MMS students walk to help math teacher

Marlinton, WV – Students at Marlinton Middle School volunteered for some extra physical education on Monday afternoon. The entire student body walked laps around Pocahontas County Golf Course to raise money for math teacher Cammy Kiner, who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer.

Teacher Stephanie Burns says the school’s older students helped organize the walkathon.

“We had some eighth graders that were very interested,” she said. “They went to the classrooms and talked with the students, prepared them for the walk, explained to them the guidelines and the rules to walk around the perimeter, explained to them stay off the greens and they also came to the classrooms and talked to the students and encouraged them to participate.”

“There were a few students that even came out during our recess for fifth and sixth grade, passed out walkathon forms, just in case they had lost theirs or misplaced them. I noticed some fifth and sixth graders were looking up to them as leaders and did take another form.”

Eighth grader Cabe Walker explains how the walkathon worked.

“Kids would get a sponsor and then, the sponsor would pay them if they completed the walk,” he said. “Most everyone in the school participated.”

Eighth grader Mya Ellison says she felt better after the walk.

“I think it went great,” she said. “We had a great time out there walking and we enjoyed just getting some fresh air and getting out of class. I feel way better. I think that I’m going to try and do more breast cancer walks and just try to help out.”

Eighth grader Jacob Hefner was pleased with the effort of his fellow students.

“Because it’s just something good that you can do for your teacher,” he said. “I mean, we weren’t really expecting her to get breast cancer, but everybody kind of worked hard to get sponsors and make money. Everybody did what they were supposed to and tons of kids raised money.”

Eighth grader Brittany McMillion helped organize the walkathon. The youngster says it was the right thing to do.

“Me and a few other kids just kind of started helping out because we thought – a few of us know Ms. Kiner pretty well and we thought we could help her out,” she said. “I think it went pretty good. Everybody enjoyed the feeling of being able to help people out and kind of being there for somebody we should all care about.”

Eighth grader Braxton Ryder stresses the importance of the fundraiser.

“It didn’t matter if it was only a dollar,” he said. You just brought in as much money as you could to help out Ms. Kiner, because she got breast cancer. Chemo treatments are very expensive and every little bit of money helps.”

Burns says students learned leadership and compassion by participating in the event.

“It reminds them, again, how we need to be compassionate toward others, along with the Rachel’s Challenge that we participated in a couple weeks ago at the high school,” she said. “We try to encourage compassion and doing activities like this will help them practice.”

The Pocahontas Country Club generously donated the use of the golf course for the event. Kiner is doing well and is expected to return to her teaching job next year. Donations payable to Cammy Kiner can be mailed to Marlinton Middle School.

Story By

Heather Niday

Heather is our Program Director and Traffic Manager. She started with Allegheny Mountain Radio as a volunteer deejay. She then joined the AMR staff in February of 2007. Heather grew up in the Richmond, Virginia, area and now lives in Arbovale, West Virginia with her husband Chuck. Heather is a wonderful flute player, and choir director for Arbovale UMC. You can hear Heather along with Chuck on Tuesday nights from 6 to 8pm as they host two hours of jazz on Something Different.

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