Students donate time, money

The gym at Riverton High School was filled with excited chatter. Students crammed on the bleachers, some even spilling onto the floor. Everyone was waiting for the moment when the final tally from the school's annual SilverRush would be announced.

The crowd went wild as their total of $67,038.10, a new record, was revealed.

The money will be donated to Youth Support Systems, a private nonprofit agency providing specialized prevention and drug treatment services to adolescents and their families. Shea Enniss, a social worker with YSS, said he didn't know for sure but thought this was the largest single donation YSS has ever received.

"I'm shocked and amazed by what (these students) came up with," he said. "That amount will do so much for our agency and help improve services we offer. It will do great things."

SilverRush kicked off Nov. 29 and for three weeks the entire school was involved in an intense fund-raising effort that concluded Dec. 20. A competition was held between all the classes to see who could bring in the most canned food. The junior class won, contributing 4,608 cans. Monetary donations students brought to class every day netted $20,747.45. Penny Wars, a competition where each club tried to get the highest amount of pennies, brought in $2,322.10.

One of the biggest contributors was the SilverRush team, which spent 96.5 hours knocking on people's doors to find odd jobs they could do to raise money.

Erica Nelson, student body communications officer, said some of the jobs her group did included washing dogs, weeding people's gardens, raking leaves, hanging up Christmas lights, cleaning houses and even building a snowman. Preston Ford, student body artist, said his group dug out a foundation for a family to build their back patio. Caitlyn Ellis, student body finances officer, said she even read a 10-year-old his vocabulary words and quizzed him on them.

Nelson said being involved in SilverRush has forever changed her.

"I could not have had more of a life-changing experience," she said. "I've seen so many people willing to donate. Little kids would come with their piggy banks and say they wanted to donate because they knew it was a good cause. ... I want to be such a better person."

Steve Park, RHS principal, said he wasn't really surprised at the total. In the five schools he has been at, Park says he has never seen a school raise money like Riverton High can.

"We've always tried to identify an issue and cause," he said. "We try to educate the school and the community (about that cause) and that's why we're able to raise so much money."

Nancy Webster, RHS public relations coordinator, said SilverRush is about a lot more than money.

"This is a two-fold program. More than money, it's about heart," she said. "These kids have the ability to look at others' needs and meet them. That says a lot about any group of kids."

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E-mail: twalquist@desnews.com