Girl’s Return Of $100 Bill Fosters Flurry Of Fanfare

Recognition rained down on an eighth-grader here after she found a $100 bill in a hardware store, and turned the money in.

Some of Ashley Silvernell’s classmates questioned her wisdom after learning she returned the money found about three weeks ago at Eagle Hardware & Garden in Billings. But on Friday, Forsyth Middle School students celebrated her honesty.

She was recognized at a student assembly, and received the key to the city. Gov. Marc Racicot sent a letter of praise, and Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., entered a statement in the Congressional Record.

“Ashley’s act should recall for this U.S. Senate what the holidays are all about,” Baucus said.

Ashley, 13, took the $100 to the customer service counter at Eagle Hardware & Garden after finding the money on a greenhouse floor. A Wyoming shopper who had lost the bill called a few days later to ask about it.

“We didn’t expect at all to have anybody turn it in,” Ann Hanson of Shell, Wyo., said Friday.

The hardware store has given Ashley a jacket, two gift certificates and a chocolate wrench. The store also gave gift certificates to her school.

Ashley’s mother, Kerri Silvernell, said the girl was alone when she saw the money, and did not mention the find until she had left the store.