Community comes together to help injured chemistry teacher

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - Melody Larsen has sold thousands of sugar cookies in the past week.

"We have amazing sugar cookies to begin with," she said. "We sell a lot of them, a lot of the people in the community know just how great our sugar cookies are."

But these cookies are special, just like Mr. M, the chemistry teacher she's baking them for.

"We decided that it would be a good idea to maybe have a little bake sale and sell some of our sugar cookies, offer them to the community and then the proceeds, the funds that we raise would go to the family and help them with any expenses they're occurring while he's in the hospital."

On May 17th, Bill Mellyn was riding his bike along McKellips Road near Lindsay, when he was hit by a speeding car.

The beloved chemistry teacher is now in a coma.

With the community impacted, the students whose lives he touched are doing what they can.

"Mr. Mellyn was the teacher you wanted to show up to class." one student said.

Mr. M was set to retire at the end of this school year and a GoFundMe page has helped raised thousands of dollars.

"It's been overwhelming to see the love for this man that the community has," Larsen said.

Larsen has added over $1,000 from her sugar cookie sales and is hopeful her impact is as big as Mr. M's has been.