Bozeman's Mount Ellis Academy is raising money for a new sewer system with a click of the mouse.

Kohl's department store is giving away $10 million to schools across the country in celebration of the 10th anniversary of its Kohl's Cares for Kids community-giving program.

Twenty schools will receive $500,000 each, decided through an online competition on Facebook. The top 20 schools that get the most votes on the site will get the money.

"We just found out about it a week ago," Mount Ellis Principal Darren Wilkins said this week. "In two days, we were in the top 100 schools in the nation."

As of Tuesday, Mount Ellis was in 30th place, with about 7,500 votes.

Mount Ellis is a private Seventh-day Adventist boarding high school with about 80 students.

The school is trying to win the money to help pay for a new sewer system for the school. If Mount Ellis wins $500,000, the school will only need to raise another $100,000 to complete the work, Wilkins said.

Students have created a series of videos stating their case for why they need the new sewer system. The videos can be viewed online on YouTube by searching "Sewage Watch 2010."

To vote for a school, go to apps.facebook.com/KohlsCares/search. You can vote up to 20 times; five times per school.

Voting ends Sept. 3 and Kohl's is expected to announce the winning schools that month.

Amanda Ricker can be reached at aricker@dailychronicle.com or 582-2628.

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