Community rallies around Washington County boy with gift of new leg

By Laura Polacheck

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    WASHINGTON COUNTY, Utah (KSTU) — Each year students from Pine View High School in Washington County raise money to help a student in need; it could be a child fighting cancer, or whose family has faced a natural disaster.

But this year, they got a special surprise—help from local riding clubs

This year, the student selected as “Mr. Pine View” was Hayden Barker, who lost his leg right before school started last fall when he fell from a pontoon boat on Lake Powell, and the propellor took off his leg. The student council from Pine View reached out to the community for help buying him an athletic prosthetic leg.

That’s when Celtic Crusaders and FAME RC decided to rally together and present Hayden with the $1,300 they raised to help him receive his new leg.

But Washington Elementary School Principal Kelly Mitchell had a plan to make it memorable for the entire school, as he arranged to have the riding clubs’ members rode around the school’s playground Friday morning, circling the classrooms and drawing the students outside for the surprise.

Hayden not only received a check, but a chance to sit on a bike, fist bump with club members, and a memory that will last for years to come.

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