Life of a Custodian

After the first lunch period ends, custodian Stacy Buss cleans up a lunch table before the next lunch begins. Buss’ day consists of cleaning up the lunchroom and the hallways around FHN. She is one of the two custodians that are here during the school day cleaning different areas of the school as it is needed. (Photo by Adam Hogan)

The Helpers OF FHN

Custodians at FHN do a lot for the school, they are hadly seen but their work helps all of FHN each day

Every day, people are hard at work cleaning the school and making it a clean environment for everyone. FHN has custodians to thank for that, people who do grueling work every day just so others can have a clean place to thrive and learn. For the past 16 years, Stephanie Wolfe has been working as a custodian for the school district at Harvest Ridge Elementary and Francis Howell North. She went to school at FHN, graduated in 1997 and continues to work in one of her favorite places to be.

“My mom was a custodian when I was in high school, and I would come up and help her every once in a while,” Wolfe said. “I enjoyed being around the kids, but I didn’t want to be in the classroom setting. So, I still get to interact with the kids.”

Wolfe has been a custodian most of her career, and enjoys it. She and other custodians do so much for the school, whivh is more than most may think and appreciate.

“In the mornings I have to come in and turn on all the lights and unlock the doors,” Wolfe said.” Then each custodian has their own area to do. My section is the Learning Commons and science wing bathrooms. I take care of deliveries, I get the calls for any cleanups that need to be done and answer the radio. I try to make it a safe environment for the kids and a clean environment.”

Stacy Buss is also a custodian at FHN. She’s worked here for the past four years, and talking with students is one of her favorite parts of the day. She also does a lot for the school to keep everything clean and maintained at all times.

“I clean up after all the lunches and spills in the classrooms. Also, we have a run in the afternoon where I have to clean classrooms and the bathrooms,” Buss said. “As long as everything gets done, there’s no particular order.”

Despite all of the messes the custodians clean up and hard work their job requires daily, there are also things that make every day worth it.

“I like to find out what [students’] plans are for the future, what colleges they want to go to, their interests and how they want to pursue their lives after they graduate,” Wolfe said. “The best part of my job would be seeing the students’ faces and being able to talk to them and interact with them.”

According to Wolfe, the great things about being a custodian outweigh the bad, though there are some things that no one really knows about what they do.

“Most people don’t know that we’re here even when school is called off,” Wolfe said. “The custodians are usually here doing things whenever you guys are on your breaks and snow days and stuff, we’re still here. We’re the ones that pretty much are behind the scenes doing the things that people mostly take for granted. We’re the ones that have to keep going.”

Custodians also have a life outside of school when they get home. A typical job could take away from time at home with families, but not for some custodians.

“It doesn’t really [affect my life at home] because I’m working while my family is either at work or at school,” Wolfe said. “My son likes to see it when we go out and students call me out when they see me and stuff.”

At FHN, custodians are treated very well by students and staff according to Buss and Wolfe. Buss and Wolfe have been friends for awhile, but for custodians, friendship goes beyond the workday.

“Everyone in the community I consider a friend,” Wolfe said. “Not everyone is a close friend, but still a friend.” WATCH Follow this link to learn more about custodians at FHN: bit.ly/NScustodians by Ivy Lowery ilowery408@g.fhsdschools.org

STUCK ON LAPTOP STICKERS

Junior Elizabeth Pundmann squeezes a soccer ball in between her legs to stretch out her back at physical therapy. Physical therapy is the treatment of disease, injury or deformity by physical methods. In this case, Pundmann has been attending therapy to treat back pain caused by a rare condition. (Photo by Riley Witherbee) FIGHTING THE PAIN

Junior Elizabeth Pundmann suffers from herniated disks in her back

Life is unpredictable. In one second, one day or one year anything can happen in a person’s life. Around the start of this school year, junior Elizabeth Pundmann’s life instantly turned upside down.

Elizabeth started to experience sudden, severe back pain during her tennis season. Her back pain was caused by two herniated disks in her lower back. A herniated disk is when a disk between the vertebrae slips out and irritates a nearby nerve. She experiences pain in her leg because of the disk pinching the nerve that is connected to her leg.

“One day, I could be having shooting pain down my entire leg,” Elizabeth said. “Another day it could just be throbbing and then other days, it’ll feel like my leg feels 20 pounds heavier than the other one.”

Her bothersome back caused her to visit all sorts of doctors, beginning with an orthopedic doctor, next a neurosurgeon, afterward to a pain management doctor and finally a physical therapist. Her physical therapist helps her by giving her stretches and her pain management doctor gives her injections in her back.

“My physical therapy stretches help and I just need to be relaxing,” Elizabeth said. “I can’t be mobile or anything which aggravates my back a lot.”

Elizabeth wasn’t able to do everything she wanted. The herniated disks disturbed every part of her life such as social, health and education. Elizabeth misses school every other week to go to her pain management doctor.

“I couldn’t really go out with my friends,” Elizabeth said. “I couldn’t walk at school, I couldn’t sit through a class period, I couldn’t sleep and I wasn’t really able to enjoy my daily life.”

