MOUNTAIN VIEW — As a part of a class project, two Mountain View juniors coordinated fundraising efforts in the Mountain View Middle School and Mountain View High School to raise awareness and to benefit the Shriners Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Landen Kellum and Olivia Moretti started efforts to raise money for the Shriners Hospital in the fall, when they were presented with the idea of a “20 Time” project in Jeremy Kaiser’s junior English class. Kaiser encouraged students to spend 20 percent of their time working on a project that was important to them.

“For our 20 time project in English where we have to donate 20 percent of our time in class finding a way to give back to others, we choose SHC because they find way to give children the highest quality of care even if the family can’t afford it. They (Shriners Hospital) will still care for the children no matter the family’s financial situation,” Moretti said. “We plan on going back again to take blankets to them. In August or September we want to start raising money for the hospital again until April. We also want to show the younger people in our community that giving back to others can be fun.”

As a result of this project, Kellum and Moretti began visiting with building administrators about coordinating a ‘Penny War’ at both the middle school and high school.

The ‘Penny War’ at both buildings was a class competition designed to encourage student participation in the fundraising efforts for the Shriners Hospital. The two students raised just shy of $200 between the two ‘Penny War’ events. All of this money was presented to the Shriners Hospital on Friday, March 31.

“When everyone was on their day-dates for Prom, we went to the Shriners Hospital and donated the money,” Moretti said. “We just wanted to do something to benefit kids.”