Flush With Cash : Prom: A toilet fund-raiser by the Centennial senior class nets $14,325 to help lower the ticket cost.

There are few high school seniors who can boast that they helped others get to the prom on the back of a white porcelain toilet.

But at Centennial High School in Compton, the senior class raised $14,325 in two days by distributing ultra low-flush toilets for the Metropolitan Water District.

Their effort will help the city save 12 million gallons of water per year, according to water district officials.

And these teen-agers raised enough money to make their prom more affordable for hundreds of their classmates. The cost of tickets to the formal dinner-dance May 19 at the Long Beach Hilton dropped from $65 per person to $30.

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Despite this fund-raising feat, senior class officers still blush when discussing their success.

“People were saying things like, ‘Man, you guys are desperate,’ ” said Myisha Johnson, class president. “They were making all kinds of jokes.”

Johnson, 17, still hides her face in her hand when recalling the laughter and hoots she endured at an assembly in which she told the entire school about the fund-raiser.

Still, the senior class officers continued on with their plan--even printing up T-shirts and hats with the campaign’s slogan: “Flushed With Pride.”

And that check for $14,325--an enlargement sits proudly in Principal Jesse Jones’ office--goes a long way toward relieving any embarrassment.

“I’ve been in education for 30 years,” Jones said, “and I have never heard of a low-flush toilet fund-raiser. We’re accustomed to bake sales.”

“But it worked,” he added.

The Centennial High fund-raising effort has also earned a few outside admirers.

“They made how much?” said Joan McReynolds, who runs Cerritos High School’s activities office with her husband, Dennis. “We’re not as creative over here, I guess.” The senior class at Cerritos High made about $5,000 on their homecoming dance, McReynolds said.

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At Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach, the senior class has less than $600 in its account, and students are lucky to make a couple of hundred dollars selling food or drink during a campus mini-festival, said Jeanne Ellis, activities director. Sometimes, a food booth yields $25 the entire day.

The toilet fund-raiser was suggested by Patricia Sneed, senior class adviser, who heard of the water district’s program from her sister, Regina Murph, general manager of the Compton Water Department. The MWD offers free low-flow toilets plus $15 to residents who bring in an old commode.

On one Saturday in November, residents picked up 1,000 new low-flow toilets in the school parking lot and signed certificates giving the seniors the $15 rebates that the residents were to receive when they returned with the old commode. The next weekend, residents returned with 955 old toilets, earning the class a total of $14,325. About 45 old toilets weren’t turned in.

The senior class officers decided to give $3,000 to the school’s football program, since team members helped haul the low-flow toilets out of a truck and into residents’ cars. The rest of the proceeds helped offset prom costs.

After Centennial’s success, the two other high schools in Compton jumped on the bandwagon. Compton High School students distributed about 500 toilets in February and Dominguez High passed out a similar number in March.

And maybe next year, Sneed said, the students will tap city residents again.

“There’s more than 90,000 people living in this city,” Sneed said. “There must be a lot more who need these toilets.”