h t u o M f o d Wor Volume 10, Issue 4
Oak Hill Academy Student Newspaper
Inside this issue: 1000 and counting
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Gold Aspirations
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Meet the Team—Gold
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Red Team on the Rise
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Meet the Team—Red
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JV—Ready to Battle
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Meet the Team—JV
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Meet the Team—Cheer 12
January 2016
Turning Adversity into Motivation By Kwande Bawa About one year ago, current Oak Hill Academy resident manager Mr. Joe Gagne was involved in a serious accident that almost paralyzed him and reduced his chances to continue to play the sport he loved, hockey. Mr. Gagne, being a fun and intriguing man, dove into a four to six feet deep lake from his friends dock and hit his head on a rock. The injuries involved Mr. Gagne fracturing his skull, and breaking his C-6 and C-7 which are vertebrae in the spinal cord. Mr. Gagne was quickly rushed to the hospital by his friends, and immediately went into a five hour surgery. In an interview with Mr. Gagne, he said, “From the minute my friends got me out of the water, till when I got to the hospital, everything was blank.” As if that wasn’t enough, after the procedure Mr. Gagne had to spend another week at the hospital due
to an infection between his skull and scalp from the lake water. Months later, Mr. Gagne got back to his normal life, but was left with a scar that will stay with him for the rest of his life. He has a metal plate inserted in his skull, and was told by doctors that nine out of ten people with his type of injury would’ve either been dead or paralyzed from the neck down. In an interview, he said, “I felt like I was the luckiest man on earth, and I also thanked God for saving me from death.” Most people would’ve been demoralized or even depressed due to this type of injury, but Mr. Gagne used this as a motivator to encourage himself in whatever he did in life. In a morning assembly at OHA, Mr. Gagne spoke to the student body about the “Travis Roy Foundation” that was established in 1997 to help spinal cord
injury survivors and to fund research for a cure. Mr. Gagne further explained that he will be running at the Boston Marathon in honor of those that are unable to run due to their injuries making them incapacitated. The student body at OHA had a very positive attitude towards the information that Mr. Gagne shared with them, and decided to participate in a dress down day that involved them financially supporting the foundation. Mr. Gagne explained that participating in the run meant a lot to him because of how appreciative he felt for
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