Students raise money for instructor with cancer

MOSES LAKE — An instructor with cancer is getting help from the same students he assisted over the years.

Big Bend Community College computer science instructor and Moses Lake resident Vern Campbell, 47, was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma cancer. Several students set up jars at area businesses to raise money for his medical bills and established an account at Key Bank in his name. As of Friday, $260 was raised.

Student Barb Harris, who helped organize the fund-raiser, began taking classes with Campbell last summer and has since completed several of his courses.

"I'm an older student and I've had a head injury — and I'm blonde," Harris joked.

Campbell finds alternative ways to explain the instructional materials so everyone understands, she said.

He and his family travel to Wenatchee for treatment five days per week. Several weeks of radiation treatment remains, she said.

"I just know they're in terrible financial straights," Harris said.

Because of his weakened immune system, Campbell cannot ride a bus to his treatments, she said. He stopped teaching in the middle of the current quarter but plans to be back in fall, Harris said.

Student Connie Dixon, who is helping to raise funds, completed her first class with Campbell last quarter.

"I took to him right away," Dixon said. "He's an amazing person, he really is, and I feel like I've known him forever."

She said Campbell's teaching style allows him to take difficult material and make it easier to understand.

"I want people to be able to help him because he has helped the community so much through the college," Dixon said.