Written by Jim Chiao, FCSN Parent

For the past 10 years, I have maintained a habit of collecting spare coins and depositing them in a plastic bottle at home. Over the years as the coins started to pile up, I considered bringing them to a bank to exchange or deposit; however, my bank requires that all coins be sorted and packaged in wrappers – a very time-consuming task.

This year, as the bottle was filling up, I finally decided to do something with the coins. I did not want to sort them myself or take them to places where the coins would be sorted for a fee. One day, it dawned on me that my headache could be solved by giving away my coin collection. Donating my coins to FCSN could help FCSN and might also create some work opportunities for our day program clients.

I ran this idea by my wife Linmei. She was enthused and immediately started searching the Internet for coin sorting devices. We discovered many types of sorting devices, ranging from fully automatic electric coin counters, semi-automatic hand crank sorters, to manual sorting trays. Linmei decided that the manual sorting tray approach is most suitable for FCSN clients, like my son Brian.

I took the coin sorting trays and my coin bank to FCSN Executive Business Director Sylvia Yeh, who thought it was a good idea and worth a try. I encourage more FCSN families to donate their spare coins to FCSN and make this program work.