Author Spotlight
Greyson Imm
SHARE’s Annual Blood Drive Took Place on Saturday, 2/17
SHARE hosted their annual blood drive on Saturday, Feb. 17 to aid the statewide emergency blood shortage.
The American Red Cross declared a blood shortage emergency for Kansas in January, with the lowest amount of donations in 20 years. The standard for blood banks is to keep enough blood for three days. According to SHARE chair and senior Eve Benditt, they are struggling to keep a one-day supply due to a lack of donations.
“[Donating blood] is so much less scary than people think,” Benditt said. “We’re at a critical low of blood right now. So if you’ve never donated, now is the perfect time because this problem is worse than it’s ever been.”
For the first time in four years, there was also a table to register for bone marrow donation. SHARE chair and junior Clara Peters led this project, which consisted of a short, 7-question questionnaire and a cheek swab to match potential donors over 18 with patients in need.
“It’s a very simple process,” Peters said. “It’s just a table [at the blood drive] and it takes 10 minutes to sign up. It makes a huge difference.”
SHARE sponsors Erin Billingsley and Sheryl Kaplan are glad community members are taking the first steps toward potentially saving a life through the blood drive and bone marrow donation. Billingsley says that once someone donates, they’re more likely to be a future donor.
“Once you get started, it becomes a habit and it’s not so scary anymore,” Billingsley said. “It’s important to get kids interested in donating blood because it’s something you can do from the age of 16 on. Hosting it at school is a nice introduction for students to be able to see that they can do it, and it’s something that really makes a difference.”
Kansas City’s first Black queer archive, {B/qKC} opens
Kansas City’s first Black queer historical archive is opening on March 1. The project called {B/qKC} is an online database compiled by local community organizer Nasir Montalvo and consists of longform articles, documents and other primary source materials relating to Black queer history in Kansas City.
“What’s important to me with the archive is to center stories and people,” Montalvo said. “What I want to do is storytelling in a way that’s beautiful and intentional. If I can find ways to make the histories accessible while the people who have ‘donated’ to the archive get to keep their material, that’s what I want to do.”
In addition to the online archive, Montalvo has been displaying some of these materials in exhibition spaces around the city for the past year as part of the project. One of these showings was in conjunction with the “Miss/They Camaraderie” exhibit at the Charlotte Street Foundation addressing Black queer history in beauty pageantry.
Students in art teacher Adam Finkelston’s AP, IB and art portfolio classes visited the Charlotte Street Foundation last month to view the exhibit. IB art student and senior Abi Limbird says that she appreciated seeing the archive materials and watching a video in the gallery to learn about local Black queer history.
“It definitely was intriguing and I learned a lot from the exhibit,” Limbird said. “I didn’t know about the rich culture and history of Black pageantry in KC so that was an eye-opening experience.”
Many of these physical exhibits will also be available to view in the coming months at local cafes, bookstores and other arts organizations.
“I hope that by widely sharing the [stories] of Black queer Kansas Citians and what they’ve gone through, we can better understand how we need to organize as a city in order to support Black queer folk and honestly, Kansas City overall,” Montalvo said.
Junior Graham Rigsby goes on to compete at the state level for the PTA reflections contest
Junior Graham Rigsby will compete in the state level of the PTA reflections contest in the coming weeks after winning the SMSD regional contest.
As one of four winners in the photography division contest, Rigsby received an award of excellence at the Jan. 22 SMSD Board of Education meeting. The contest included original works of art in the categories of dance choreography, film production, literature, music composition, photography and visual arts. Open to grades pre-K to 12, 109 SMSD students entered with 22 were being selected as finalists.
“I did not expect to win at all,” Rigsby said. “I knew I was going up against a lot of other people who are really into photography, so it was pretty unexpected that I won.”
When Rigsby heard this year’s prompt, “I am Hopeful Because…” he immediately thought of a photo that he took while on a trip to visit his cousins in Uruguay last summer.
“In my submission, I said that I wanted to travel more,” Rigsby said. “I’m hopeful because I just want to travel and be able to explore the world and see different cultures and different types of people.”
Rigsby said that he was encouraged to enter his photo by his mother and aunt who run the PTA reflections contests at Prairie and Belinder Elementary schools. He’s grateful that his mom’s involvement in reflections encouraged him, as well as other students in all grade levels, to enter in the contest.
“It’s really good to see reflections [entries], especially in younger grades,” Rigsby said. “So it’s nice that it’s getting such a young audience through my mom.”
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