EFFORT -- One of the victims killed in the school shooting in Florida grew up in the Poconos.
Chris Hixon, 49, graduated from Pleasant Valley High School in 1986. He grew up in the community of Effort but then left the area to join the Navy.
Hixon was one of the 17 killed in a school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.
But before the athletic director moved to Florida, he grew up in Effort in Monroe County.
At Western Pocono Community Library near Brodheadsville, his yearbook told us a little bit about who he was as a teenager.
Hixon graduated from Pleasant Valley High School in 1986. He was on the Pleasant Valley football team and he was senior class president.
The Pleasant Valley School District posted a comment on the district Twitter and Facebook page reporting the loss of one of their own.
Leonard White lives in Albrightsville and says hearing about the shooting is bad enough, but learning someone from our area didn't make it out, really hits home.
"It's terrible, really. I have no more to say about it. It's crazy."
In 2007, Hixon was deployed to Iraq as a U.S. Naval Reservist.
He was currently employed as the athletic director at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and worked with campus security at the school before he was killed in Wednesday's shooting.
Words of praise for the athletic director flood social media. A Florida student who made it out alive even acknowledged him.
"One of our campus security guards, in addition to his role of being the athletic director, he was a great guy and I know that he was a father."
District officials there say Hixon will be fondly remembered by all members of the Pleasant Valley community.