COQUILLE — For 10 months, Coquille High School seniors and their parents entrusted their graduation celebration with Gwen Sherbondy.

She served as the financial supervisor of Project Graduation, a yearlong effort to raise money to throw a post-graduation party for seniors.

When students collected money from delivering Christmas wreaths, selling posters or washing cars, it went to Sherbondy. Parents supervising various fundraisers handed over the profits to her, too.

“Gwen ran the show,” said Duana Clemons, one of the parent volunteers.

“She was great. She was organized. She pretty much controlled everything.”

In the end, that was the problem.

Federal agents arrested Sherbondy on Thursday, charging her with the robbery of a Roseburg bank. She also has been accused of looting the Class of 2009’s Project Graduation fund.

No one is sure exactly how much money is missing because Sherbondy was the only one with access to the financial records. At a meeting Friday, Coquille police Sgt. Pat Smith told parents and students his best guess is $11,600 had been collected through the fund drive. Practically all of it is gone. Police recovered about $600, but it has been frozen pending the outcome of the bank robbery case. Sherbondy was being held this morning at Lane County jail without bail.

News of Sherbondy’s arrest and the missing funds came as a surprise to students. Geramy Ogle said he got a call from one of the parent leaders Thursday.

“I was shocked,” he said.

“We all trusted her,” said Jake Breuer, another senior involved in the fundraising.

In hindsight, Clemons said the group gave too much authority to one person in handling the finances.

The fundraising is not affiliated with the school district. It is supervised by parents of seniors. So each year brings a new collection of parents, some who may have been involved when older siblings graduated, but more often they are new to the process.

Parents first met to discuss the Class of 2009’s graduation party in April 2008. Of the seven parents who attended, Sherbondy had all the information passed on from previous parents, Clemons said. It was a given she would lead the effort.

“She did a great job, but she was the only one organizing everyone,” Clemons said. “We all trusted her so much, so we never pushed it.”

Sharon Usselman, a co-chairwoman of Project Graduation in 2006 and 2008, said she believes Sherbondy volunteered with the best of intentions.

“I think she really was doing it for the students,” Usselman said Friday.

The problem was that no one questioned her. Or when they did, they were not persistent. Clemons recalls Sherbondy being evasive whenever she asked about fundraisers.

“I would ask her, ‘How’d we do on that?’” she recalled. “She never would give us a dollar amount and changed subjects real quick.”

Getting suspicious, Clemons called a parent who had handled finances the previous year. The parent said she brought the check register to every meeting so other parents could inspect it. Clemons decided to confront Sherbondy in January.

“I just asked about the checking account and she said she never got around to it,” Clemons recalled.

The group scheduled a meeting for Feb. 24 to discuss finances. Sherbondy said she couldn’t make it. It was that same day the Roseburg Wells Fargo Bank was robbed.

Several parents were upset about the turn of events and wanted to ask why more hadn’t been done to ensure the money would be safe.

Usselman asked parents to stop that line of questioning and instead brainstorm ideas so students could still have some kind of party. In years past, seniors have gone to amusement parks in California and Washington. This year’s 50 or so seniors probably won’t get that kind of trip, Usselman said, but they can still have a nice event that ensures students have a good time without going to a party with alcohol.

The group has been reorganized. Members have set up a checking account at Sterling Savings Bank, Clemons said, and each check must be signed by two of four designated signatories.

The seniors at Friday’s meeting sounded optimistic about raising enough funds to hold some form of graduation party.

There was more concern for Sherbondy’s daughter, Cheyenne Sherbondy, who has been a driving force in getting more students involved in the fundraising, they said.

“She’s a good leader for the class,” classmate Zac Smith said.

Police Chief Mark Dannels said Cheyenne, who is the school’s student body president, is not a suspect.

“The daughter is in no way connected to the case,” he said.

Usselman said the community must support Sherbondy’s daughter and understand the program is still a worthy endeavor.

“Blaming someone isn’t going to make anything better,” she said.