Spokane Valley Adventist School began the year with a new teacher, Danny Terry, substituting for Debby Pipkin who had surgery July 30 in an ongoing battle with cancer. Students, teachers, friends, and family have been praying on her behalf for the past two and a half years.
A fall barn party was planned as a fundraiser, complete with a jail, a dunk tank, an air-filled castle for younger children, radio-controlled cars to play with, games of skill, and more.
Pat Frey, Spokane Valley School principal accepted a challenge to sacrifice his hair for the sake of his teacher, Pipkin. It probably seemed like a safe bet at the outset. After all, the $1,000 price tag that his scalp carried had to be totally comprised of freewill donations above and beyond the amount raised by ticket sales. Terry would have his hair on the chopping block $500 sooner and there was still a chance that the first sacrifice would be enough. Both lost their locks because of the crowd’s generosity.
Stan Hudson, Valley Church pastor, pledged his mustache for another $500 and the crowd met the challenge. Having never seen him without his trademark mustache, his wife, Cindy, had to have him pointed out to her. Indeed, Stan himself hadn’t seen his upper lip in 28 years! Imagine what his kids thought when their mom brought home a stranger from the barn party!
Donations for the Pipkin family totaled more than $2,000, and the Spokane Valley School was still able to raise plenty to support their school.
Enrollment up
School enrollment at the end of last year was a few students short of making the budget. Planning this year’s budget required a minimum enrollment of 60 students in grades one through nine. “Hallelujah,” exclaims Frey, “we have a wonderful student body with 63 students and 16 in the Kindergarten and Preschool programs.”
Community involvement
The atmosphere at the Valley School is fun, loving, caring, but most of all Christ-centered. The upper classmen with Terry’s encouragement and organization have been doing volunteer service work in the community. Rob Case Spokane Valley Church youth pastor, spends time each week in every classroom mentoring the students, talking about God with them, and organizing Week of Prayer.
Kaycee Lile
Kaycee Lile
Exciting things are happening on the playground, too. Proceeds from an auction held last March were used to buy new playground equipment to replace the old wooden ones that blew over in a fierce windstorm. Principle engineers on the project were (from left) Don Ammon, Darrell Kittilstved and Kevin Stansberry. Their efforts were rewarded by smiling faces and happy yelps of excitement from children at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
A remembrance program for 9/11 began with a flag-raising and prayer at the flagpole. Captain Gerald Anderson, fireman and member of the Valley Church, emphasized the HOPE we have in Jesus Christ and the plans He has for us (Jeremiah 29:11) amid the tragedy of those events. Afterward the students and teachers divided into small groups and prayed together. Each child was given a flag to place in the lawn next to the school. From left: Christine Porter and Cynthia Gobel.
From left: Pat Frey, Spokane Valley School principal, and Danny Terry, ninth- and tenth-grade teacher check out their newly-shaved heads after sacrificing their hair for a good cause.
