COLUMBIANA Pupils to score funds for heart association

Hoops for Heart will also raise money for cancer research in memory of a pupil.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
COLUMBIANA -- Crestview physical education teacher Greg Rinyo thinks this year's eighth-graders could set a record next week.
Not for speed or distance or points scored, but for dollars raised.
For the past eight years, Rinyo and Cyndi Straney have taught physical education and health at Crestview Middle School. Each of those years they've organized the American Heart Association's Hoops for Heart fund-raiser, in which pupils participate in a variety of basketball-skill contests in return for donations.
Rinyo said about 100 eighth-graders each year have been able to coax friends, family and area business owners to donate to the American Heart Association, raising between $700 and $1,500 each year.
Rinyo said he and Straney schedule Hoops for Heart near Christmas break each year because of the Christmas emphasis on charitable giving.
Getting personal
He said some pupils raise funds during the week on behalf of friends or relatives who have heart ailments or have died from heart disease.
He thinks this year's class may top the $1,500 mark because they are also raising money for the American Cancer Society in memory of Zachary Garwood, a 12-year-old Crestview seventh-grader who died Monday after a long battle with cancer.
He said Zachary's death has brought the need for such fund-raisers close to home and given the pupils incentive to raise as much money as possible.
The eighth-graders will spend the weekend raising support, and donations will be made daily Monday through Thursday as the pupils participate in the contests during gym and health classes.
Besides raising money from friends and family, the pupils have also secured sponsors who will donate on various days throughout the week.