Writing is one of the most powerful tools we have. It allows us to share the stories of members of our communities. It allows us to highlight important issues that may be present and work to create some change.

Earlier today, Eagle County Public Health announced that select Eagle County Schools staff could get vaccinated tomorrow, Saturday, January 23rd. These vaccines will first go towards school nurses, health assistants, cooks, cafeteria workers, food service workers, speech language pathologists, audiologists, occupational therapists, special education staff, and custodial staff.

This afternoon, staff members were emailed the news along with information on how to sign up. Ms. Grace Meinberg, a Significant Support Needs teacher at Eagle Valley High School, is among the first staff members eligible to get the vaccine.

“I got pretty excited. I opened it up pretty quickly and got myself signed up for the vaccine tomorrow,” Ms. Meinberg recalls.

The vaccine allows teachers to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“I want to know that I am playing a role in helping myself from getting it, helping myself from spreading it, and building protection so that if I do get it, it’s not as severe,” Ms. Meinberg explains.

This afternoon, Ms. Sarah Casaletto, Learning Support Specialist at Eagle Valley High School is also included in the first group as a Special Education teacher. This afternoon, she grappled with the idea of being one of the first teachers to receive the vaccine.

“I hope that people know that I didn’t deserve it necessarily more than anyone else,” Ms. Casaletto explains. “I just hope that it’s the start of the school community getting the vaccine, so we all can have it, and we’re all protected, and students can start to have a more normal school experience again,”

The vaccine may provide some peace of mind for teachers.

“Mentally, I feel a little less concerned. [The vaccine] gives me the chance to say, ‘I did what I could to protect myself and others,’” Ms. Meinberg elaborates.

With every vaccine, there is the possibility of side effects. As one of the first staff members eligible to get the vaccine, Ms. María Reyes, Health Assistant at Eagle Valley High School, has had to weigh them.

“I think all the unknown is always something a little bit nerve wracking,” Ms. Reyes reflects, “and I think that with it being so new and maybe not being 100 percent informed on it definitely makes me a little bit nervous, but I think everything kind of has a side effect nowadays. I think I see more positive in it than negative.”

Last week, Eagle County Schools staff had the opportunity to fill out a survey providing information on whether they were willing to get vaccinated and favorable days of the week for that process to happen. The results of the survey showed that 86% of the staff preferred to get vaccinated, and 60 percent hoped to get their shot on a Wednesday.

Eagle County Public Health would like to get vaccines available to all teaching staff by March 1st. This could be even sooner depending on how many vaccines they receive.

Eagle Valley Devils are some of the most supportive students in the country. Go to any sports game whether it’s football, soccer, or volleyball, and it would be impossible to miss the students packed into the bleachers cheering for their teammates. This year, Eagle Valley High School has a new group on the bleachers leading the cheers and getting the crowd excited. This crew is The Bleacher Creatures.

Varsity volleyball player Eliza Wetzel ‘21 appreciates the crowds at all of these games. She believes, “ the crowd is one of the most important parts of the game because they hype us up. They get our intensity levels up, and they make us want to play harder.”

Trace Hobbes ‘21 created the Bleacher Creatures to assist these players. In the past, he noticed that the cheers were “more of an attack against the other team, and it wasn’t really fun at all.” He also noticed that EVHS students wouldn’t be on their feet when the team was losing. Trace went on to create the Bleacher Creatures because he “didn’t like that stigma at all. I was ready to get after it and start going [to reduce this problem].” Trace has already started making strides towards his goal. At the start of the game, he tells everyone to get up on their feet. He will have the crowd stay this way for the remainder of the game.

It’s not enough to just be standing. They get all the students together on one side of the bleachers. Keegan Garvey is one of the leading advocates in getting students to participate. He explains that the goal is, “not to make anyone feel unwelcome or threatened. It’s more to show them that we’re there to have a good time.” Once everyone is there participating, the chants get louder and more in sync. The students all sit together so that, Keegan describes, “all feel welcomed and excited.”

Trace is growing this support beyond just the football and volleyball team. “I try to go to every single game.” He wants to do this for every team throughout the school year. The Bleacher Creatures have already been seen attending soccer and softball games, which typically have a lower attendance level than some of the other sports.

