For the months of September and October, seniors Kaitlyn Cockrum and Ashley Pennington from Bend High are being recognized by The Center Foundation as High Desert Heroes by the foundation Board of Directors.

Kate is on the Bend High culinary team and for the two consecutive years of 2008 and 2009, she has won the national championship awards in the Pro-Start Culinary competitions in San Diego, California. Because of her performance at the Pro-Start competition, Bend High School sponsored her trip to Chicago in May to the National Restaurant Show.  In the spring of her freshman year Kate traveled to the Dream Center in Los Angeles to work with a homeless shelter in downtown L.A.  She said that it was life changing.  In addition to her commitments to culinary and her academics, Kate has helped Bend High win two state championships in soccer.

President of the Honor Society, Ashley Pennington has made a huge difference in the outreach programs that she is associated with.  She has assisted with the Healthy Beginnings Program, Red Cross blood drive, Bethlehem Inn homeless shelter and the Jingle Bell Run. She also worked with the Salvation Army to put together gift bags for underprivileged families.  She is a hard worker and extends herself beyond the requirements of a task.

With both Cockrum and Pennington striving for more, Bend High takes pride in students like these who go above and beyond in his or her lives. For those of you other hard-working seniors, keep up the effort because it could be you next month!

Swine flu is a flu virus, that is, under normal circumstances, found in pigs. It spreads to humans occasionally, when it mutates into a catching form for people. When that happens, it is cause for worry, because this is a very contagious disease, and humans have very little to no immunity to it. It is also tough and costly to treat.

This is one of the rare occasions when the swine flu virus has mutated into a problematic virus for humans, and the media has pounced- it’s a brilliant opportunity for a story to keep their audience breathless, on the edge of their seats, waiting for the solution to this latest catastrophe.

Swine flu is passed from person to person very easily. That is the most prominent cause for cases in America. And although it can spread from pigs to people, and vice versa, that’s live pigs, not dead ones. You cannot become infected with H1N1 by eating pork, or any other pig meat products. A person may get the virus by breathing in air that an infected person has just sneezed or coughed into. Also, contact with a tainted surface, followed by contact with the mouth or eyes, can transmit the disease from one person to another.

So, what can one do to protect himself or herself from the evil virus harming so many people? Surgical masks are not recommended for those not infected. Full body encasements and sterilized bubbles will probably protect you, but, well, we hope that’s not one of your top choices. Washing your hands regularly and diligently does help a great deal, but in no way does it prevent the disease. Although some viruses are spread through hand contact, H1N1 is not one of those. It is much more commonly transmitted through air particles. So, for infected individuals: cover your mouth with your elbow when you cough and/or sneeze, and if you feel as though you may have the virus, stay home from school.

So how do you know if you have the nightmare flu? Here are the major symptoms of H1N1:

A fever above 100.4 ºF

• Headache
• Chills
• Cough or sore throat
• Muscle Aches
• Diarrhea
• Vomiting

The majority of people who come down with swine flu will be able to recover without getting professional medical aid. But a doctor will be able to prescribe antiviral drugs to treat people who become very sick with the flu or are at high risk for flu complications.

Another option for swine flu prevention is vaccination. The vaccine is being shipped to hospitals as you read this. Although it does help, some people have mild to serious reactions to the flu vaccine.  Also, if you are allergic to eggs, you should steer clear of the vaccine, because it is grown in eggs. But it can lower your chances of infection, so it is an option that you may want to ask your parents to look into.

So, you see the situation as you will. Maybe now you won’t leave the house for fear of getting infected. Perhaps you won’t even look at a pig, or have banned the word from your household. But awareness of the disease is important, and maybe now you will take more steps to protect yourself. Buy some hand sanitizer to keep in your binder. If your best friend is sick, avoid physical contact with them. Swine flu may not be the black plague of modern day, but it is still a threat. It is good to protect yourself- although you may want to avoid the personal, germ- free bubble.

Christina “Kiki” Cutter was the founder, publisher, and president of the magazine Bend Living. Sixteen-year-old Cutter was also the winner of the 1967 U.S. National Downhill Championships; she also joined the U.S Ski Team and participated in the 1968 Grenoble Olympics. She was the only American woman to ski all three events and placed higher than any other American woman. Way to go!

Karen Gunson grew up in Bend and was and outstanding student at Bend Senior High. Gunson later moved on to become a medical examiner; first a Deputy State Medical Examiner for fourteen years and then on to State of Oregon’s Chief Medical Examiner in 1999. She states that “the more education you have, the more options you have.” Awesome!

