Penny Wars for MS

The children of today are our future for tomorrow. Two of CraniuMS very own members, Bridget Heuer and Stacy Geyer, have used their teaching skills to educate their students on Multiple Sclerosis and ignited a passion inside each and every one of them. The efforts of these children was amazing, and our little community was able to raise $1744.82 for the National MS Society! And what is even more amazing is that one of these children could grow up to be the person who will cure MS. Inspiration has no age limit, and below is a story written by Bridget Heuer and Stacy Geyer which was published in the Drummond Island Digest!

Starting Tuesday, April 6, and concluding Thursday, April 22, the students of Drummond Island Elementary and DeTour School K-12 school participated in the 2010 Penny Wars. The Penny Wars was a fundraiser to raise money for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The way it worked was like this: the winner was determined by a points based scoring system. It all depends on what coins are put into each jar! Pennies and Bills= Positive points while all silver = Negative points. Participating in the penny wars allowed our schools to help raise critical funds that support cutting edge research, facilitate professional educations and provide programs and services to help people with MS move their lives forward and help to create a world free of MS. Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease that attacks the central nervous system (CNS), which is made up of the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. Symptoms may be mild or severe. The progress, severity, and specific symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary from one person to another. Today, new treatments and advances in research are giving new hope to people affected by the disease. We walk to make our steps the steps that bring us one step closer to finding a cure! Two teachers from DeTour Area Schools, Bridget Heuer and Stacy Geyer, drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota to participate in the MS Walk 2010: Minnesota, Twin Cities May 2, 2010, with their team CraniuMS.


The Drummond students started off with a bang and in just the first day raised $69.44. The competition was intense with Mrs. Geyer's 1/2 and Mrs Plowman's 5/6 battling it out throughout the week but on the last day is when it all mattered and that is when Mrs. Moser's Kindergarten overtook them all and ended up winning the war. Not to leave out Mrs. Newell's class who also contributed a tremendous amount of money as well. After all of the money was counted, (thank you Mrs. Newell, Mrs. Moser, James Geyer, and Jerry Newell for all of your help and for the ladies at Central Savings Bank for taking it all) the total amount of money raised by the K-6 on Drummond Island was $931.59.

The Kindergarten class was given their choice of a pizza arty or an ice cream party and they decided to go with the ice cream party and they will be enjoying that soon. Because of their hard work and the IMPRESSIVE amount of support and money raised the whole school was given an ice cream social.

DeTour K-12 competed in this friendly and simple competition between classrooms that made a HUGE difference. The winner was determined by a points-based scoring system. The first place winner for DeTour Elementary was 4/5 beating K-1 by only 1 penny! The 4/5 class decided to share their ice cream party with the whole elementary because EVERYONE did such a great job. The Middle school competed against the High School and the High School pooled together all of their bills on the last day to win against the Middle School. The total amount of money raised from DeTour K-12 was $813.23! A small school with HUGE HEARTS! The whole school enjoyed popsicles to celebrate their kindness and generosity!

During the fundraiser we were touched by the students who were discussing MS, what it was and how it has affected some of their lives. You could hear students discussing on their own someone in their family who had it or someone they knew who had it and how they were raising money for them, not for the party. Sometimes we just don't give enough credit to the young people in our lives and to the compassion and understanding that they have. We are blessed and proud to be a part of this community and school. Thank you to the students, parents, community members and teachers who donated to this cause.