Blood Drive Visits BHS

This year’s blood drive at Bigfork High will take place on February 14

A routine sanitization of an arm in preparation for drawing blood, courtesy of [vert: Desert News.
Horo: Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation.] Donate blood this upcoming Valentine’s Day and
‘share the love’ with those in need.
BY MAYA HARTIG cancer, or sickle cell disease may and Carter’s experience contrib-

V
all need blood.” ute to the ‘taboo,’ so to speak, of
ampires—for hundreds of Now, many students may know donating blood. The mere idea
years, these parasites have the Red Cross in more of a mythi- of losing that much blood can be
plagued the movie theaters, book- cal sense; this organization seems terrifying, especially to teenag-
shops, and necks of the world. In to always hover over the heads of ers. Despite this, both Carter and
fact, they are showing up in pop students, but never shows itself Lewis encourage BHS students to
culture more often than many long enough for anyone to prove it give blood, even if the idea seems
people would like to admit, but as was actually there. However, with- frightening.
much as these tyrants need atten- out the Red Cross, the aforemen- “Many donors say they feel a
tion, they crave blood, and are not tioned patients would be severely great sense of gratification know-
the only ones to do so. at risk. ing they helped someone in need,
In a manner of speaking, there “The Red Cross is the single and they enjoy they juice and
are plenty of ‘vampires’ in the largest provider of blood prod- cookies,” says Lewis. Addition-
world; according to the Red Cross, ucts in the U.S., supplying about ally, Carter remarks that “we have
every two seconds, someone in 40 percent of the nation’s blood a shortage of blood,” especially
the United States is in need of supply each year by collecting O- blood which can be adminis-
blood. These people, though it nearly 13,000 donations every day tered to any other blood type and
may be disappointing, are not to keep up with demand,” says students should donate for this
vampires, but patients who may Lewis. reason alone.
not live without the contribution Because there are so many in Needles and the very sight
of someone else’s blood. need, the Red Cross and other of blood may still seem daunt-
This is why the Bigfork High organizations such as hospitals ing to hesitant students. This is
School Student Council is holding or clinics work hard to gener- no problem for the Red Cross,
a blood drive on February 14. As ate enough blood just to keep though, because “90% of the Red
advisor to Student Council, math patients alive for the time being. Cross workforce are volunteers,”
teacher Josh Feller has been work- They travel to workplaces, busi- remarks Lewis. There are plenty
ing hard alongside students to ar- nesses, and even schools in an of volunteer opportunities waiting
range this crucial event. Without attempt to receive the required to be snatched up by the not-so-
Bigfork’s contribution to the blood amount of blood necessary from eager donor, and those interested
drive, the Red Cross may not col- the people they encounter. This can visit redcross.org for more
lect enough blood products to last part of the job, however, can be information and applications.
through the waiting period. the most troublesome. Any student can be proud of the
Natividad Lewis, an external “I have not donated blood,” says work they have done, but not ev-
communications manager for the Bigfork High School math teacher eryone can say they have saved a
Red Cross, explains that “these Jodi Carter. “They have a hard life. Carter, Lewis, and the student
blood products are needed to help time getting the blood out of me, council encourage every student
many patients for many different and I always pass out.” at BHS to donate blood on Febru-
reasons. Accident and burn vic- Lewis admits that “common ary 14. As Lewis says, “it is through
tims, heart surgery patients, organ concerns may be a fear of needles the efforts of ordinary people that
transplant patients, and those or not knowing if they are eligible we can do extraordinary things.”
receiving treatment for leukemia, to give blood.” These concerns

A Smoking Ordeal did not take him long to realize

Information concerning the ‘microwave fire’ that be coming from the microwave
plagued BHS shortly before Christmas break
Pictured above is one of the school’s fire
alarms, which was pulled by Connor Lawrence Shortly after-
on the day of the ‘fire.’
BY EVAN BENTON
people decided to head up to Mr. the students were allowed back
that something was definitely on
fire. All of the smoke appeared to
located outside of Mr. Appleby’s
classroom, and after informing
few people knew Beau of the issue at hand, Law-
what truly had rence was given permission to pull
happened. The the fire alarm.
aftermath of the Although Lawrence was un-
event did, how- sure of who the culprit was, he
ever, leave one was convinced that it had been
thing for certain: someone from Mr. Jessop’s fourth
the inside of the period class. Being that the micro-
school stank. wave in question had been right
A recent inter- outside of Jessop’s classroom at
view with junior the time, this assumption could
Connor Law- very well be reality. Another thing
rence, a witness to note is that at some time during
of the chaos, gave Christmas break, the microwave
further insight to was removed.
the what actually Right now, the general consen-
happened. Before sus concerning the item which
it all started, burned to a crisp in the now
Lawrence stated, absent microwave remains a
he had been “in single bag of popcorn. Although
Mr. B’s, chillin’.” this is probably true, it is surpris-
ing, because more than half of the
ward, Lawrence hallways in the building smelled
and a few other of smoke for at least an hour after

A nybody present at Bigfork

High School on December
21st likely remembers being herd- caught a whiff of something
ed outside into the cold air after
someone pulled the fire alarm.
Beside the rumors, there was not
much background knowledge
circulating as to this situation, so
Beau’s office for reasons unclear
at this time. Suddenly, Lawrence
inside.
The fact of the matter is that
something inside the BHS build-
strange and peeked his head into ing had burned, which definitely
the adjacent hallway. explained the speedy arrival of a
“The whole hallway was full of fire truck and several firefighters.
[smoke],” Lawrence recalled. It