James Crowell was involved in Bend High’s student government was an awesome athlete. Crowell attended the University of Oregon and graduated with a master’s degree in journalism. He then became a reporter for Portland’s Oregonian. Crowell has since published one book. Keep on truckin’.

Les Schwab graduated from Bend High in 1935 and only went forward from there. He built a “tire empire” and Les Schwab Tires stores have opened all over the Northwest. Sadly however Schwab passed away at the age of eighty-nine on May 1, 2007.

Robert Hendershott was born and raised in Bend; after graduating he played football and pole vaulted for the University of Oregon. He served in World War Two; after he married his high school sweetheart and began teaching. Outstanding!

Lynne Wigbigler (Anderson) was an amazing athlete in discus and shot put during high school. In 1976 won the Olympic Trials in discus and for the next four years held the top spot. Sweet!

Donald L. McFaul enlisted in the Navy right after graduating in 1975. Unfortunately McFaul was killed during the capture of Paitilla Artfield, Panama City, Panama.

Pat Cashman was eager to start his radio career, beginning his broadcasts at the ripe age of ten. He later went on to graduate from the University of Portland. After that he worked for a radio show, wrote for a newspaper, and starred in the talk show Almost Live! among other things. Fantastic!

Steve Berg has done many things on the planet along with things outside of it! After graduating, he attended Oregon State University and graduated there with a master’s in Engineering Management. From there he went on to work with many, many aerospace projects. Out of this world!

William E. Miller had many accomplishments in his lifetime; among them being a fighter plane pilot, owning a pumice company, and assisting his father in the family business Miller Lumber Company. In June 2008, Bend’s new elementary school was named in his honor.

Craig Nichols is an amazing person! After graduating Bend High, he went on to the University of Oregon. He graduated with a medical degree. Nichols was one of the people that found a treatment to leukemia; and even helped Lance Armstrong. Live strong!

High school seems to go by in a breeze and before too long you’ve got to start making plans to enter the workforce or pursue higher education through college. As we all know, college can be a financial pain. Well, scholarships have proven to be an excellent alternative to paying for school. There are thousands of scholarships in the area of academics and athletics and every year billions of dollars in scholarship funds go unspent. So, money is out there for people who need it and deserve it, you just have to know where to look.

            What people need to be aware of is that scholarships aren’t the easiest thing in the world to get; you usually have to put hard work into them in order to be competitive and have a chance of receiving scholarship funds. Many high school students plunge into a trend of procrastinating when it comes to applying for college scholarships. So, what these loose-minded students end up doing is applying for scholarships that seem too easy and have no required hard work to be done in the application process. This is the students’ desperate attempt at “easy money” after they have let time escape from them. For instance, a student applies to a scholarship, there was no work required in the application process, just a name and a $50 deposit, and a scholarship is guaranteed to follow.

Students beware. These scholarships are too easy because they’re scams created by scam artists who take advantage of people in desperate need of money. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t an actual scholarship. The following are the tell tale signs of scholarship fraud about which the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cautions students:

            Ÿ    “The scholarship is guaranteed or your money back.”

            Ÿ    “You can’t get this information anywhere else.”

            Ÿ    “I just need your credit card or bank account number to hold this scholarship.”

            Ÿ    “We’ll do all the work.”

            Ÿ    “The scholarship will cost some money.”

            Ÿ    “You’ve been selected by a ‘national foundation’ to receive a scholarship.”

            Ÿ    “You’re a finalist” (in a contest you never entered).

First off, a scholarship doesn’t require you to put money down or hold it to a credit card or bank account. Second, most institutions offer their scholarships through a variety of different ways, so the phase, “you can’t get this information anywhere else” wouldn’t apply for a real scholarship. Lastly, and most importantly, all scholarships require you to prove yourself a worthy candidate through your hard work and dedication. If you’re going to try to get easy money, avoid scholarships that are promoted in these fashions because they might be scholarship scams.

            Also, be careful when dealing with athletic recruiting services, as these, too, may be part of a scam. Often, legitimate recruiting services are required to collect a fee in order to help promote the student athlete, which means it is much harder to detect a recruiting service scam.

What several coaches and recruiters advise is that student athletes self promote to protect themselves the trouble of trying to detect a scam. To self promote, make sure you talk to your coach; most coaches are more than willing to help you out. Write a letter to the head coach of the school you want to draw attention from; make sure you address the coach formally and make yourself stand out. Also you should submit a video of your performance to try and draw the eyes of top recruiters. Once again though, self promotion requires a lot of hard work and dedication and isn’t something to be put off until the end of your senior year; start the self-promotion process as soon as possible.

