Jimmy Long is not ashamed to admit he employed his younger siblings to reach his position as top seller of chocolate at McLaurin Elementary School.

The 11-year-old fifth grader said his five-year-old brother Benjamin, his seven-year-old sister Rachel, and his 10-year-old sister Leah all chipped in to help him sell the 725 bars of chocolate and a top prize of $200 cash.

McLaurin Elementary students sold 20,000 World’s Finest chocolate bars in October and November to achieve a $10,000 profit for the school’s Parent Teacher Organization.

&uot;Since I’m new in office, I would hesitate to say this is our biggest fund raiser, but it is certainly the biggest I can recall,&uot; said Rose Sullivan, McLaurin PTO president.

The sale was exceptional in the history of the school, said Principal Pam Sandel. &uot;They did exceptionally well for a chocolate sale,&uot; she said. &uot;We were pleasantly pleased with the outcome. It’s a little bit more than we usually make on our fund raisers.&uot;

When the sale began in October, the sales representative from World’s Finest Chocolate, Inc. suggested that the elementary school set 300 cases as a goal for this area, Sullivan said.

&uot;We ran out and had to order more,&uot; she said. &uot;We ended up selling 450 cases.&uot;

The top three sellers of chocolate at McLaurin are: Jimmy Long, first place with 725 bars; Monique Tyms, second place with 700 bars; Henry Hedgepeth, third place with 675 bars.

Together with their fellow students, the children of McLaurin have sold 2,500 pounds of chocolate, two ounces at a time.

Savvy salesman that he is, Long canvassed his neighborhood and then moved on to Wal-Mart where he sold quite a bit of chocolate.

Tyms, 11, credits the assistance of her mother, her aunt and her nine-year-old sister Jasmine with her second place finish with $100 in prize money. &uot;My mama would ask anybody she’d see if they wanted to buy chocolate to help McLaurin,&uot; Tyms said.

Hedgepeth,12, admits his grandmother, Octavia Hedgepeth, did all the work for his third place finish and $50 in prize money.

&uot;I sold maybe nine bars,&uot; he said.

The school is still deciding where money raised from the chocolate sale will be spent. &uot;We’re researching the possibility of putting acoustical panels in the gym where we have all our meetings,&uot; Sandel said.

&uot;We don’t have an auditorium, and we have all our meetings in the gym and the acoustics are not good – it’s difficult to hear.&uot;

Until a decision is made regarding any major expenditures, the money will go into the McLaurin PTO fund.

&uot;Our goal is to be here for the students and faculty wherever we can,&uot; Sullivan said.