The greatest community on Earth

BY PAM STEVENS | EDITOR Hundreds come together to support a
friend in need Last Thursday, Sept. 18, over 850 people stood in line in front of Lake Stevens High School to pay $7 for a spaghetti dinner and auction in an effort to raise funds for Lake Stevens’ Line Coach Kyle Bigham, or Coach Biggs, as he is now known.

Bigham, who collapsed at the season opener football game three weeks ago in front of a crowd of hundreds, was rushed to the hospital after receiving CPR on the football field and actually being pronounced clinically dead for a few minutes.

Bigham is now recovering at his parent’s home with a new defibrillator implanted on his heart. However, he has no health insurance and is not able to return to work as a taxi driver in Seattle for some time.

Students, parents and teachers decided to hold a “Bucks for Biggs” spaghetti feed and auction Last Thursday, Sept. 18, over 850 people stood in line in front of Lake Stevens High School to pay $7 for a spaghetti dinner and auction in an effort to raise funds for Lake Stevens’ Line Coach Kyle Bigham, or Coach Biggs, as he is now known.

Bigham, who collapsed at the season opener football game three weeks ago in front of a crowd of hundreds, was rushed to the hospital after receiving CPR on the football field and actually being pronounced clinically dead for a few minutes.

Bigham is now recovering at his parent’s home with a new defibrillator implanted on his heart. However, he has no health insurance and is not able to return to work as a taxi driver in Seattle for some time.

Students, parents and teachers decided to hold a “Bucks for Biggs” spaghetti feed and auction to raise money to help the coach with medical and living expenses. They pulled it off in just eight days with over 200 items donated for both the silent and live auctions and even an iPod and iPhone were raffled off that evening.

“As the Athletic Director, it makes me incredibly proud of the efforts of the entire Lake Stevens community including students, staff, parents, community and business leaders,” Lake Stevens High School Athletic Director Ed Bailey said. “I have been in education for 37 years and this is the single most amazing outpouring of support in a two-week period of time I have ever witnessed.” 

The auction raised over $27,500 on top of the over $9,000 that was previously collected.

Haggen donated the pasta, sauce, bread and water, Pepsi donated the drinks and Luca, from Luca’s Ristorante donated his spaghetti recipe and expertise.

Coach Biggs was able to attend the event and was overwhelmed by the outreach this community has given him.

“Obviously Kyle Bigham has touched a whole lot of lives in the past three years and the outpouring of love and caring folks led by Joe Cronin and his leadership class was nothing short of fantastic,” Bailey said. “What a great night to be a Viking!”

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