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DURANT HIGH SCHOOL CELEBRATES LITERACY WEEK

By Lily Belcher

Throughout the week of January 24, Durant High School celebrated Literacy Week to promote reading and writing in the school. Durant’s literacy week was packed with activities and competitions for all staf and students.

“It’s just a great way to raise awareness of something that I think that we take for granted a lot—the ability to read and the right to read. There’s so many people who can’t read and it’s a struggle in their everyday life,” said librarian Melanie Randall.

Durant kicked of literacy week by announcing a variety of student contests that are related to popular novels. The National English Honor Society hosted a writing contest for students to share a book, character or symbol that has shaped or changed their life. Students could also post their favorite lines from a book on their social media pages and enter for a drawing to meet with author Fred Aceves in February.

For the more artistically inclined students, there were movie poster and bookmark design contests and a manga drawing contest.

“I love all the art contests because … we have a lot of students that it really draws them in and they can make a con-

nection between reading and the books and interpreting that into … a piece of art,” explained Randall. Students were encouraged to wear camouflage and ‘hunt’ for a good book on Tuesday and teachers read an excerpt from one of their favorite books to their classes on Wednesday. Staf and students each incorDurant High School Senior Cassidy Brankley picks out books in the Media Center on Friday of Literacy Week. porated their favorite word into their outfit and Durant’s staf had a teacher book club where they discussed popular teen novels on Thursday. “We’ve got a teachers book club where we’re gonna meet and have breakfast as teachers, and we read young adult books together so then we can connect with students reading those books also,” said Randall. Literacy Week concluded with a free book swap and giveaway in the library on Friday. “My favorite activity is always weara-word day … but my students’ favorite day is when they get free books,” said English and literature teacher Laura Estes-Swilley. Literacy Week is a statewide celebration that Durant participates in each year. This year’s theme was ‘Launch Into Literacy, Blast Of Into New Worlds.’ For more information on this year’s event, visit fldoe.org.

COVID-19 TESTING COMES TO YOU AT HOME WITH BEEPERMD

By Libby Hopkins

Generations ago, health care professionals made house calls that were personalized, private, safe and convenient. That at-home type of service faded away decades ago and has only been available as a VIP service for a select few at a very high cost.

BeeperMD is a new at-home health care service that comes to you.

“We currently service patients in Florida and New York,” said Lauren Berger of BeeperMD. “We do have limited operations in other states that we are expanding to this year. BeeperMD also services businesses nationwide.”

BeeperMD is bringing house calls back for sick visits and medical testing.

“Originally, one of our founders, Jeremy Gelbart, ofered COVID testing to a local school to help get kids back in class. It took of from there, and before we knew it, we were testing thousands of clients at home as well as employees at some of the largest companies in the state and beyond,” Berger said. “Once Omicron hit, we were inundated with an unprecedented demand for testing. Despite successfully testing over 150,000 people across Florida during the Omicron phase of the pandemic, BeeperMD definitely experienced major operational challenges and a critical workforce shortage.”

As a small and growing company, this event was exponentially more than just growing pains. Most experts did not anticipate this demand to arrive as fast and furious as it has. Through this time of adversity, BeeperMD has learned how to be better prepared with managing and handling excessive demand. “However, we believe a demand event of this magniBeeperMD is a new at-home health care service that comes to you. Tey are bringing house calls back for sick visits and medical tude is very difcult for any organization testing. to maintain full preparedness along with successful execution,” Berger said. “We will always continue to improve every day and thankfully we have come out better on the other side of the Omicron phase of this pandemic.” For at-home urgent care and COVID testing, you can simply call or make an appointment at beepermd.com, submit your information and a BeeperMD clinician will come to your home to examine and/or test you to diagnose an illness. “Additionally, there is always a nurse practitioner or doctor connected to your appointment via video chat,” Berger said. “We generally test for symptoms related to COVID-19, flu, strep, respiratory infections and more. We also send appropriate prescriptions to your pharmacy.” If you would like to learn more about BeeperMD, you can visit its website at www.beepermd.com.

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