Small Sums Can Make a Powerful Gift

By Bob Levey

As I walked home from a New Year's Day party a year ago, I noticed a glint on the ground. There, at the base of a parking meter, like scattered birdseed, lay six pennies.

I picked them up, pocketed them, and thought this was surely an omen of a good year to come.

I also realized there might be more where those six cents had come from and I ought to keep track of all the money I found during the year and give it away at the end of December.

So I did. On street corners,