FROM PAGE ONE
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2022
BLOOD
Continued from Page A1
have begun to feel the eff ects.
Most blood that is donated
goes to local hospitals,
according to Caitlin Cozad,
marking and communica-
tions director for Good Shep-
herd Health Care System,
Hermiston.
“Community support of
American Red Cross blood
drives is essential to return
our blood supply to pre-
COVID minimum stocking
numbers,” she said. “We
especially need O-nega-
tive donors. This is one way
you can serve your com-
munity and help ensure a
stable blood supply for local
hospitals.”
It is unclear to what
degree the pandemic has
aff ected the amount of blood
donations. Some areas, such
as La Grande and Baker
City, have experienced an
uptick in donations this
year in comparison to other
areas in the region. Still, the
American Red Cross noted
that nationwide blood dona-
tions have gone down 10%
since the beginning of the
pandemic.
“We have experienced
critical blood supply issues
in the past months. We have
had no units of O-negative
on the shelf two times and
zero O-positive one time,”
said Ronda Reisdorph, a lab-
oratory manager at Hermis-
ton’s Good Shepherd Med-
ical Center. “We have been
running with less than min-
imum thresholds in the past
few months and no chance
for restocking even with
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Jake Yoste, a phlebotomy technician with the American Red Cross, explains the blood donation process
to Elena Nightingale at the community blood drive at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in La
Grande on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022.
emergent cases.”
While the medical
center expects to receive an
increased supply over the
coming weeks to supplement
its stockpile due, there’s no
indication that the national
blood shortage will improve
in the near future.
The American Red Cross
supplies approximately 40%
of the nation’s blood supply,
according to the organiza-
tion, and some hospitals
might receive as little as 25%
of their requested blood sup-
plies in the coming weeks.
Hospitals normally keep a
steady supply of blood for
routine procedures but can
request more in the event
of a mass casualty or injury
event.
Since much of the blood
that arrives in hospitals
comes from the arms of local
community members, due to
the large turnout for Union
County blood drives, some
local hospitals have fared
better in the national crisis.
Mardi Ford, director of
communications at Grande
Ronde Hospital, La Grande,
credited the work of hus-
band and wife duo Linda
and Sheldon Strand, who run
La Grande’s American Red
Cross blood drives, as a key
factor in ensuring Grande
Ronde Hospital has an ade-
quate blood supply. Ford said
the hospital works closely
with the American Red
Cross and has an internal
system that is used to track
blood supply levels.
Ford said the hospital
has only had a couple of
instances in the past few
GEOMETRY
Continued from Page A1
have studied parallel
lines, they may construct
wall frames under the
guidance of Wyatt and
Townsend.
“They will see how par-
allel lines are important
to framing a wall. Instead
of reading about this in
a book, they are learning
about parallel lines in real
life,” Wyatt said.
Geometry in Con-
struction students are
busy building struc-
tures including outdoor
pet shelters and soon will
start building chicken
coops. Wyatt, who has
taught math at Union
High School for several
years, said that earlier
her students often asked
her about how geometry
applies to real life.
Wyatt is rarely asked
such questions by the stu-
dents in the Geometry in
Construction class.
“They see the connec-
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group
Kyle Boren, a student with the woodshop class, pushes a piece of
wood through a table saw at Union High School on Monday, Jan.
31, 2022. Boren is building a cutting board as personal project. The
new woodshop and welding building at Union High School was ren-
ovated from a bus barn, and includes several woodshop tools such
as miter saws, planers, a CNC router, table saws, drill presses, palm
sanders and large working tables.
tion right away,” she said.
The woodshop stu-
dents are also beginning
to note how math applies
to the real world outside of
construction.
“They see that math is
all around us,” Wyatt said.
The Geometry in Con-
struction class is modeled
after a program started
about 12 years ago by
a group of educators in
Loveland, Colorado. Union
educators took the foun-
dation of the curriculum
the Colorado educators
created and adapted it to
their district, according
to Union School District
years where blood supplies
reached critical levels.
“We are proactive in
making sure that we have
what we need to serve our
patients,” she said. “That’s
one of the beauties of being
small and independent. We
have options on how we’re
able to do things.”
Wallowa Memorial Hos-
pital, Enterprise, recently
received shipments where the
requested blood supply was
not provided.
“Fortunately, we work
with the Red Cross on a
blood rotation to keep us at
optimal levels and have held
on to a supply of the shorted
products,” said Brooke Pace,
director of communications
and public relations. “We do
this to ensure that nothing
is wasted because of out-
Superintendent Carter
Wells.
The geometry students
are doing construction
work in what was formerly
the school district’s old
bus barn. The structure
was dramatically reno-
vated last summer, and the
new woodshop provides
the additional space neces-
sary to off er Geometry in
Construction, Townsend
said.
The bus barn was ren-
ovated with funds from
a $140,000 state Career
Technical Education grant
the school district received
in 2021. The application
for the grant was written
by Karolyn Kelley, Union
High School’s agriculture
sciences teacher and FFA
adviser.
“None of this would
have been possible if
Karolyn Kelley had not
written the application
for the CTE revitalization
grant,” Wells said. “We
are very excited and very
grateful for all of the work
she has done to make this
THE OBSERVER — A5
dating. We can still transfer
units to regional hospitals in
our area if dating becomes a
concern.”
Stefanie Davidson, Wal-
lowa Memorial Hospital’s
lab director, urged residents
to donate blood amid the
growing national shortage,
even as local supplies remain
steady.