The Bleacher Creatures plan to continue this program past the next few years. They already have the “feeder program” with underclassmen. There is just one simple requirement: “If you’re at the games getting ‘Howdy, Howdy, Let’s get rowdy’, you’re in.”

These students are going to the games, supporting their teammates, and have fun while doing it, all of which help contribute to a positive school culture. As Trace puts it, “It’s probably the most fun I have during the week.”

A notable change this school year was the addition of access hour. At the beginning of the year the change seemed to have many reactions. Many liked the idea of having time to see all of their teachers. Some were upset about losing a class. Now that the year is coming to a close, it is time to see if access was a good addition to this year’s schedule.

I really looked forward to being able to work with groups during this time. However, I quickly realized that this vision was not what the reality was. Each teacher had different rules about allowing students to leave. This made it extremely difficult to meet up with my group during access. Even if we were able to jump through all of the necessary hoops to meet up, we would be left with only a few minutes to actually work on something. This completely takes group projects off of the table.

Another thing I was really looking forward to was being able to go talk to teachers. However, this also became very difficult. Walking into a room, you would see long lines of other students all needing help just like yourself. This shows that access was something that is obviously needed. However, the short nature of it made it so you could only talk to each teacher for all of about 40 seconds. Even the teachers that did not have long lines were busy helping their own access students.

As if access isn’t short enough already, we had to wait in our class for the announcements, which would hardly ever start on time, and would repeat the same information day in and day out. This meant the amount of time with teachers was 5 to 10 minutes shorter.

While myself and many others have been critical of access, it is because there is such a good idea on the table. Access hour has been a savior for many athletes in sports. As someone who had to miss a bunch of school for baseball, I can truly appreciate how much that extra time helped to keep up with all of my work and keep my grades up. While working on an article with the ski team, I learned just how much access helped their grades too. There is no question that Eagle Valley athletes love this extra time.

Access is clearly something that is here to stay in EVHS for years to come. There are just a few tweaks to be made to make it to its full potential.

The girls volleyball team wrapped up their final regular season games this week. Their record ended with 12 wins overall and 7 in-league victories. As they begin to prepare and move forward towards regionals this weekend, it is important for them to reflect on their year so far.

The season has had plenty of highlights. The players believe that one of the biggest wins of the season came against Palisade. Claire Whelan ‘21 explains, “It was the first time we played cohesively together and as a good unit.” As the team went on to win the game at home in four sets, Avery Vangoey ‘21 felt “it was a breakthrough moment for us. It was the first time we played to our ability.”

The team has pride in another incredible game this season against the Steamboat Sailors. Meredith Murphy ‘20 explains, “We played really well together.” Even though they lost the first two sets, Meredith describes that they “never thought we were going to lose.” On most teams, players would lose hope with two losses looming over their heads. However, Claire remembers that “we were never apprehensive, we were always consistent, and we stayed confident.” In order to come back in that game, Avery noted, “We basically never gave up or let off the gas.”

This season didn’t just come with successes, though. The team lost both of their games to their rival, Battle Mountain. As with any rivalry, the team really wanted to win those games. With the loss, Avery felt they “let a lot of people down.” Despite a loss that big, Meredith knows that they “didn’t let it drag us down.” Rather, they used it as an opportunity to make some changes. Claire says that “we started to hold ourselves more accountable as a team.”

Their ultimate goal of the season is to make it to state. In addition to this, they also have more specific team goals to work towards at every game. These goals act as stepping stones in order to accomplish the end goal of state. They have a pyramid of success with blocks for them to accomplish in each game. These blocks consist of things like skill, intensity, enthusiasm, friendship, loyalty, and industriousness. Industriousness, the concept of working energetically and devotedly, is something the team focused on a lot. Claire defines it as “hard work mixed with intensity.” She adds that even though “your 100 percent on a bad day will not look like your 100 percent on a good day, you are still giving 100 percent.”

In order to reach their ultimate goal of state, they must first win at regionals, which they will play at this weekend. Meredith shares that to prepare for these games, the players are “busting their butts at practice.” She adds that, even at practice, “Every single play is 100 percent, and if you’re not, somebody calls you out.”