Penny Wars results are in! Announced at Airband 2025, Villalobos Vaqueros won first place; Dr. J’s All Stars and Chovy’s Champions were runner ups; and Browns Bandits took last place with the lowest number of points ever in Preuss history.
Penny Wars takes place every year and is a competitive fundraising event between 11th grade advisories. The goal for each advisory class is to collect the most pennies within a one week period of time. The only way to gain points is with pennies; however, classes can also lose points when larger coins are added to their collection. A penny equals 1 point, a nickel equals -5 points, a dime equals -10 points, a quarter equals -25 points, and dollars are multiplied by -100 points. So, for example, if someone adds $3.00 to a class’s collection of coins, it will be counted as -300 points.
Each day of the week, the advisory class that is in the lead earns prizes like sweet treats, being able to steal points, and a coupon. As the overall winner, Villalobos Vaqueros get to choose the losing advisory’s 2026 Airband act, and will also be rewarded with pizza and a trophy.
Ms. Villalobos states, “It was enjoyable seeing how much students were fundraising. No matter what the outcome was going to be I was just looking forward to all our advisory groups benefiting from all the fundraising they were doing.”
On day one, Monday, March 24th, Villalobos’ Vaqueros were in the lead with -1,882 points and won donuts. Dr. J’s All-Stars placed second with -4,317 points, Brown’s Bandits were third with -4,490 points, and Chovy’s Champions were off to a rough start in last place with -5817 points.
A Penny Wars helper and Brown’s Bandits student Kaelynn Wang (‘26) commented, “On the first day, Coach Villas’s advisory, the Villas Vaqueros, had won and then their class account posted a video of them bragging. The next day people were upset and decided to bomb them in order to sort of humble them. Same thing happened to the Bandits.”
Bombing is when an advisory intentionally sabotages another advisory by adding any money that is not pennies. The standing for day two on Tuesday, March 25th, took a big turn. It was announced that Villalobos’ Vaqueros were bombed by Dr. J’s All-Stars, and were brought down from first place to last place. Brown’s Bandits placed 1st with -10,584 points and were given the opportunity to steal 2,000 points from any advisory, Dr. J All-Stars placed 2nd with -13,063 points, Chovy Champions placed 3rd with -29,556 points, and Villalobos Vaqueros placed 4th with -46,042 points.
By day three, the sabotage was getting out of hand. Wang (‘26) adds, “There had been mystery Instagram accounts that represented each advisory in our grade. A series of sneak disses were made…on top of that people didn’t like the fact that we were constantly winning so we became the biggest target of the whole show. It hurt. It really did but it just means we were the best.”
Brown’s Bandits continued to place first for days three and four, winning ice cream and Tapioca Express coupons, which is why Wang predicted them to win.
“The final day had gotten so heated we had to have adults be security for the period and when we wheeled out the buckets of money, the tires of the wagons had become flat!” exclaimed Wang (‘26).
Counting all the coins and bills has taken junior ASB members around two weeks, but it paid off to finally get to announce the winners. Stay tuned to find out what Villalobos’s Vaqueros choose for the Brown’s Bandits’ losing advisory’s Airband act for next year.
