Sean C. Morgan
About 50 junior students participate in a “rockathon” to raise money for the family of Dawn Lewis King, an eighth-grade math teacher killed in a traffic accident during the summer.
At the same time, the math teacher’s 2-month-old son, Neil Wiley King, will go with his father, David King, to their home in Summit.
The students raised $1,566.96. They sent it as a check with a letter signed by the students to Mrs. King’s husband, David King of Summit, on Monday.
“The family wishes to thank the community for their continued support and concern,” Neil’s grandmother, Jaryl Lewis, said.
Mrs. King survived long enough for her baby to be delivered six and a half weeks prematurely by Caesarean section at Oregon Health Sciences University. Mrs. King was fatally injured after a train collided with her vehicle at a crossing on Eddyville-Nashville Highway. Two of her sisters were in the car and survived.
Neil was born at 3 lbs. 2 oz. and has been at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland for two months. He now tips the scales at 6 lbs. 5 oz.
A college trust fund for Neil has been set up at Oregon State University Federal Credit Union as a memorial to Mrs. King.
Neil is the grandson of Jim and Jeryl Lewis of Sweet Home, Robert and Katherine Worthington of Sweet Home and Christine and Dr. Theodore King of Massachusetts.
The money from the rockathon is to be used as the King family sees fit, for medical bills or other necessities, English teacher Matt Leitzen said.
The fund-raising effort was organized by the Welcome Everybody (WEB) class, “a community service class where we try to help kids become leaders in the community and school,” Leitzen said. Kristin Adams, who co-teaches the WEB class, also helped organize the effort.
The rockathon was the first of many projects WEB leaders will do this year.
“The teachers decided that we should do something for the family, in memory of Dawn and how great a teacer she was here,” Leitzen said. “She was highly thought of here at the junior high. All the kids knew her. We’re so proud of the kids. They really stepped up.”
The WEB class had set a goal of $500, but they raised more than three times that amount.
Participating students spent three shifts, four and a half hours, rocking continuously in rocking chairs at the junior high while watching movies on Sept. 29.