By MICHAEL STRAND

Salina Journal

"We won!" was Beck Elliott's cry when asked about his third-grade class at Soderstrom Elementary chool winning a recently concluded Salina Journal contest.

In the contest, classes across the area competed to see which could find and clip out the most "Freedom Dollars" from the paper.

But as soon as that was past his lips, the third-grader stopped and corrected himself: "No, Greensburg won."

Back in January, when the Journal announced the contest -- students could read the serial "The Drinking Gourd" in the paper and search for the "Freedom Dollars" appearing intermittently -- teacher Jerrine Oleen wanted to get her class involved. She asked her students what to do with the $200 first-place prize for collecting the most.

"We talked among ourselves," Oleen said. "We have books in the library, shelves of books in my class, and we decided we'd try to win and send the $200 to the third-grade class in Greensburg.

Before long, the class project "kind of mushroomed on us -- I had no idea it would turn into what it did."

By the time the contest was over, the class had collected 76,071 of the Freedom Dollars and raised about $1,500 to be sent to help resupply classes in the Greensburg schools.

While the students collected many themselves, they also enlisted their families and friends from across Lindsborg, north-central Kansas and even out of state in the effort.

Oleen gave presentations to local community groups, securing a promise to match the $200 prize money from the Kiwanis Club in Lindsborg, another $200 from an anonymous donor, and $400 from the Falun and Salemsborg Lutheran churches -- but all that depended on winning the contest.

Oleen took out an ad in the "Help Wanted" section of the Lindsborg News-Record, asking people to drop off their Freedom Dollars, and her students went to work.

"They got their parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles to save them," Oleen said. "They just started coming in from everywhere. We got 1,100 from Wilson, and none of my kids knew anybody in Wilson."

Another student's grandparents in Hill City mailed in a packet each week; a teacher in the class next to Oleen has a 91-year-old grandmother in Oklahoma who gets the Salina Journal by mail, and she was sending the Freedom Dollars back.

Oleen kept a plastic tub on her porch for people to drop off papers.

"At one time, I had 13 stacks of papers in my house," each about more than a foot high, waiting to be searched through and clipped.

At Bethany Home, and Bethany College, collection bins were put out as well.

Into the Dumpster we go

Some students got creative.

Seth Yenni told of how he and his brother walked downtown to the recycling center and dug through newspapers there to cut out the Freedom Dollars.

"We climbed into the Dumpster, because it was so cold," Yenni said. "When it started to get late, we loaded up all the Salina Journals we could find into our wagon and took them home."

After seeing now many Freedom Dollars the class had clipped, the Journal raised the prize from $200 to $500.

"I was just so impressed that so many people would step forward to help," Oleen said.

The class is planning a pizza party for Thursday to celebrate, and during that time are to get a phone call from "Drinking Gourd" author Tom Ratliff in Connecticut.

Oleen said she had considered taking her entire class to Greensburg to deliver the check -- but decided not to, considering it's a three-hour bus ride one-way.

She had been there a few months ago, after the entire school saved up spare change totalling about $2,200 to donate to Greensburg's schools.

"Two of my recycling bins would be enough to hold everything in one class," Oleen said. "I wanted my students to learn about helping others, and they have."

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.

But as soon as that was past his lips, the third-grader stopped and corrected himself: "No, Greensburg won."

Back in January, when the Journal announced the contest -- students could read the serial "The Drinking Gourd" in the paper and search for the "Freedom Dollars" appearing intermittently -- teacher Jerrine Oleen wanted to get her class involved. She asked her students what to do with the $200 first-place prize for collecting the most.

"We talked among ourselves," Oleen said. "We have books in the library, shelves of books in my class, and we decided we'd try to win and send the $200 to the third-grade class in Greensburg.

Before long, the class project "kind of mushroomed on us -- I had no idea it would turn into what it did."

By the time the contest was over, the class had collected 76,071 of the Freedom Dollars and raised about $1,500 to be sent to help resupply classes in the Greensburg schools.

While the students collected many themselves, they also enlisted their families and friends from across Lindsborg, north-central Kansas and even out of state in the effort.

Oleen gave presentations to local community groups, securing a promise to match the $200 prize money from the Kiwanis Club in Lindsborg, another $200 from an anonymous donor, and $400 from the Falun and Salemsborg Lutheran churches -- but all that depended on winning the contest.

Oleen took out an ad in the "Help Wanted" section of the Lindsborg News-Record, asking people to drop off their Freedom Dollars, and her students went to work.

"They got their parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles to save them," Oleen said. "They just started coming in from everywhere. We got 1,100 from Wilson, and none of my kids knew anybody in Wilson."

Another student's grandparents in Hill City mailed in a packet each week; a teacher in the class next to Oleen has a 91-year-old grandmother in Oklahoma who gets the Salina Journal by mail, and she was sending the Freedom Dollars back.

Oleen kept a plastic tub on her porch for people to drop off papers.

"At one time, I had 13 stacks of papers in my house," each about more than a foot high, waiting to be searched through and clipped.

At Bethany Home, and Bethany College, collection bins were put out as well.

Into the Dumpster we go

Some students got creative.

Seth Yenni told of how he and his brother walked downtown to the recycling center and dug through newspapers there to cut out the Freedom Dollars.

"We climbed into the Dumpster, because it was so cold," Yenni said. "When it started to get late, we loaded up all the Salina Journals we could find into our wagon and took them home."

After seeing now many Freedom Dollars the class had clipped, the Journal raised the prize from $200 to $500.

"I was just so impressed that so many people would step forward to help," Oleen said.

The class is planning a pizza party for Thursday to celebrate, and during that time are to get a phone call from "Drinking Gourd" author Tom Ratliff in Connecticut.

Oleen said she had considered taking her entire class to Greensburg to deliver the check -- but decided not to, considering it's a three-hour bus ride one-way.

She had been there a few months ago, after the entire school saved up spare change totalling about $2,200 to donate to Greensburg's schools.

"Two of my recycling bins would be enough to hold everything in one class," Oleen said. "I wanted my students to learn about helping others, and they have."

n Reporter Mike Strand can be reached at 822-1418 or by e-mail at mstrand@salina.com.