            If you choose not to self promote, be careful and weary of whom you trust. The best solution is to do the work yourself and avoid these fake organizations from “doing the work for you,” because it could turn out to be a scam. Top recruiters can notice you; you’ve just got to put some hard work into it.

            Scholarship fraud and recruiting service scams are very real. Before anyone begins to apply for scholarships or invest in recruiting services, they should arm themselves with knowledge of what to look for; if a fraud is presented to a student, the student should know how to deal with it or avoid it. Don’t become another victim of scholarship fraud.

As we all know, the state is in a bit of a budget squeeze and it is taking its toll on higher educational institutions around the state. Specifically, the OSU-Cascades campus has already made cutbacks on many of its educational programs. Tuition at the Cascades campus and Central Oregon Community College are set to increase by 5% at the start of the summer term to try and help makeup for the college’s budget shortfall. Now, there are rumors that the Oregon state legislature is considering shutting down the Oregon State Cascades branch. But, Cascades Campus Dean, Becky Johnson, has her doubts that the State Legislature would eliminate the campus because the campus is vital to many students in the Central Oregon area and it is impractical to abandon a large portion of the OSU campus at a time of economic struggle.

            The Corvallis-based campus has announced its classrooms are full, which is forcing many students who planned to transfer to the Corvallis campus, to stay in Central Oregon for at least another year. Currently the OSU-Cascades has roughly 500 students enrolled, and classes average around 24 students per class; whereas the Corvallis campus at times holds lecture halls that cram in 200-300 students at one time. Many students are happy to be staying at the Cascades campus for longer as it’s much easier to learn one on one from the teacher due to the smaller-class setting.

            Still, Bend continues to grow; so, how long will the Cascades campus be a “24 student per class” school? Not for long as COCC is already overcrowded and had to shut down admission and enrollment to new students this spring due to the hordes of students now attending. There simply is no more room at COCC, which averages 7000 students enrolled at some point in a given school year, and the OSU-Cascades campus, which enrolls about 500 a year.

            Many people around the community are wondering when the state is going to take the needs of Central Oregon a little more seriously. Should COCC/OSU-Cascades be bumped up to the university status where students can live at home and earn a four-year degree? Many people say yes; Central Oregon is ready to harbor a four-year university. As a matter of fact it’s probably hard to find someone in the entire Central Oregon region that wouldn’t like to see a university housed in Bend. Central Oregon has also been named by the Central Oregon Regional Advisory Board (CORAB) as “the largest area in the nation without a regionally sited university.”

            So, the Oregon State legislature is rumored to be debating whether or not to shut down the OSU-Cascades campus due to a budget crunch, but many Central Oregonians think the Oregon legislature should be considering the Bend region for a university status. The state legislature wants to downsize OSU-Cascades campus; on the other hand the Bend community wants to upgrade Central Oregon. One thing is for sure, the OSU-Cascades campus is vital to all students who attend and it would be very impractical for the state legislature to shut down an educational institute of this magnitude. It is even more impractical since the student enrollment is expected to grow over the next few years, proving its worth to people all around the Central Oregon region. 

In August 2008, Bend and Summit high schoolers Aidan Contreras, Alek Louke, Justice Bender, and Dave Hansmann formed a band. Their band Mirf the Bing added Spencer Wirtz as their trumpet player over a year later in November, 2009. Mirf The Bing, which is basically “like Acuna Matata,” states Louke, is a mellow, reggae/dub/ska style of music. In a recent interview with the group, all the band members agreed that some of their most important influences are Slightly Stoopid, Pepper, The Expendables, Tribal Seeds, Sublime, and the Marley’s. When you listen to MTB’s music, you can hear a little bit of each, with Slightly Stoopid’s guitar and trumpet styles, and Pepper and The Expendables vocal styles. The young, but talented, artists write their own music. They take whatever is going on in their lives at the moment and turn it into a musical masterpiece. Though they are still a young band, they have played eight shows. Their biggest performance was opening for the B-Foundation, another reggae band from Arcadia, California. Practicing and working in the studio whenever they have free time, MTB just finished their first EP, which featured their song, “G Whiner”.

After studying MTB’s style thoroughly, it seemed to me they have branched off into a genre all their own. I asked them what they thought about this, and this was their response: “Our style is a little unique, so the possibility is there. We hope to influence as many upcoming artists as we can,” states Contreras, the keyboard player and vocalist. With several of the members graduating from high school this year, Mirf the Bing’s future is uncertain. For now, they hope to keep making music and enjoy the ride.

You can hear a song by following the link below:

G Whiner