N.H. students sacrifice senior trip, give $8,000 to principal for cancer treatments | The Compost Bin | Forums

What a great group of kids

Big-hearted graduating seniors brought their New Hampshire high school principal to tears Tuesday when they gave her thousands of dollars they raised for their senior trip to fund her cancer treatments instead.

"I was just absolutely floored," Profile High School Principal Courtney Vashaw told the Daily News. "I feel so honored, so touched. It's absolutely astounding."

Vashaw, 37, is battling synovial sarcoma — a rare and aggressive soft tissue cancer usually found near the joints of the arm, neck or leg.

She was diagnosed with the possibly fatal disease May 8 and broke the news to her students last Wednesday so they wouldn't be thrown off by her upcoming absences.

What the seven-year school veteran didn't expect was the 41 graduating seniors to gift her with $8,000, sacrificing their long-planned end-of-the-year trip to the upstate New York Ridin-Hy Ranch in Lake George.

"These kids took four years to raise this money," Vashaw said. "It's a lot of work to raise enough money to do something like this."

The principal had watched the group for years raise cash for the trip through a "hodgepodge" of fundraisers, dances and sales.

But it was a brainless decision, some seniors told the News. They knew they wanted to help no matter what.

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