Elizabeth told her family about her daily discomfort after receiving information about her condition from her doctors. Her parents and siblings were in complete shock after discovering her condition was very rare for someone of her age.

“I was upset and in shock to hear about it because we both did not think it was something this serious,” Elizabeth’s mother Irene Pundmann said.

It’s been more than six months since Elizabeth developed herniated disks. Every day she is fighting through the pain. Trying to get rid of the herniated disks by avoiding surgery, she continues to go to her physical therapist and her pain management doctor. Throughout her experience, Elizabeth learned valuable life lessons about enduring pain.

“[I learned] not to take your health for granted or not take your physical well-being for granted,” Elizabeth said. “I really wish I would have taken more for granted whenever I wasn’t in pain because now I don’t know what it’s like to go a day without it.” by Shivani Bondada shivanibondada@gmail.com MORE INFO Learn more about herniated disks here: bit.ly/NSherniateddisk

Students at FHN talk about their laptop stickers’ significance (Content by Chloe Horstman)

Brandi Stover, 11 Sticker count: 8 “I wanted to decorate [my laptop], I wanted to make it more mine. I have one that is a quote from my favorite movie, I have my Harry Potter house. I have one of my favorite songs- a representation of that song- and I have a volleyball and I love volleyball. There’s a ‘radiate positivity’ one. I’m a very positive person.”

Dan Sommer, 12 Sticker count: 10 “I just kind of wanted to have somewhere to put my stickers. [The thespian sticker] I got because I became an official thespian, I think that’s cool. I got the ‘Rocky’ one because I used to go to ‘Rocky’ a lot- I’ve been over 20 times.”

Grace Sickendick, 12 Sticker count: 29 “[Making stickers] is just a way to relax. I just kind of branched off and thought, ‘Well, I’ve got a ton of room, let me just put what I’m interested in.’ My favorite one is from the Bee Movie, whenever he says ‘You like jazz?’ It just makes me smile every time I look at it.”

Angela Cuccio, 11 Sticker count: 24 “I think [stickers are] a good way of helping show your personality. My Vineyard Vine lacrosse one- it’s my favorite sport and I love playing it, so I think that one really helps define me, it’s just one that I love. It’s front and center.”

The ball dribbles down to the basketball hoop and an attempt to score is made. The ball makes it through the hoop and the players are divided with excited and bitter emotions. It’s a simple game of basketball being played at junior Jett Jameson’s house. On most days, there are six other junior boys: Jacob Skwira, Jaxon Midgett, Brendan Leuthauser, Jack Sebastian, Troy Ludwig and Brenden Yates.

“[Playing together] is a huge reason as to why we are really close, and obviously without the court, we’d all be friends but I think that’s really brought most of us together,” Jameson said.

The group of friends have been playing basketball together since middle school. During the early years of playing together, the basketball hoop was at the end of a court, which is how the group got its name, the name being the court. Now the hoop is moved to Jameson’s house. These days, the batch of friends get together around two or three times a week when the weather is nice.

“We go down as much as we can,” Skwira said. “We used to go down every Wednesday after school and then once we all started driving, we’d all come down on the weekends and then just spend days there, play basketball and have a good time.”

On a typical night playing, two teams are made and they play a game to 11 points. Sometimes it will be just four of them playing and other nights all seven are there. With school and other activities, there are lots of times when the group can’t meet up as a whole. Occasionally, friends outside of the group will come to play. “The best part about having game time is just knowing you’re going to get to see your friends that week and knowing that everybody’s going to have fun,” Jameson said.

MORE INFO Learn more about the National Children’s Cancer Society here: bit.ly/NScharity

None of the members of the group play basketball competitively anymore, but it’s still the sport they choose to play together. A big part of their friendship has come from this weekly playing time. During high school, it can be easy to lose connections with friends but many of the boys consider these playing times a reason why they are still so close.

“It’s made us all closer, we all play all the time so it mostly brought us closer in the sense that we see each other after school,” Leuthauser said.

Last year, the group put on a small tournament to donate money to charity, it took place on the last day of school. Each of the boys put in a certain amount of money and decided to give it to the National Children’s Cancer Society. In total, they donated around $60. They hope to do another charity tournament this year and raise more money.

“It just feels good because we are all playing for the same thing,” Skwira said. “We don’t know where the money’s going but it’s going to a good cause and we’re not blowing it off on something else,” Skwira said.

The group hopes to continue playing basketball together throughout high school. They realize that they will probably split up for college but they have talked about meeting up over summers to play.

“I’d say we definitely stay a solid friend group past high school and maybe after college,” Jameson said. “I wouldn’t be too shocked if we come back and everybody picks a spot and even in like 10 years we all come back one day and just play a game.” by Sydney Ellison sydney.ellison55@gmail.com The group of friends pose in the studio.. They often play basketball at junior Jett Jameson’s house every Friday during the school year and almost every day during the summer. They always have a tournament between each other at the end of the school year. “It’s a good way to connect with friends and to keep our friend group close,” Jameson said. (Photo by Pavan Kolluru) TIME ON THE COURT A group of juniors boys have been playing basketball for a good cause and been friends since middle school