Seventh grade student to host Pasta for Poole

A seventh grade student in RCS Middle School is organizing a fundraiser for ill foreign language teacher Colin Poole.

Adam McCoy organized the Pasta for Poole event that will be held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Ravena on March 29. The event will run from 4 p.m. to 7p.m.

Tickets for the event cost $9 for adults and $4.50. for children.

McCoy only had Poole for a brief period this year before the foreign language teacher was forced into a sick leave after discovering a rare form of cancer .

"I learned a lot from him in that month,"  McCoy said.

Poole, who lives in Colonie, is battling Burkitt’s lymphoma. Burkitt lymphoma is a very fast growing form of  non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The young teacher - he is just 28 years old – was diagnosed with disease just after the school year began and is receiving aggressive treatment at New York City’s Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

To offset some of the astronomical costs he has incurred, the district has conducted several fundraisers this year.

McCoy's mother, Marcia, said her son was particularly touched by Poole's plight because he lost two grandparents to cancer.

"He just felt that he wanted to do something to help Mr. Poole," she said.