What do you get when you combine a former playwright, an architect and 14 tractor-trailers filled with pennies? The Penny Harvest Field at Rockefeller Center — a tribute to the hundreds of thousands of dollars 830 elementary and middle schools raised as a part of this past year's Penny Harvest, a service-learning program run by New York-based nonprofit Common Cents.

Common Cents executive director Teddy Gross began the Penny Harvest as a way to involve children in service projects and engage them in grant-making decisions. Last year, participating students made 1,460 grants to 850 different community organizations, having raised $650,000 in pennies through the Harvest.

Part of the Penny Harvest Field display is an appropriately celebratory statement: "Over a million children have gathered pennies, made grants and taken action through Common Cents. In 16 years, they have recycled almost a billion pennies, made 9,000 grants and added 20 million hours in service. It's time for us all to say thank you!"

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