Poland students, community lend support to classmate recovering from aneurysm

POLAND

A group of Poland Seminary High School students spent their first Friday night of summer vacation hanging out at school.

They weren’t there against their will; the students showed up in droves to support their classmate, 18-year-old Gabriella Hryb, who is recovering after suffering a ruptured brain aneurysm in April.

Friday night’s fundraising event – the Family Fun Night – was in the Bulldogs’ stadium and included games, auctions, food vendors and an outdoor movie screening on the football field.

Gabriella and her family – her father, Jimmy, mother, Christine, brother Jacob and sister Gianna – attended the fundraiser and were showered with support upon arrival.

Julie Walsh, a family and career sciences teacher at PSHS who instructed Gabriella, was the fundraiser’s primary organizer. She said the event began when her students – she also is the adviser for the school’s Family Careers and Community Leaders of America extracurricular organization – asked what they could do to support their classmate.

The fundraiser started as a movie screening and grew to encompass a number of events, food vendors and supporting organizations.

“The kids came to me with the idea, and I said, ‘Well, if we’re going to do this, let’s go big,’” Walsh said.

Read more about he event and its honoree in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.