A Principled Stand Educator Camps Out To Raise Funds For Gymnasium

Camp on a hot tin roof?

That’s just what Ralph Walter, principal of Four Winds Christian Academy at Cheney, did for three days.

The first-through-eighth-grade school is trying to raise money for a new gym. Walter promised his 57 students he would spend a day on the school’s tin roof for every $300 dollars they raised.

So far, they have raised about $900.

Walter’s camp-out began May 13, when he carried a tent, sleeping pad, water, lawn chair and stereo up to the school’s roof.

Then the students took away the ladder.

“During the day, I had to ask one of my eighth-grade students, Austin McCulley, if I could go to the bathroom. I had five minutes,” he said.

“He was fair,” Walter added.

But sleeping on the roof is nothing like sleeping on the ground, he said. The corrugated tin roof soaked up the sun’s rays.

“It was very, very warm,” he said. “But it was about 20 degrees hotter on the roof.”

Walter, who has been principal at Four Winds for 10 years, had to depend on the kindness of students to keep him from going hungry.

At lunchtime, students brought him food.

“Everything that their mom and dad packed that they didn’t want, Mr. Walter got,” he said.

Students and neighbors brought him dinner.

Walter was able to wash his face thanks to the good graces of his students who hoisted up a bucket and a garden hose.

At night, he was given a cell phone in case of emergency.

“The kids made a sacrifice with their dimes and nickels and quarters. I made my commitment to them. We need to follow through on things,” Walter said.

And what is Walter doing this weekend?

Going camping, he said. But this time, it’s at ground-level.

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