LAKE STEVENS — Levi Smith felt unsteady.

With good grades, a knack for soccer and basketball and a growing interest in music, the ninth-grader’s future seemed promising, but something wasn’t right. He had trouble standing. During class in Lake Stevens, he felt like was going to topple over.

Yet emergency room doctors said he seemed healthy.

A week later, Smith’s doctor ordered a CT scan. A tumor the size of a golf ball was growing beneath his skull.

The tumor wasn’t cancerous, but because it was close to vital areas of Smith’s brain, surgeons wanted to operate soon.

Over the next few years, Smith spent weeks in the hospital. He endured several surgeries, including a risky 16-hour operation that could have left him paralyzed or deaf. Instead, he temporarily lost his voice and the ability to swallow — not good for an aspiring musician . . .

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The drive-in icon has long been the subject of pranks by the senior class

LAKE STEVENS — The chicken is flying high once again.

The fiberglass fryer with a prank-pocked past spent Thursday suspended in a cage held aloft by a crane truck, 30 feet above the Lake Stevens High School parking lot.

It got some attention.

“I thought it was pretty amazing,” said junior Noble Larson, 17.

With a newer incarnation of the rooster stolen several months ago and still missing in action, two plucky Lake Stevens High School seniors took matters into their own hands.

They got a hold of the original bird, the poultry that perched atop the Chicken Drive-In from 1968 to 1995. Dave Huber, who acquired the rooster when he bought the drive-in property, gave his permission . . .

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In true Lake Stevens High School senior style and what looks to be the original Chicken, which my brother stole (and returned) and like so many before him, is located in the LSHS parking lot hoisted and caged like a bird. Ahh…the pure ingenuity from the class of 2008! You have done the alumni proud!

The owner of the Chicken is offering a $100 reward to anyone offering information that leads to the recovery of the Chicken.

Please email us at info@savethechicken.org with your number or you can call Trisha at 425-210-3320.  Your personal information will be kept confidential.

Sunnycrest Elementary is asking for coins from students to help recover the stolen money from the vandalism that occured over the weekend of May 17-18. This is part of the second year that Sunnycrest students have been involved with learning about community heroes through a project called Giraffe Project. Through this project they have heard about many stories of young and old alike who “stick out their necks out” and demonstrate caring, persistence and taking action in our community.

During May 28th - June 4th be sure to have your children round up coins, cards and letters to support our neighbors at Riverview Elementary. Even if your student doesn’t attend Sunnycrest and you would still like to donate swing by the school office located at 3411 99th Ave NE, Lake Stevens. Contacts are Laurie Schreiber and Ginny Connell, school counselors.

See the Everett Herald article from May 20th.