SLIDESHOW: Fab Falcons fundraiser event
CLEARFIELD -- Kris Sanford took a few minutes to get his emotions in check Friday before thanking Clearfield High School students for raising $10,000 to help him pay for physical therapy.
"Wow, that's a lot of money," said Sanford, a 2008 Clearfield High graduate.
When the now-19-year-old Clinton man graduated, he was able to walk across the stage to receive his diploma, but his life took a dramatic turn April 25. He was a passenger in a vehicle that hydroplaned on Interstate 80 and rolled several times, injuring his spinal cord.
Today, the former baseball catcher who earned a 4.0 grade point average is a quadriplegic who uses a wheelchair.
He and his sister, Shareve Sanford, accepted a check for $8,889.45 plus cash and coins that equaled $10,000 at the annual "Falcons are Fabulous" assembly.
"I love this school," said Shareve, a sophomore. "The students are amazing."
At the assembly with Sanford was his friend and the driver of the vehicle, Jordan Cunningham, 19, of West Point.
Sanford doesn't blame his friend for what happened.
"He's my boy," Sanford said, as several students stopped in the hallway to say hello after the assembly. Tianna Tu, student body service officer, came up with the idea of helping Sanford this year.
"I thought it would entice the students to donate more if they knew it was going to a former student," Tu said.
Part of the assembly included a "miracle minute," when student body and class officers raced through the auditorium collecting cash from students. More than $1,200 was stuffed into two 3-gallon buckets.
As of Tuesday, the 1,420 students had collected only $700 of their $7,000 goal, said Melinda Barker, student body president. Then the students began getting into the spirit and more money poured in as students paid to duct-tape student body officers or teachers to the walls, bought frozen T-shirts and held penny wars.
Student body adviser Richard Gildersleeve said he would let students at the assembly shave half of his beard and mustache, which he's had since 1991, if students raised $3,000.
Cheers, laughter and heckling greeted Gildersleeve after his face got a new look during the assembly.
"I said I would look like this all day," Gildersleeve said. "But when I get home, I'll shave the other half. My wife won't accept me this way."
If students raised the top goal of $7,000, school administrators promised to do a lip sync.
Dressed in skirts, silly hats, feather boas and Mickey Mouse gloves, the three danced to "Girls Just Want to Have Fun," with Principal John Mills shaking his booty, which brought laughter and applause.
"I never expected the principal to do that," said one boy in the audience.
But it was the entrance of Sanford that brought the students to a standing ovation lasting for almost five minutes.
"I appreciate it a lot," Sanford said.
He said the funds will go toward the costs of his physical therapy.
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