The Refuge youth group hosted a fundraiser for Searcy’s orchestra teacher, Megan Joyner, by working at Chick-Fil-A for “Spirit Night.”

“Mrs. Joyner is a wonderful teacher; I just felt like we needed to do something good for her,” said sophomore orchestra member Ashley Pigg. “We cleaned tables, refilled drinks, swept, mopped, et cetera to get donations. Along with that, when someone went up to order they were supposed to say ‘I’m with the Refuge.’ Out of all the money made that night, we got 20 percent.”

The group was open for donations too.

“We had little jars everywhere so that people could put extra change in there. Some students even went to the drive-thru to get some donations,” said sophomore orchestra member Bree Foster.

“We raised a little over $700 just with donations,” said sophomore orchestra member Kayla Dudley. “People were extremely generous.”

A raffle game was played for prizes. Tickets were bought at a dollar per ticket.

“We had a good amount of people play the game. Some would just donation money, but not participate,” said youth pastor’s wife Diana Brassfield. “We were blessed to have all the people give so generously. One man put a $100 dollar bill in the jar; that was pretty awesome to witness.”

The prizes were coupons to Mazzios, Zaxby’s, Sweet Spot, Ryan’s, and other places.

“Every few minutes we would draw a name, with a phone number, out of a jar. Whoever won got the prize, whether they were there or not,” said Foster.

Joyner’s husband, Josh, was sick for several years with cancer, before he died  December 31. Joyner had no idea about the fundraiser, even though everyone else did. It was a Christmas present from the Orchestra.

“With the holidays coming up, we thought it would be nice for her to have a little extra money to get her four-year- old son something nice,” said Pigg. “The hospital bills were really expensive.”

All together, they raised over $2,000 and $1,023.29 came from the “Spirit Night.”