Giving something for Devon

Lolita Harper

It all started with a little tug on her heart strings as she watched

a young family friend fight leukemia.

Following that pull, 12-year-old Shannon McCroskey, snapped into

action and yanked her entire sixth-grade class into action.

McCroskey and the sixth-graders at Andersen Elementary donated

$1,096 to Children’s Hospital of Orange County in honor of 8-year-old

Devon Oddy, who spent three weeks there, waging a victorious battle

against leukemia.

Devon, a Huntington Beach resident, underwent her session of

chemotherapy last month, hopefully marking the beginning of full

remission. So others with similar ailments can have the expert care

Devon received, the graduating sixth graders sold candy, toffee and

lollipops throughout the school year to raise money for charity.

Shannon and three girlfriends designated their earnings to CHOC

from the beginning of the fund-raising campaign and by the end of the

year, the entire class agreed the hospital was a worthy recipient.

“There were only four of us at first but in the end, the whole

class came together,” Shannon said.

The 12-year-old, who was scheduled to start her first day of

middle school at Corona del Mar today, not only convinced her class

to join her cause but wrote her own press release, announcing her

peers’ feat. The up-and-coming reporter said she applied for the

journalism class at her new school and was crossing her fingers for

acceptance.

While she is excited about reaching a new educational plateau, she

paid a huge debt of gratitude to her former elementary school

teachers.

“We could not have done it without Ms. [Patty] Delgado and Mr.

[Rich] Rodriguez,” she said.