Stayton High School Connects Community
Stayton High School students celebrate increased fundraising for Make A Wish, new partnership with Regis High School. By Connor Shreve.
This story is sponsored by The Physical Therapy Project.
Learn More...
Stayton High School – https://shs.nssd29j.org/
Regis High School – https://www.regisstmary.org/
Dutch Bros – https://www.dutchbros.com/our-impact
The Physical Therapy Project – https://theptproject.net/
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A student collaboration in Staton builds community and raises money for Make A Wish Oregon, you’re watching the Local News Network brought to you by the Physical Therapy Project. I’m Connor Shrieve. Students in Staton are celebrating their third year of fundraising for Make A Wish Foundation in 2025. The effort grew to three events, a movie night, a Staton versus Regis volleyball game and a Dutch Bros day.
So we went to the owners of Dutch Bros in Salem and said, Hey, we’re doing this fundraiser, can we maybe partner with you guys? And they were, he was like, yeah, we’ll bring out a trek, we’ll get you guys a hundred percent of the proceeds and we’ll make this happen for you guys. So it’s been a huge part of our fundraising
State and leadership teacher, Danielle Flood has seen firsthand how the program affects families with kids undergoing medical treatment. She says it’s impactful to see the kids. Her program helps return in remission.
We were able to have Gracelyn come out as our wish ambassador for our volleyball night and she is a five-year-old little girl and she was diagnosed with leukemia all B-cell. And she has, I think she was diagnosed in 2022. And so it’s been a few years of treatment for her. And then just in March she was able to ring the bell and take her last chemo treatment and she is officially in remission.
Student Leadership committee chair, Bailey Turner says the partnership gives her classmates a new perspective.
I think really seeing the kids in person too, like being able to bring ’em to the school was a really good thing ’cause they were like, wow, this kid is three years old in his whole life. He is been fighting for his life and we’re here to do such a small thing to us. But it like is life changing for him? So it’s just like a really cool thing. And like just being after that first year, I was just like, we have to continue this. ’cause again, something so small for us.
As Turner gets ready to head to college next year, she’ll have to hand the reins of the program to someone else. She says she’s learned a tough leadership skill in her role as chair, namely delegation.
It definitely helped a lot to be able to trust my committee because that’s what they’re here for. They’re here to learn leadership skills and me being able to hand jobs off to them and take more or less stress off my plate was a great help. ’cause it was more enjoyable to plan these events when I wasn’t full of stress the entire time. So definitely learning how to delegate was a big skill that I learned throughout this.
All the money raised locally stays in Oregon Next year. Flood promises to continue fundraising, calling it a new tradition.
So this was our first year working with Regis High School and already we’ve been talking about wanting to make plans with them for next year and build it up bigger.
Partnering with Regis is a big step to making that happen. You can learn more about this and other stories at Midvalley Local News. Thanks for watching this edition of the Local News Network. I’m Connor Shrieve.
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