CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – It started as a joking suggestion from a teacher to a student. It grew into an outpouring of generosity for the family of a sister and brother both stricken with cancer.

Manchester Memorial High School senior Nathan Burditt was telling teacher Christine Monahan last month about the 34 hours he spent outside a Target store waiting to buy two Sony Playstation 3 systems when she chimed in.

“I said you know what you should do with one of those … donate it to the raffle,” Monahan said in a telephone interview Tuesday. She was organizing a fundraiser for Stephanie and Kevin Hudon. “I was completely sarcastic.”

Burditt, 18, took her seriously. One system was promised to his mother, but within an hour of his chat with Monahan he was back to agree to the donation.

His explanation is simple. “I’ve had my tough times,” he said Tuesday of medical problems that included frequent trips to a Boston hospital as a child and heart surgery last summer.

Burditt’s donation of the $600 videogame sent the fundraising project to a new level.

Monahan had been hoping to raise $500 to help the family pay some bills and buy Christmas gifts.

They raised $21,000. One group of seventh graders raised $800. People from all over the country sent cards with $100 checks to the school, Monahan said.

Meanwhile, Burditt won his Playstation back – albeit reluctantly.

Burditt isn’t sure what he’s going to do with the videogame – he wanted to sell it and donate the money to the Hudons, but the family said no.

“They had said I’ve already done enough. I don’t really see it the say way, but I’m not going to go against what they say.”

Separately, students, their families and school staff donated $5,000 worth of gifts, including an iPod, laptop computers, digital camera, big screen TV and gift cards to the Hudons, their cousins and the aunt and uncle who have raised them. Actor Adam Sandler, a New Hampshire native, sent a Playstation 3 loaded with games, signed DVDs, jerseys and an autographed “Longest Yard” poster to Stephanie and Kevin.

A charity donated a second-hand car so the Hudons have a safe and comfortable ride during frequent trips to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon for treatments.

“We didn’t expect this much” said 15-year-old freshman Stephanie Hudon, who suffers from bone cancer that recently spread to her lungs.

She is scheduled for surgery Jan. 8. Kevin, 18, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in November and is undergoing chemotherapy.

“Everybody out there, I just wanted to say thank you and my family thanks you,” Stephanie said.

Ann Lawrence, the Hudons’ aunt said the donations are a huge help for the family’s stretched finances. With two sick children to care for, she has been unable to return to work while travel, health and other household expenses piled up.

“Things have built up,” she said. “We don’t typically use credit cards but we did open a couple and use them in order to make ends meet.”

Lawrence said the family never expected contributions to grow so large.

“It’s amazing, it’s wonderful,” she said. “You don’t expect things to go to this extreme.”

AP-ES-12-26-06 1217EST