High school students raise over $10000 to help beloved teacher's wife undergo heart surgery

Just when people think there is no hope, help comes from unexpected places. Clayton Guy, a 62-year-old teacher from Arcadia High School in Phoenix, Arizona, required monetary help to cover the cost of his wife's crucial heart surgery. A group of high school seniors from the same school came forward to aid their beloved teacher in these tough times. The students started a GoFundMe and raised over $10000 for Mr. Guy.

"We just need more kind acts, no matter how small it is or how large it is," Parker Bond, a 2023 graduate of the high school who started the GoFundMe on behalf of Guy, told Fox News. "A teacher like Mr. Guy who gave so much to us when he was down in a situation like this was able to receive back because of his kindness and all he did for us." Guy has been teaching government and economics at the high school since 2004 and Bond was in his class of 2022, reports New York Post.

"Mr. Guy always has a lot of energy," Bond continued. "He tries to include everybody in the class, so he wasn’t one of those quiet teachers who just sits there and expects you to do it. He is very involved with the participation and he could talk to anybody. He’s just very outgoing. He could have a conversation with anyone." Guy has been in the teaching profession since 1997 and he admitted to enjoying the subject he teaches.

In the words of Bond, Mr. Guy was responsible for making a seemingly boring subject really interesting to his students. "I mean, government can be a very boring class, depending on the teacher," Bond told the outlet. "But some of the lessons we did, like a mock congress, were interesting. So we did a lot of fun lessons instead of just taking notes and learning that way." Guy revealed that he hates students sitting quietly and not actively participating in the lesson.

However, last spring, Bond said that he and other students noticed a change in Mr. Guy's usually enthusiastic demeanor. Eventually, he ended up telling his students that his 59-year-old wife, Angel, was suffering from chest pains and the doctors told him that she would be needing an open-heart surgery to fix a blockage in her heart. "I was missing days and missing time, and on March 11, we did the surgery. Then I had to be out from that day on because I was her nurse and the person who would give her the pills and take care of her and be at the hospital," Guy recalled.

Bond and his classmates researched Angel's case and found out that her surgery would be quite pricey even with insurance. "We knew he was very stressed, with his wife needing open-heart surgery and that’s not a very fun thing to have to go through," Bond added. Then, he and a bunch of other students decided to start a fundraiser for him. Mr. Guy was surprised by his students' willingness to help him but he initially refused their idea of a fundraiser. 

Mr. Guy was emotional that his students cared about him and his family so deeply. After raising a couple hundred bucks on the first day, they finally hit their goal of collecting $10000. Mr. Guy further revealed that Angel's surgery went well and she is recovering. "I think she’s doing well, but you hear it takes six months to heal. But she’s in good spirits and she’s happy," Guy said. "The students were very kindhearted, and they did it on their own. They did it without prompting from a teacher or anybody else." As for Bond, he was glad to contribute to a cause like this for the first time.