One of Manhattan High’s own night custodians, Tiarra Harris, experienced the unthinkable. Her uncle, Gary Harris, suffered a heart attack at the wheel while transporting her son Devin Busick, an eighth grader at Eisenhower Middle School, causing him to lose control of the car. The vehicle eventually landed the two in a creek bed, severely injured.

After being transported to Via Christi Hospital in Manhattan, Gary passed away and Busick was life-flighted to Stormont-Vail in Topeka for serious brain injuries. From there, Busick was relocated to the Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Lincoln, Nebraska, to relearn basic functions, from talking to eating.

As anyone can imagine, treating traumatic injuries doesn’t take long to add up in terms of cost. The MHS chapter of Chick-fil-a Leader Academy has thought of one way to combat that: having a Hat Day fundraiser with the students of Manhattan. The event will take place this Thursday. To get involved, stop by the lunch table during both lunches at either campus to purchase a wristband for one dollar. Chick-fil-a Leader Academy students will also be selling wristbands at all entrances Thursday morning.

“Well how we will have it set up at every entrance like where the sophomore lot is by the front and by the side entrance,” senior Kinsey Levendofsky said. “We will have people set to where if you’d want to wear a hat, you just give them a dollar and then you’re free to wear your hat all day, and if you also want to contribute more you’re always welcome to talk to [Kristy] Nyp or [Darren] Allman or find one of the Chick-fil-a Leader Academy people and see how you can help and also [Nyp] knows a website, and there’s a website you can look onto and check his progress and see hows he’s doing.”

Wristband sales for Hat Day began last Friday and are already showing promising results.

“I think the fundraiser is going to do really well,” senior Sierra Sparbanie said. “I know as of the end of second lunch Friday, we had already made around $50, which for our first day of sales is impressive, in my opinion. I think the students will like the fundraiser a lot. It’s something everyone can partake in, also wearing a hat isn’t a privilege we as students ever get, so I think a lot of people will be excited about it.”

Another round of fundraising will be taking place after Spring Break as a competition among advisories. More details will be released for that later.

As for Busick’s recovery process thus far, he returned to school yesterday. Due to the varying specializations at the two middle schools, he now attends Anthony Middle School. However, he had a chance to stop by EMS last week and visit his friends.

If anyone is interested in donating money in a way that isn’t related to the Hat Day, contact Kristy Nyp at [email protected] or visit the GoFundMe webpage set up for Busick at https://www.gofundme.com/recovery-fund-for-devin.