Penny drive benefits Guilds’ School

The Spokane Guilds’ School and Neuromuscular Center is holding its 11th annual Kids for Kids Community Day penny drive Saturday.

If you have loose change collecting in the cushions of your couch or on the floor of your car, you can drop off the coins between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. at one of 14 locations to help developmentally disabled children from newborn to 3 years old who attend the Guilds’ School.

Trina Schmid, events manager for the school, said it offers both assessment and treatment of disorders in children. Its staff includes a pediatrician, nurses, social workers and physical, occupational and speech therapists.

The penny drive is one of five parts of the Kids for Kids program that raised a total of $182,000 last year. The drive collected around $60,000 last year.

Schmid said the fundraising program is more of a community outreach program designed to “demystify” the world of disabled people.

The Kids for Kids program also includes a school program in which kids can take home milk cartons to collect spare change.

A Guilds’ School parent and child visit 60 to 65 elementary schools to talk to students to promote compassion and show the students that children with disabilities aren’t so different from themselves.

“It’s an opportunity to help another child,” Schmid said.

The third component of the program Involves area businesses displaying Guilds’ School milk jugs to collect change from their customers.

Area dentists donate their services for the Smiles Teeth Whitening component of Kids for Kids. During February and March at seven local dental offices, customers bought teeth-whitening services for $99, with all proceeds going to the school. This year, $32,000 was raised.

The fifth component is the phone-a-thon. One night in March, trustees of the school’s foundation call contacts and ask them to pledge money for the school. Some sponsors also offer to match gifts of $25 or more.

But the big day in the Kids for Kids program is Community Day.

Schmid said the school received tons of coins last year.

“Anybody can help out,” she said. “That’s where pennies really add up.”

Schmid said each of the 14 coin-dropoff locations can decide what it will do to entice donors to its event.

For example, Windermere Real Estate, 9017 N. Country Homes Blvd., will hold a barbecue during the penny drive. It will feature a dunk tank, carwash, yard sale and raffle.

Meanwhile, Freedom Riders, a motorcycle club in Spokane, is holding its sixth-annual Pennies for Kids Run.

For $25 per person, participants will get a T-shirt, pin and food catered by Azar’s restaurant on Monroe Street. The shirts cost $10, the food is $10 and $5 will go to the Guilds’ School. Riders also are being asked to bring a donation for the Post Falls Food Bank.

Organizer Dennis Allour said he became curious about the Guilds’ School when his kids brought home milk cartons to collect change. He checked into the school and decided to round up a few buddies, have a barbecue and drive their collections over to the school.

Allour said around 200 people and their motorcycles now are signed up for the ride.

“It took on a life of its own,” Allour’s wife, Renee, said.

The ride will start at 9 a.m. Saturday at Easyriders Roadhouse, 1640 E. Schneidmiller Ave., Post Falls.

There, the riders will find out their next destination. At each destination, riders will find out where they will go next.

The ride will finish at Cruisers, 6105 W. Seltice Way, Post Falls.

Some of the activities planned during this event include a loud-pipe contest, a live band, door prizes and a high-hand/low-hand poker raffle, in which riders will pull a poker chip with a number on it out of a bag and keep track of their scores.

Dennis Allour said he has received some registrations from bikers who said they can’t participate in the run but have donated money anyway.

“The one thing about bikers,” said Renee Allour, “if you say, ‘Help the kids,’ they start coming out of the woodwork.”