Small change, big difference: Teen raises thousands in coins for needy

The phrase “take a penny, leave a penny” may not have been coined by 14-year-old Nomaan "Nomi" Bilal, but he’s taken it to a whole new level. 

Bilal collected quite a few pennies — and nickels, dimes and quarters — and left them with organizations helping Long Islanders in need.

With mostly pocket change, Bilal raised a total of $4,150 from neighbors, family and friends. He donated it all to REACH CYA, a community and youth agency, in conjunction with Half Hollow Hills Helping Our Own, a district-run program for financially disadvantaged families. The organizations used the donations to purchase and deliver gift cards for about 20 families (and counting).

While hanging around his home in Dix Hills and finishing up his first year of high school online, Bilal started collecting loose change he found.

“I counted it and I got a total of $250,” he said. “And I realized that I could help with it.”

That’s how he came up with the idea to start collecting coins for a cause. Through Facebook, Bilal and his mother, Nadia Pervez, got the word out, and soon enough plenty of people were stopping by to drop off bags upon bags of change.

“It’s amazing how much you can find in one Ziploc bag of quarters,” Pervez said. “Sometimes there’s $50 right there.”

Every day, Bilal devoted between two and a half and five hours to sorting and hand-rolling coins. Eventually, a stranger heard about his efforts on Facebook and contacted Pervez to donate a coin sorter, which has made the process quicker and easier.

Pervez reached out to Half Hollow Hills School District to see if it had a collection for families in need, and that’s how she learned about REACH CYA and Half Hollow Hills Helping Our Own. The cause is important to Bilal, too.

“There are families in my school district that don't have jobs or can't provide for their family,” he said. “So I wanted to help the people in my community.”

Roseann Miceli,  executive director of REACH CYA, called Bilal’s efforts generous and unprecedented. She got in touch with Pervez and picked up the money from their home, and used it to purchase Stop & Shop gift cards for families in need.

“Some of the families rely on going to food pantries,” Miceli said, “and lots of them were talking about how the shelves were empty.”

So far, Miceli has delivered the gift cards to about 20 families, and will be buying even more with the rest of Bilal’s fundraising, which continues to grow. She said the families were so appreciative: "They would be screaming out their windows, 'Thank you so much, bless you, thank you.' "

But Miceli wanted Bilal to know that he’s made a big difference with small change. The idea came to her while she was picking up the donations from his house.

“I thought, gosh, a ‘thank-you’ and a wave through the door 6 feet away with a face mask is anticlimactic for this kid who has been rolling pennies for the past 20 days,” Miceli said.

So she emailed her staff with an idea, and she said soon her inbox was flooded with people wanting to take part. They organized a “thank-you parade” to cruise past Bilal’s house. Cars lined the street, with the drivers all honking, waving, holding signs and shouting “thank-you” from a social distance.

The parade was a surprise for Bilal.

“I was just surprised at how many people came out of their way just to see me,” he said. One of the parade participants gave Bilal a handmade sign that said: “Nomi is our hero.”

Bilal said he will continue to accept donations for this cause every week, and that he’s learned a lot from the experience.

“It shows that one person can make a difference and how such a small effort can turn into such a big thing,” he said. “And that my community is very helpful and thoughtful throughout these hard times.”

By Rachel Weiss

rachel.weiss@newsday.com@RachMWeiss

Rachel Weiss joined Newsday in 2016. As a real estate/living multimedia reporter, Rachel writes feature stories and contributes to and appears in on-camera video packages. She was the lead reporter on Newsday’s LI Acts of Kindness series.