Mr. Polshek, an architect best known for creating the Rose Center for Earth and Space at the American Museum of Natural History and the William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Ark., said he had “never worked on anything like this before.”  “It’s really like being a part of a miracle,” said Mr. Polshek, who is not charging Mr. Gross for his services. “So when Teddy called me about this project two years ago, I jumped at the chance to pitch in.”  Starting tonight, the Penny Harvest Field will be delivered to Rockefeller Center in pieces. Once it is installed, a fleet of 14 tractor-trailers will follow, with the large vehicles carrying more than 15,000 sacks, each filled with about 30 pounds, or $50 worth, of pennies.  By Saturday, volunteers — some from the 830 elementary and middle schools that organized penny-collecting campaigns — will begin emptying the sacks in a penny pour of sorts, filling a field that will stretch, curb to curb, 165 feet long and 30 feet wide, with pennies stacked 8 inches deep.  “It took an extraordinary effort to put all of this together,” said Mr. Gross, a former playwright who founded Common Cents in 1991, the year of the first Penny Harvest. He came up with the idea after trying to write a children’s story about a young bear in Central Park who organizes a group of other animals to collect pennies.  “From the very beginning, almost everyone involved in this project has volunteered their time and talents,” Mr. Gross said. “Now we have built a true community of giving, a community centered around the children.”  Eventually, the pennies will be returned to the schools from which they came — an average of $1,000 dollars per school — and the students, with help from teachers trained by Common Cents, will form philanthropy round tables to study community problems and determine which charities could best use their donations.  Last year, students from 750 schools collected $650,000 in pennies. The small change translated into 1,460 cash grants to 850 community organizations, including homeless shelters, animal rescue organizations, community gardens and senior centers.  “What this is really about is trying to give young students a measure of autonomy and group determination, the ability to make their own decisions,” Mr. Gross said. “It’s important to understand, at a young age, what it is like to be a part of a democratic process.”  As he spoke, Mr. Gross inspected about 21 feet of light boxes — similar to ones seen at museums — which will display videos of children putting in their two cents. They will be seen collecting pennies, making grants and doing other service projects.  The light boxes, which will be set around the penny collection, will also feature graphics used to ask and answer questions like “Where does all the money come from?” and “How will it be spent?” Perhaps the most important question on the light box is “Why a Penny Harvest Field?”  The answer: “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!”  A picture caption with an article in some editions on Tuesday about a charity project called the Penny Harvest Field, to be unveiled on Monday in Rockefeller Plaza, reversed the identities of the two leaders of the project. Teddy Gross, of the nonprofit education group Common Cents, was second from left, and James S. Polshek, an architect, was at the right.  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: A Walkway Paved With Pennies, for the Sake of Charity. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Penny Lane, a million-dollar showcase scheduled to be unveiled on Monday, is a plan to pave a New York City street with copper to raise money for charity.