Celebrating 25 Years of School Cents at Inland Center

For the past 25 years, Inland Center Mall has helped over 50 local schools with their School Cents program. The program, which runs from September through May yearly, rewards schools for receipts and participation in mall-sponsored community events.  Since the program began in 1999, the mall has, in total, given over $279,750 to local schools.

On June 12th, Inland Center Mall held its 25th Awards Ceremony and handed out over $10,000 to 15 schools, gave away $25 Mall Gift Cards, passed out certificates and special recognitions and more. Schools for this year included:   

The First Place Winner was Anton Elementary who received $2,000, Second Place was Holy Rosary Academy, Third Place was Palm Avenue Elementary, Fourth Place was St. Adelaide Academy and Fifth Place was Riley College Prep Academy…Arrowview Middle School, Henry Elementary, Terrace View Elementary, Abraham Lincoln Elementary/Colton, Norton Science and Language Academy, Gateway Education Center, George Brown Jr. Elementary, Rio Vista Elementary, Birney Elementary and Graciano Gomez Elementary. All schools received monies based on points to buy school supplies.

These schools participated in mall-sponsored events such as Inland Center’s “We’re Sweet On Soldiers” which sends valentines and supplies to soldiers and veterans. This year, schools handmade 5,830 valentines and donated 11,866 supplies to Inland Center in partnership with Help Heal Veterans. This program, created by Inland Center, has been going on for 17 years, and in total more than 177,847 valentines and 161,655 supplies have been donated to soldiers and veterans.

Schools received medals of appreciation given by coordinator Larry Keen, ambassador for Help Heal Veterans, who distributes the cards and supplies. In addition, the schools participated in other mall-sponsored events by collecting 274 school Backpacks for Back to School, which were donated to Arrowhead United Way, donated 188 screens for our E-Waste drive. collected 252 pledges to recycle for One Tree Planted and had 142 kids at the mall’s Crafts With A Cop with the San Bernardino Police Substation.