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‘Lock up’ helps to raise money for the MDA
Published March 7, 2008
SEGUIN — The photos are circulating around the Navarro Independent School District anyway, so it’s OK to talk about it now.
Just before lunch time Thursday, students stood aghast — with cell phone cameras capturing every second — as Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Schroeder “cuffed and stuffed” district employees Deanna Orona and Rosemary Gonzales into his patrol car for the trip “downtown.”
Schroeder didn’t read them their rights and he didn’t tell them what the charges were.
But instead of bringing them to his boss, Arnold Zwicke’s jail, Schroeder brought them to El Ranchito restaurant to be locked up, instead, to raise money for the Muscular Distrophy Association.
The MDA raises money for treatment, education, equipment and research of 40 neuromuscular diseases that affect more than one million children and adults in the United States.
Perhaps best known for comedian Jerry Lewis’ Labor Day fundraising telethons and firefighter “fill the boot” drives, the MDA also raises money through its popular “lockup” fundraisers, said Jennifer Carrisal, who is the MDA’s district director in San Antonio.
“We typically do about eight a year in San Antonio and about five a year around San Antonio in Seguin, Kerrville, Boerne, Eagle Pass and Laredo,” she said. “We come to Seguin once a year.”
What the MDA does is contact local civic and business leaders and others, often well-known in the community, and solicits fundraising pledges.
Then on the day of the event, volunteer officers such as Schroeder go around, “arrest” them wherever they find them, bring them to “jail,” take their mug shot and get them on the phones working on raising their bail.
And that’s just how it was for Orona, who works in the NISD central office, and Gonzales, who is a district nurse.
“They called central office and wanted to know whether anybody wanted to participate,” Orona said. “I said I’d be delighted — MDA’s a good cause.”
Gonzales had been told another nurse had taken part last year and decided to give it a shot, too.
It was a good opportunity to help — and to have a little fun, Orona said.
“The students knew I was participating and they called some parents and got them involved. I had a student ask me about it, and I got to explain to him about the MDA, what it does and why it’s important.”
“When you’re in the eighth grade in athletics, you think you’re invincible and sometimes have no clue what other people out there struggle with,” Orona said. “I think it’s important to raise that awareness.”
Both women agreed to raise nearly $2,000 each.
And they started making the calls as soon as they climbed into the patrol car, working their cell phone address books like hardened telemarketers.
“I have to raise $1,775,” Orona said. “I raised my first $100 donation while I was in the patrol car. I said, ‘Bill, I get one phone call.’”
After getting booked, the women sat at restaurant tables and got back on their phones.
The conversations were sometimes strained.
“Hi, I’m in jail and I need to get bail,” Gonzales would typically begin. You could hear the exclamation across the table.
“You’re in jail? Arrested?”
“It’s for MDA,” she said. “I need bail. I have to raise $1,800 for MDA or they won’t let me out of jail.”
Imagine having to make that call to a parent or, maybe worse still, a father-in-law.
Orona did.
“He said, ‘What? You’re ... arrested? ARRESTED?” It was a rocky moment, but Orona got through it, albeit with a lengthy explanation — and she also got a donation.
She went back to the address book, and started scrolling down.
“I’ve gone through all my friends,” Orona said. “I’m down to calling my husband’s friends. But everyone’s been very generous.”
Particularly, she noted with some satisfaction, in her own family.
“My husband said, ‘They’re going to take you, and feed you, and you won’t have to work, clean or take care of the kids? You might not come back!’ I never knew being arrested could be so much fun!”
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