By Alissa Jehl

As every student in a math class is surely aware of, Pi day was March 14. Pi day, or “Pie day”
occurs every year on the same date. Some math teachers pass out pie to their students, but
Walled Lake Central math teacher Denise Shene took a different approach to make her students
aware and raise money for a good cause, former PE teacher Kirk Pedersen.

A week before Pi day, Shene set up two buckets in her classroom: one bucket was for donations,
and the other was for her raffle. For every dollar a student donated, he/she got one ticket in the
raffle where the grand prize was for the opportunity to throw a pie in her face.

“I just want to raise money for a good cause,” explained Shene when talking to her students, “so
I figured this was worth it.”

Senior Crystal Atty was the lucky winner chosen to pie Shene on Pi Day. “I put 5 entries in,”
explained Atty, “and I’m not going to lie, after two years of having her as a teacher, it felt pretty
good to pie her in the face.”

Walled Lake Central throws many fun events to raise money for Pedersen such as Volleyball
Marathon and dodge ball tournaments; this was Shene’s creative way of raising money.

In 2008, Pedersen fell from a tree stand while hunting and suffered a life changing spinal cord
injury. When Pedersen fell, he was left in pain unable to move for hours until somebody finally
came to find him. Years later, Pedersen is paralyzed and his spinal cord injury has changed his
life forever.