Frances Urban knows the value of a penny.
When she was growing up in Wakefield, Mass., one of the coins could buy her four caramels at the candy store.
Now she and other residents of Basilica Place, a senior residence run by Catholic Charities of Baltimore, are collecting cents to contribute to the Fuel Fund of Maryland. The nonprofit helps families pay their heating and home utility bills.
"Pennies make dollars," Urban, 73, said her mother always told her.
The demand for assistance has been very high given recent increases in the price of gas and electricity and the corresponding effect on the prices of other consumer goods.
So far the more than 200 residents of the building - some of whom have received Fuel Fund support themselves - have gathered more than 2,000 pennies, surpassing the halfway point of their goal. It might not seem like a lot, but they still want to contribute.
"It might be throwing rocks at tanks, but at least it's doing something," said Herbert Johnson, 73.
He and other residents have solicited their friends and relatives to donate. Elmer Rudis, 82, watches for the coins as he heads out early in the morning in his wheelchair. When he spots one along the curb, he grabs it for the collection.
Donnet Lawrence, resident service coordinator at Basilica Place, said she set up the fundraiser late last year as she searched for financial assistance for the residents.
She found information about a "Penny Round-Up" campaign on the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Web site that allows customers to round their bills up to the nearest dollar, with the proceeds going to the Fuel Fund. Lawrence adapted the program for the Basilica Place seniors and has been finding little containers of money on her desk ever since.
"These are folks who are living on limited means anyway. ... It's very humbling that folks are thinking of other people all the time," said Mary Ellen Vanni, the fund's executive director.
The Fuel Fund was founded nearly 30 years ago by Baltimore City Councilwoman Victorine Q. Adams during the energy crisis of the 1970s. It expanded three years later to become the Fuel Fund of Central Maryland, offering assistance to people in the five counties around Baltimore as well as the city. It is now known as the Fuel Fund of Maryland.
About 16,000 people give annually, but this year, some donors themselves have been pinched by rising costs and can't spare the contributions they usually would send, Vanni said. The Basilica Place fundraiser "is really symbolic of filling a gap," she said.
