Middle-schoolers stack loose change for charity

WASILLA -- For the last three weeks, school nurse Marne Kenshalo has stockpiled thousands of quarters from the students and staff of Wasilla Middle School.

Her effort was part of the Chains of Caring program, to raise money and awareness for the fight against childhood cancers. For every quarter individual classes brought in, they added a red or white paper link to their classroom chain. At the end of the program, all the classroom chains were combined to form one collective chain with 3,605 links.

On Thursday, Mat-Su Borough School District Education Director Lebron McPhail loaded four huge bags of paper chains into his car and hauled them to Anchorage, along with a check for $901 to present to The Children's Hospital at Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. The Anchorage School District also participated in the fund-raiser and contributed its own separate checks, Friday, as well.

"This is a hard time of year for something like this," Kenshalo said. "Parents are buying school books and clothes, and yet these kids were excited about the program."

So many quarters came in, in fact, that Kenshalo had to put in extra work just to keep up with them all.

"I rolled those suckers every night," Kenshalo said. "I had to keep taking them to the bank to change them in for big bills. We have a lot of kids from lower-income families, so that's a lot of money for this school."

The schoolwide money drive began when Kenshalo received a postcard from Providence Alaska Medical Center, asking if the school would be interested in raising money to fight cancer during September's Cancer Awareness Month.

Wasilla Middle School was the only Valley school to participate and when it accepted the challenge, the school decided to offer an ice cream party to the classroom that raised the most money.

"It was so cool," Kenshalo said. "The class that won was so proud of themselves and so excited. We're hoping to get pictures back from Providence so the kids can see what all their hard work went to."

Kenshalo said that a couple of years ago, Wasilla Middle School students watched as one of their fellow classmates battled cancer and chemotherapy treatment. She thinks this experience may have contributed to the students' overwhelming participation in the fund-raiser.

Contact Joel Davidson at joel.davidson@frontiersman.com.