Po-Hi students choose to help teacher

This week is Homecoming, which is always a fun time for students at Po-Hi but they are taking on a serious subject this week. STUCCO adviser, Betsy Easley said the students decided to raise money for a sick teacher.

"Ryan Shelton is an English teacher at the high school," Easley said. "He has been teaching there for many years probably 10,12,15, something like that. He is really popular with the kids. He is really a great teacher and really connects with the kids. So,when they discovered, when he told them he had Lymphoma, he was diagnosed right before school this year, the kids really wanted to do something to help him."

That’s when the students said the money from the annual penny war should go to Mr. Shelton. Then they took it a step further and declared an ice bucket challenge. Each of the more then 45 participating teachers will have a donation station in their classroom. If the teachers raise more than $65 in their classroom they will have ice water poured over their head. Easley said the football players will dump the water after the annual parade.

"We’re having the parade on Oct. 2, Thursday evening," Easley said. "The parade starts moving at 5:30 and the parade goes from Grand Avenue, over at the Board of Ed that’s were we’re going to start and we’ll go up to the high school on Fifth Street and end up on the front lawn of the high school. Then we are going to have a short community pep rally at the end of that parade and that’s where the ice bucket challenge will take place."

Donations for Mr. Shelton will be collected from the public at the pep rally, too. This money will help with travel cost to Oklahoma City for his chemo-therapy. It will also help if he has to stay overnight in the city and any other expenses while he’s away from work.

Easley is good friends with Shelton and feels his Lymphoma is treatable.