Apollo Elementary third graders were able to once again release Coho salmon into Issaquah Creek March 21, after a generous donor kept the program alive.

When the state cut funding for Salmon in the Classroom, which is at four Issaquah School District schools, Jerry Pearson decided it was too important of a program to let go. He donated the $900 needed to keep it afloat in seven Issaquah and Snoqualmie district schools.

Wednesday he had the honor of releasing one of the fry, which the students raised, into the creek with his grandson Dylan, who attends one of the schools that has the salmon program.

Pearson remembers when he was a boy and first learned about salmon from a tour of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery. He wanted to keep that education going for the next generation.

At the release, parents brought children after schools, and each took turns dipping plastic cups into buckets and releasing the fish into the creek. Some students took the time to study the fish one last time, a few even named them, before freeing them into the wild.

Students and a family release Coho salmon fry into Issaquah Creek as a part of the Salmon in the ClassrOom project March 21. BY CELESTE GRACEY

Students at Apollo Elementary School raise the Coho salmon from eggs to fry. BY CELESTE GRACEY

Anthony Magnus, a sibling of an Apollo student, studies his fish before freeing it into the wild. BY CELESTE GRACEY

Apollo Elementary students release fry Coho they raised into Issaquah Creek March 21. BY CELESTE GRACEY