, another for businesses in the community, another for seniors’ residences, and so on. It definitely looks like enough people have caught his vision for that to happen. So there should be a year two for Pennies from Heaven.

Can one person make a difference? Is there any doubt?