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HARRISBURG, June 19 -- The best was saved for last - the last day of school, that is, as fifth-grade students at Linglestown Elementary School in Lower Paxton Township, Dauphin County, were visited by state Rep. Harry Readshaw, D-Allegheny.

Readshaw, leader of the Pennsylvania Gettysburg Monuments Project, was at the school to personally express his appreciation for their raising more money than any other school in the Commonwealth to help preserve the 146 Pennsylvania regimental monuments and markers on the Gettysburg battlefield.

Linglestown Elementary is in the Central Dauphin School District.

The fifth-graders raised $4,540 for the perpetual endowment trust for the 12^th Pennsylvania Volunteer Reserve Infantry, which on the second day of the battle, took possession of Big Round Top and guarded against further Confederate thrusts against the southern flank of the Union forces. The unit included soldiers from Dauphin County.

Readshaw presented the students with a legislative citation. In addition, they received the Chamberlain Award for Outstanding Achievement from Frank Polito, regional director of governmental and community affairs for Adelphia Communications, a major supporter of the monument preservation campaign.

The award, designed by noted Pennsylvania sculptor Andrew Chernak, is a black walnut plaque with a pewter relief portrait of Joshua Chamberlain, a regimental commander whose heroic stand on Little Round Top on the second day of the three-day battle saved the Union Army from disaster.

Also on hand was a representative of state Rep. Ronald Marsico, R-Dauphin, whose district includes Lower Paxton Township. Marsico was unable to attend the ceremony because legislation he sponsored was being considered in a House committee meeting.

The Monument Challenge, a campaign to involve students in the preservation of the Pennsylvania monuments at Gettysburg, is endorsed by the Pennsylvania State Education Association.

"The response of schools to the challenge grew substantially from the previous year," Readshaw said. "More teachers are finding it a way to actively involve students in a pivotal moment of history and in the preservation of that legacy.

"I am very proud of our Linglestown Elementary School students for raising the most money in the state for this project, but really I am most proud of the fact that they worked so hard to preserve such an important part of American history," Marsico said. "Because of their efforts, the story of Gettysburg will be carried on for many generations to come."

At 10 a.m. Wednesday, June 20 in the Capitol Rotunda, Readshaw will be joined by Rep. Mark McNaughton, R-Dauphin, to recognize Paige Hisiro, a fifth-grade student at Herbert Hoover Elementary School in Susquehanna Township. Hisiro raised $800, the most by an individual student. Hisiro's teacher and other representatives from the school also will attend the ceremony.

The students at Herbert Hoover, which is in the Susquehanna Township School District, accumulated $4,100, the second-highest total for a school in the Commonwealth.