Local students raise more than $11,500 to help teacher buy new car

By Brooklyn Joyner

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    FLOWOOD, Mississippi (WAPT) — Students at Hartfield Academy raised $11,585 to help one of their teachers buy a new car. The teacher in Flowood survived what could have been a deadly car accident.

Last Tuesday, 79-year-old teacher Bruce Sumrall was on his way to a Hartfield Academy basketball game when, only miles away from the school, he was hit by another car.

“I don’t know what happened exactly, but I got hit head-on, wind up spinning around a little bit,” Sumrall said.

His car was totaled, but he left the scene without a scratch.

Soon after, he shared his story of survival with his students, and they welcomed him back with gratitude, but their hearts broke. They said they hated how the crash screwed up his summer plans to see his grandkids, who live far away.

“It made me feel very sad because my grandparents live like 5 minutes from me, and if I didn’t get to see them all the time, how sad I would be and how sad his grandchildren would be,” Callie Bradshaw, a senior at Hartfield Academy, said.

Thursday, two seniors, Callie Bradshaw and Saige Finie, decided to create a GoFundMe to buy Mr. Sumrall a new ride, and it’s gotten support from the entire senior class.

Sumrall has been teaching since the ’70s but has taught at Hartfield for only three years. The students say the impact he has made on them in such a short time makes them want to be better people.

“Even the day he got back from the wreck he wasn’t stressed. He was smiling, he was laughing. Even though he had so much to worry, he trusted in the Lord’s time, and he knew everything was going to be OK,” Finie said.

The students say Sumrall knows they have a surprise for him, but he’s not sure what is. He says he is thankful to accept whatever they give.

“I started teaching in 1970 and what we forget in this world is that kids are the same. They got distractions that we never had, but they are good, and if you love them, they’ll love you back,” Sumrall said.

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