BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Fremont Elementary School fifth-grade students from left, Caitlyn Callahan, 11, Kalee Young, 11, Ashlee Salsbury, 11, Crystal Crites, 11, and Dartanyan Perry, 10, pour change into a jug in Lori Browning's math class at the school on Thursday. The money raised will be donated to the kids who were allegedly locked in a bathroom for several years and starved by their family.
The very last pennies in Ashlee Salsbury's savings came out of her ATM-shaped piggy bank and traveled with her in a plastic bag to Fremont Elementary School.
It didn't take much for the 11-year-old to decide she would donate the change to a fundraiser at school to benefit two children - a 16-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy - who had apparently been starved and held captive in a bathroom of a Como Street apartment for years.
"It would be very scary and it would be sad if I were a 16-year-old girl and was so small," she said.
Ashlee has been bringing in change all this week, and Thursday brought some in from her mom's work. She hopes to go home and find more to donate.
"I want to make sure the kids that were locked in the bathroom can pay their medical bills and have a very good family," she said.
Fifth-grader David Gieke, who sat near the collection box in the main office, began talking about how his class wanted to raise the most money in the school for the children.
"Our box is almost full and whenever we fundraise for something, we try to be the best and come in first place," he said.
A classmate of his brought in $3.30 in change on Thursday. David had cleaned out a change jar from home and brought in 36 cents.
"My mom saw on the news that kids were being put in the bathroom and I had a thing full of pennies and I brought it in," he said.
Donation boxes and containers sit in classrooms throughout the school. Anyone who wants to make a donation can go to the front office, where a large cardboard box is on the counter.
"We want to see if we can purchase new books (for the kids) and we'll give the rest to the deputies' (Second Chance) fund," said Principal Jan Sullivan. "We're just appealing for families to give from their hearts so the children can start a new life."
Neither the two children locked in the bathroom, who were not attending school, nor any of their siblings, who were, attended Fremont Elementary School.
The fundraiser goes through Feb. 14.
-- Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.