Locals arrested, jailed at Red's Old 395 Grill

Kim Donnelly, lead bank teller for Wells Fargo in Carson City, was locked up Tuesday. So was her friend and co-worker Krysta Tyson.

The Northern Nevada Chapter of the Muscular Dystrophy Association made the "arrests" and both women were "doing time" over their lunch hour, each trying to raise the required $1,050 "bail."

Neither admitted to being arrested before.

"We have lists of people: family, friends and regular customers," Donnelly said. "We just called our parents. They got a real kick out of it."

The money will be used to send children stricken with the disease to camp for a week at South Lake Tahoe, buy special equipment for victims of muscular dystrophy and fund 400 research grants worldwide.

Red's Old 395 Grill hosted the affair, an annual event that raised $50,000 in Carson City last year.

A light buffet was set up Tuesday against one wall and waiters were serving drinks to participants, including Carson City businessmen, doctors and lawyers.

All huddled over their cell phones as they stumped for the cause, but few were as prepared as Nevada State Archivist Guy Rocha, who brought his phone-card index.

"I told everyone at the Legislature their favorite state archivist is in jail," Rocha said. "We're having a competition between the Senate and the Assembly. So far, the Senate is ahead by a significant amount. We must've caught the Assembly on a bad day -- no one was there."

If the Assembly doesn't come through for Rocha, the judge is lenient. He'll get probation and about a week to come up with the money.

Similar "arrests" are staged in a number of Northern Nevada towns throughout the year, including Reno, Sparks, Winnemucca and Elko.

Muscular Dystrophy is a classification that includes 43 muscle-wasting diseases. The Muscular Dystrophy Association is a voluntary national health agency, a dedicated partnership between scientists and concerned citizens aimed at conquering neuromuscular diseases affecting more than a million Americans.

About 200 Muscular Dystrophy victims throughout Nevada and Northern California are registered with the Northern Nevada Chapter, one of 200 chapters nationwide.

For information, call them at 333-6789 or visit their Web site at www.mdausa.org.

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What: Muscular Dystrophy Association

Call: 333-6789

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www.mdausa.org