“Even though we still
have an above critical supply,
the national shortage is a
concern, and we would like
to encourage anyone who
can to get out and donate,”
she said.
Pendleton’s CHI St.
Anthony Hospital fared
better than other hospitals in
the region, according to the
hospital’s president, Harold
Geller, who noted the hos-
pital was well stocked.
“There is always a con-
cern, pandemic or not,” he
said. “We here at St. Anthony
have taken steps to be pre-
pared as best as possible.”
Even still, the hospital
president did not mince
words about the national
shortage.
“Please donate blood,” he
said. “Now.”
Changing the rules
The blood crisis also has
renewed an eff ort by law-
makers to change the rules
regarding donations by those
in the LGBT community.
Senators from across the
nation signed a letter on Jan.
14 urging the Food and Drug
Administration to change
the rules to allow men in
same-sex relationships to
donate blood. In total, 22
senators signed their names
to the letter, including Dem-
possible.”
The grant money cov-
ered the cost of new wood-
shop equipment, including
circular saws, table saws,
planers and hand tools.
The grant also paid for the
addition of new equipment
for the school’s metal shop,
including new welding
equipment.
The school district’s
CTE program was also
boosted by money from
the state’s Student Invest-
ment Account fund, which
allowed the school district
to hire Townsend, who
is in his fi rst year as the
school’s woodshop teacher.
Wells hopes that his
school district’s wood-
shop space can later be
expanded by about 2,500
square feet with additional
grant funding from the
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recreational area.
“The MERA was pur-
chased with the objective of
making it a multi-use rec-
reational area, an objective
that has been successful
beyond what anyone imag-
ined,” said Meg Cooke,
reading a letter from Kate
Pfi ster-Minogue on behalf
of Friends of MERA. “We
would like to honor that suc-
cess as forest management
proceeds.”
While those opposed to
the project favor fi re preven-
tion, the written letter voiced
two major concerns over
large trees at MERA and
mastication. The letter also
called into question the pro-
cess in which Union County
planned the project, ques-
tioning the decision-making
process amid a perceived
lack of public input.
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heavier mastication along-
side two of the main roads
connecting MERA.
Chambers also stated that
ReedCo has been cognizant
of public concerns regarding
work on MERA.
“They’re very aware of
the concerns of the general
public and the product we’re
looking to achieve here,” he
said. “I’ve been impressed
with their being attentive to
that.”
Chambers said the time
frame of the project moving
forward is dependent on
weather and ground condi-
tions. Frozen grounds allow
for more productive work,
while daily rises in tem-
perature can adjust plans
quickly.
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sive species.
Sean Chambers, Union
County’s parks man-
ager, spoke throughout the
meeting and answered sev-
eral questions regarding
mastication. He stated that
the project is not a mass
mastication plan, with minor
work being done on shrubs
in particular. Chambers
noted that the mastication
will not be nearly as con-
siderable as the fi rebreak
project conducted at MERA
a year ago.
Chuck Sarrett, a for-
ester contracted by Union
County, further explained at
the meeting that shrubs and
brush are not a main target
of the project. He stated
that there may be a slightly
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††
The group expressed
a desire to work together
moving forward, seeing
as the logging project is
underway.
The letter stated oppo-
sition to cutting down
large-diameter trees, saying
that larger trees are already
in short supply in the region
due to logging, large trees
survive fi res better than
shorter ones, and are essen-
tial for forest restoration
after fi res.
“We are entirely sup-
portive of forest restoration
on MERA,” Cooke read
from the letter. “We think
that one of the main priori-
ties of this project should be
to preserve and protect the
large trees to the greatest
extent possible.”
The second concern
voiced in the letter was the
use of mastication on shrubs
and bushes, which the letter
stated is destructive to soil
integrity and leads to inva-
state, which, he said, could
allow the Geometry in
Construction class to take
on larger projects, such
as modular homes. Wells
stressed, though, that it
may be some time before
Union’s CTE program
reaches this point
But he is optimistic.
“This is an exciting
time,” he said.
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MERA
ocratic Oregon Sens. Ron
Wyden and Jeff Merkley.
“In light of the nation’s
urgent blood supply crisis
and to ensure that Americans
have access to life-saving
blood transfusions during
the pandemic, we urge you
to swiftly update your cur-
rent blood donor deferral pol-
icies in favor of ones that are
grounded in science, based
on individualized risk fac-
tors, and allow all poten-
tially eligible donors to do so
free of stigma,” the senators
wrote Department of Health
and Human Services Sec-
retary Xavier Becerra and
FDA Acting Commissioner
Janet Woodcock.
In 1983, the federal gov-
ernment placed a life-
time ban on gay men from
donating blood, at the height
of the HIV/AIDS scares of
the 1980s. Those rules were
relaxed in 2015 by requiring
one year of abstinence, and
then reduced further to three
months in 2020.
The letter noted that
advances in testing technolo-
gies would allow for gay and
bisexual men to safely donate
blood, and criticized the
time-based guidelines that
perpetuates stereotypes.
“It is critical that all
patients have access to the
health care services they
need during this pandemic,
and for many, the availability
of blood and blood prod-
ucts is a necessary compo-
nent of care,” the letter said.
“Unfortunately, a signifi cant
drop in the number of dona-
tions during the COVID-19
pandemic has resulted in a
serious shortage of available
blood.”
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