KTKA

Ray Santin was injured in an accident in 1995. He is now paralyzed from the neck down.

Michael Flax, the Scranton Attendance Center Principal, has landed himself in jail, but he doesn't seem to mind. For every minute he spends, that's one more dollar raised to help out Oprah's Big Give: Topeka and Scranton's own Ray Santin. But he hasn't exactly been the model inmate.

"I convinced one of the jail keepers to let me out for a brief moment and I headed out. (laughs) They tracked me down within a few minutes," he said.

There's a bucket for bail, and a bucket to keep him in jail. Local priest, Father Richard Storey, brought more than $300 from his parishes to add to Flax's sentence.

He says, "Because those kids don't need a principal out wandering around so therefore I am keeping him in jail as long as we can."

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Oprah's Big Give: Scranton-Ray Santin

After aspirations of being a professional athlete, a car accident left Ray Santin confined to a wheelchair as a quadriplegic. Thanks to the community and Oprah's Big Give, life is looking up for Ray and his family.

Some fourth graders made their big escape from school for a good cause.

Another way the kids are raising money is to head downtown with their buckets, mops and trash bags and they are cleaning up and asking for donations.>

Fourth grade teacher Cheryl Bolz says, "We decided that we could do some community service for the downtown merchants and they are just loving this."

And did they ever clean up. One Casey's donated $100 to the window washers for the cause.

Student Nick Colin says, "It's looking pretty good, washing windows and all that."

Shelby Peterson says, "I was very excited because I knew Ray and I saw him and I thought it was very tragic."

The kids also put out donation jars at local merchants and have collected money through what they call the Coin Game. Each class is competing for a free pizza party.

Ray's niece, Jordan Johnson, is grateful for the fourth graders' generosity.

"I think it's amazing. They're helping out my family and I really like that," she says.

The Scranton students collected at least $1,000 as of this afternoon. They hope to add to that with a car wash tomorrow from 2 p.m.-4 p.m., depending on the weather.