The annual Penny Wars are over for this year, and final tallies show that Emporia school children collected almost $1,000 more this year than in 2007.
According to information from Margi Grimwood, director of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, students collected $2,522.25, $990.76 more than the $1,531.49 raised last year.
Top grade-level winners in each school received ice cream bars today as a reward for their efforts.
Proceeds from the Wars will go to emporians for Drug Awareness for their education and awareness programs for parents and students, Grimwood said.
The winning classes from individual schools were:
Logan Avenue, fourth grade; Timmerman, second grade; Village, third grade; Walnut, second grade; William Allen White, first grade; and Riverside, fourth and third grade.
A tie was declared at Riverside, she said, because the classes were only 7 cents apart in their collection totals.
The Penny Wars are held each year as part of Red Ribbon Week activities, which emphasize the pitfalls of drug use and encourage children not to be come involved in use of illicit drugs, as well as legal drugs that are harmful to health and safety, such as tobacco and alcohol.