'Jailbirds' raise money for sick kids 'Jailbirds' raise money for sick kids (February 18, 2005)

Downtown MV hosts annual fund-raiser

By Julie O'Shea

The Tied House restaurant acted as a "jailhouse" for a group of Mountain View community members attempting to raise $35,000 in "bail" for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

"Jailbirds" were picked up Tuesday by volunteer law enforcement officers and driven in the back of a police cruiser to the Villa Street restaurant, where their picture was snapped from behind impromptu cell bars. They were then escorted to an outside patio table and weren't allowed to leave until they had raised enough bail.

Each participant was asked to raise $1,800 -- enough money to send three children with muscular dystrophy from Santa Clara County to camp for a week this summer. Most of the "jailbirds" came with money already raised, but others were busily dialing friends, family and coworkers from cellular phones, pleading that more money be sent.

"Someone turned us in. We don't know who," said Gail Richards, director of Primary Plus, a Mountain View preschool.

"I think our crime was for being too good," she said with a impish smile.

"And for having a good heart," added Anne Hedman, another "jailbird" who is the infant center director at Primary Plus.

The two women, sipping iced teas, giddily described their short, "embarrassing" ride with the police. By 1 p.m., they had raised $600.

"We have to get back to work," Richards noted, before being reminded she had raised half of the needed bail.

Jacque Soares, program coordinator for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in San Jose, said the association hopes to raise $35,000 for the Tied House lockup.

"MDA has been doing lockups now for 15 years, all across the nation," Soares said.

Last year's lockups raised a combined $170,000. The San Jose chapter is hoping to raise enough money to send 75 children from the Santa Clara County area to Camp Harmon in the Santa Cruz Mountains this August.

E-mail Julie O'Shea joshea@mv-voice.com

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