Though it may be more difficult to do, social clubs at the local high school are finding ways of lending a hand.

By Mary O’KEEFE

Students in Glendale Unified School District have been dealing with remote learning and staying away from friends, then practicing social distancing and wearing face coverings when they do go out. These have been difficult adjustments and for those active in school social clubs and participants in extracurricular activities there is another aspect they have to deal with. These students not only are missing their regular in-person meetings but they also are missing their community service.

For students in schools like Crescenta Valley High performing community service plays an important role in their high school career. Though most school clubs have been dormant, some members have found ways to continue their outreach including the CVHS band and CVHS Falkons 589 robotics team, which recently took in donations for the Bailey Center food center.

“It was originally my mom’s idea,” said Kimmie Blood, incoming senior and CVHS drum major.

Blood had mentioned to her mom that she wanted to do something that would help the community and bring some camaraderie to the marching band. Her mom, Dena, had seen that the Bailey Center food bank in Tujunga was in need of food support and thought this would be a perfect fit. So did Kimmie. She went to Andrew Kim, the band president, and together they began to plan a donation drive.

“More than half of the band families came and brought in tons of food,” she said.

About 60 members of the band participated in the drive. They either helped get the food donated or they donated it. For Blood it was welcoming to see her bandmates in person, even though they were socially distanced and behind face coverings.

“It was nice to see them in person smiling,” Blood added.

Members of the marching band just completed band camp. Normally they would attend about eight hours in camp then come home but this virtual band camp was much different.

“We did it on Zoom. It was really successful but wasn’t the same,” Blood said.

Finding the silver lining is a family tradition for the Bloods and Kimmie has been able to find the good in the pandemic’s Safer at Home restrictions.

“My favorite part of staying at home is being with my family. If this wasn’t happening they would be all over the country,” she said adding how busy band camp usually keeps her. “I usually see more of the band [mates] and Mr. Schick [CV Instrumental Music director Mat] than my parents.”

The CVHS marching band is an award-winning program that is used to competing. This year, though, most of those competitions that begin in October have been canceled. Blood said Schick is working on a video that combines the last four years of CVHS music.

“It’s like a throw back,” she said. She is eager to see the end result.

In the meantime she is dealing with remote learning, and remote band.

“It is challenging but it is helpful that we are all in this together and we are all trying to find other things to be excited for,” she said. She said she is crossing her fingers for the second semester when, hopefully, things return to normal and she can return to campus.

The CVHS Falkons 589 robotics team has also been trying to find ways to help their community. During pre-pandemic times team members would be found volunteering at the CV Chamber of Commerce Hometown Country Fair and Montrose Movie Night.

“I was just doing my work one day [preparing] for online school and thinking about what we could do to help our community,” said Kimberly Miller, a CVHS incoming senior.

She was looking for something that 589 could do during COVID-19 while following all the requirements. She came up with a food drive.

Miller added that pre-pandemic there were people who were in need of food and now, months into the pandemic, she knew the need would be greater. She knew the Bailey Center was in need so she wanted to do something to help.

Together with fellow Team 589 member Eric Limonadi a meeting was arranged with mentor Lynn Repath Martos. They contacted CVHS administration to see if they could use the school’s parking lot as a drop off point and after receiving permission they worked to get the word out.

Last Saturday they collected donations of food and money for four hours. They had a goal of collecting 589 pounds but far surpassed that.

“We collected almost four times that amount! Our total amount came out to 2,201 pounds of [donated food] and $170, which will go to buying more food for the Bailey Center,” Miller said.

Team members asked their corporate sponsor Meggitt to help, and they agreed to host a two-week food drive at their workplace. The donations will be picked up by Team 589 and delivered to the Bailey Center. In a show of support, the La Cañada High School robotic team also donated to Team 589.

Like band, Team 589 has had a lot to adjust to since COVID-19 struck. Each year robotic teams across the world participate in the FIRST [For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology] robot competition. The teams receive a game to play and have six weeks to design and build a robot to play that game with other teams on competitive fields.

“It was really difficult at first because we were at our second competition when it got canceled. We woke up in the morning and were getting ready to go to the competition and then we got an email stating it was canceled,” Miller said. “We all went home. There was really nothing we could do about it; everything was just starting to get closed down.”

The team was due to compete during spring break just before the shut down and Safer at Home became the law of the land. The team had won the Engineering Inspiration Award and qualified to go to the FIRST world championship. That was all canceled as well.

Repath Martos kept the team together and active, virtually, with their summer series talks when 589 alumni would speak about their career and life and how being part of robotics had helped them in the real world.

At present the team is awaiting word from FIRST as to when and where – and how – the 2021 season will start.

“Right now, FIRST has come out and said the FIRST Robotics Competition will be replaying the game from last year with some changes. So our 2021 season will replay the same game,” Miller said.

There has not been any word yet as to what will happen to the teams that qualified to move on to the final competition in 2020.

“We may have to qualify again,” she said.

For now, the team continues its virtual meetings and continues to look for more ways to support the community.   

  Dena BLOOD, Mary Okeefe