Launch the media gallery 1 playerSeniors Gave Class Funds to Ashland High School Fire Victims
Axtell’s senior basketball boys Burke Deters and Nick Buessing gathered up two truck loads of supplies for Ashland the weekend after the wildfires were put out before they tried their hands at State Basketball. Which put the victims of the fires in the forefront of Senior Class President and Kay Club President Maddy Kuckelman’s mind, where she decided to bring it to her classmates’ attention. Every single Axtell High School Senior voted to donate $2,200 of their class trip fund and the KAY Club contributed an additional $1,000.
The seniors seeing what was left of the devastation really struck home for everyone who took the trip down to Ashland on April 19th, 2017 with their sponsors Pam Buessing and Principal Larry Giest, who drove a total of five and a half hours to take the senior class to Ashland. The trip left a lasting imprint in the minds and souls of seniors Emily Ronnebaum, Maddy Kuckelman, Nick Buessing, Oliver Smitchz, Paige Menninga, Cheyenne Perry, Janessa Gilbertson, Kadin Holthaus, Anna Buessing, Patricia Heiman, Anna Porting, and Dorothy Fulton.
Although, grassland and pastures were greening back up, students were still able to see firsthand traces of the wildfire. As they traveled down a small highway the remnants of the fire were mentally shocking, only emboldening their choice. Houses, homesteads, and barns alike were burned down to nothing except the skeletal remains of their foundations. Even metal and highway were no match for the heat, tin bubbled and tractors, with stronger metal alloys, even melted in the wildfire.
The senior class were able to talk to a few people the fire affected, the stories were emotionally touching. Quanah Gardiner told them how his parents lost each other in their house, while looking for the family dogs, the smoke was so bad. Then Charlie and Chylynn Gibson recalled the excitement and relief when their 100 head cow-calf operation and two family horses survived the fire by huddling in the small ponds on their ranch. Axtell’s seniors could not help but to feel connected to their new friends and delighted at how their donation was going to help all six families affected directly by the wildfire.
Coming to the realization as a class just how much the families down in Ashland were affected. Axtell’s 2017 Seniors could not be more proud of their donation. They have realized $2,200 may be smaller than some of other donations that Ashland’s has received, but the seniors gave selflessly. Knowing that the experience will last them a lifetime; nothing could come between them and their decision to donate as a class.
Watch a clip from KAKE.com new: http://www.kake.com/story/35193125/kansas-students-give-senior-trip-money-to-fire-victims
