Students surprise Cambridge family with keys to new van

The Heisefamily knew something was coming, but they never expected to receive a $10,190cheque and keys to a new minivan Friday morning during an assembly at Huron Heights Secondary Schoolin Kitchener.

"I thought there was going to be a small donation to my family," Terri Heise toldCBCNews. "I had no idea. No idea. This is blowing me away, seriously."

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Heise lives in Cambridge with her daughtersMaddie, 16, and Sophie, 10. She needed a new vehicle for work, to pick up her daughters from school, and to take Sophie to Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto for ongoing cancer treatment.

At the end of a school assembly, students withHuron Heights'sbusiness leadership course presented Heise and Sophie with the cheque and a smallbox, which contained the keys to a new Dodge minivan.

"I am incredibly numb, incrediblyoverwhelmed," she said. "I know that the school and the young men and women who did this are amazing. It's just been incredible."

Heise and her daughters will bevisiting her husband, who is in a long-term care facility in NiagaraFalls, for the holidays and she said she will feel safer driving there in her new van.

'It felt amazing'

Each year,students Huron Heights are in charge of raisingfunds for a local family in need though the school's Charity Silent Auction.

In October, thebusiness leadership class received donations from local businessesaround the region, which theyauctioned on Dec.7.

"I've been excited aboutthis for so long," said Alita Yon, a Grade 12 student in the course. "It felt amazing just because the [van] was the main thing she wanted. The fact that we got the money and the car was just amazing. I teared up and wanted to cry."

The class originallywanted to raise money to help Terri buy a new vehicle, but instead got help from Mark Ell and Gareth Armour with Galt Chrysler, who donated the van.

Armour said heheard about Terri's story through his brother-in-law, a teacher at Huron Heights, and sent Ell,the general manager, a letter asking if they could help.

"I had to read ittwice because I couldn't believe what I was seeing," Ell told CBCNews."It was hard to keep a dry eye after seeing [Terri's reaction]."