NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
A3
Lunch Buddy program helps givers and receivers
Older students are
role models for
younger kids
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
High schoolers taking
part in the Lunch Buddy Pro-
gram at Prairie City School
were each paired with a
younger friend Oct. 3 at the
school cafeteria.
Jojari Field, a junior,
learned his lunch buddy, sec-
ond-grader Seth Gehrke,
likes art.
“Jojari likes basketball,”
Gehrke said.
Field said he’s looking
forward to being a positive
person in his lunch buddy’s
life.
“I just want to be there for
them and be their friend and
someone they can feel com-
fortable around,” he said.
After a lunch of chicken
sandwiches and choco-
late milk, Field was throw-
ing a junior-sized football to
Gehrke and a couple of his
classmates.
The high school students
received training the previous
day from Debi Hueckman,
who works as a community
development
coordinator
through the Department of
Human Services in John Day.
She explained that car-
ing volunteers in the Lunch
Buddy Program are matched
with students who would
benefit from individual and
positive attention.
“The program brings
another caring person into
the life of a child and offers
the opportunity for a positive
For the Eagle/Emily Ennis
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
Prairie City second-grader Lauralei Thomas visits with her lunch buddy Aleah Johns, a senior,
during lunch Oct. 3 at the cafeteria.
role model and friend,” said
Hueckman, who has been
recruiting volunteer men-
tors since the fall of 1993, the
program launching in Janu-
ary of 1994 at Humbolt Ele-
mentary School in Canyon
City.
She said she and Mike
Cosgrove, a former school
counselor, worked together
in the early years of the pro-
gram, which expanded to
Prairie City two years ago
and Monument School this
year.
The buddies share lunch
each week throughout the
school year.
“Kids benefit in a lot
of ways,” Hueckman said.
“They have a special rela-
tionship with someone who
listens, talks and laughs with
them. Mentors gain the sat-
isfaction of knowing they
have made a difference for a
child.”
Maxine Day, a counselor
at the school, said the pro-
gram has grown each year
since it started at Prairie City
School.
“The first year we had
around 10 lunch buddy part-
ners,” she said. “Last year
we had 14 lunch buddy part-
ners, and this year we have
the possibility of having 21
lunch buddy partners.”
In addition to the high
school students, they had one
adult male involved in the
program last year, and this
year they will have one adult
female.
Day said she’s seen
younger lunch buddies bene-
fit by learning skills such as
overcoming shyness, stand-
ing up for themselves in pos-
itive ways and supporting
others who may be having a
rough day.
She’s also found the pos-
itive aspects of the program
buddies go both ways.
“I see confidence rising on
both sides,” she said. “I see
lifelong friendships.”
She lauded Hueckman for
her work training the older
buddies, and topping it off
with an end of the school
year party.
Senior Shaine Madden
and junior Katie Hire were
looking forward to learn-
ing who their lunch bud-
dies would be the following
week.
Hire, who was a lunch
buddy last year, said, “It’s
really fun, and being able to
bond with the kids is really
important, because it gives
them someone to look up to.”
It’s Madden’s first time
From left, fourth-grader Wyatt Davis and Jake McHatton, a
Prairie City senior, enjoy time on the playground as lunch
buddies. Mahayla Moss, also a fourth-grader, joins in on the
fun.
being a lunch buddy, and
she was looking forward to
hanging out with the kids and
being a role model.
On the playground after
lunch, senior Aleah Johns
was playing with her lunch
buddy, second-grader Laura-
lei Thomas, on the monkey
bars and pull-up bars.
Thomas said she was
happy to learn that Johns
would be her lunch buddy
again this year.
Senior Jake McHatton
looked like he was having
just as much fun as the chil-
dren he was pushing on the
swings on the playground.
He paused from playing
tag with his lunch buddy,
fourth-grader Wyatt Davis,
and Mahayla Moss, also a
fourth-grader, and others.
“I’m just trying to keep
up,” McHatton said. “I did
it last year, and this year is
going to be even more fun.”
For the Eagle/Emily Ennis
Lunch buddies Aleah Johns, a
senior, and Lauralei Thomas,
a second-grader, share time
together on Prairie City
School playground.
Ten-year-old catches bass with a surprise inside
ODFW: Parasite
not harmful but
samples wanted
for research
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
While fishing at the North
Fork of the John Day River,
10-year-old Trevor Sasser
caught more than he bar-
gained for.
After reeling in a small-
mouth bass, everything
appeared normal. But when
his mom, Tami Sasser, cut
the fish open, they found an
unknown organism inside
the bass.
“It looked like an alien,”
Trevor said. “It was really
disgusting.”
Tami described the para-
site with multiple tentacles
as “spongy” and said it was
located under the lung, near
the liver. When she pulled
Contributed photo
Trevor Sasser and his mother, Tami, begin cleaning the
smallmouth bass that contained a parasite.
the parasite off out of the
fish, the suction was com-
parable to that of a lamprey,
she said.
“I didn’t think it was that
much of an oddity,” Tami
said. “I have seen external
parasites before, but this
was the first time seeing
something like this.”
Not knowing what it
was, they tossed the fish
away.
Richard W. Stocking, a
fish pathologist for the Ore-
gon Department of Fish and
Wildlife, said the parasite
was not harmful.
“While unsightly, there
is no reason to be alarmed
as it’s a very normal life
cycle,” Stocking said.
“These parasites usually do
little or no harm to the fish
hosts. The fish are also per-
fectly safe to eat (as usual,
cook all fish thoroughly).”
Stocking said he could
not identify the parasite
from the picture, but white
grubs and bass tapeworms
are most often associated
with intestinal tissues.
He said ODFW would
like to collect samples for
more research, if anyone
encounters a fresh speci-
men, which can be taken to
the ODFW office at 305 N.
Canyon City Blvd., Canyon
City.
Contributed photo
Trevor Sasser caught this smallmouth bass with a parasite
inside on the North Fork of the John Day River.