Dist. 121 students raise $756 for Pearl Harbor museum

Spare change added up to $756 for a Pearl Harbor museum fundraising effort headed by some Warren Township High School students.

Board members at Gurnee-based District 121 and Mayor Kristina Kovarik honored the students at a meeting Tuesday night. The teenagers spearheaded the Pennies for Pearl Harbor campaign from late November to mid-December.

Collection boxes were placed at gasoline stations and other Gurnee businesses. A Gurnee man with a wealth of Pearl Harbor memorabilia, as well as two survivors from the Japanese attack, even visited Warren High's Almond Road campus for upperclassmen.

"It was a good opportunity for the school to bring Pearl Harbor alive for the students," Kovarik said before certificates of appreciation from Warren's board were presented to about a dozen teenagers.

Uneven settling of the USS Arizona's visitors center building and museum in Hawaii, as well as water intrusion, might cause its closure within two years. The public and private sectors are being asked to help fund a new Pearl Harbor structure.

Part of the effort has involved schools across the United States participating in Pennies for Pearl Harbor. The Gurnee fundraising activities were one of the few undertaken since the program launched more than three years ago.