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Through Interviews, Students Explore COVID-19's Impact on Rhinelander

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Teacher John Santy’s class at James Williams Middle School explored how the Covid-19 pandemic is impacting different parts of the Rhinelander community. They interviewed public servants, school leaders, artists, and care workers to produce this project. Two of the stories, focusing on police and school administration, are audio stories. Two are text stories, highlighting artists and workers in health care. Explore the student work below.

Covid and School Leadership

Evan Fredrick, Zach Webster, Kameron Christian, and Reese Withers

Covid and Law Enforcement

Shelby Gould, Ayden Myers, and Sophia Parish

covid_and_law_enforcement.mp3

How Covid Is Impacting Rhinelander Artists

Ali Birk, Reese Gehrig, Sam Strong, and Ashton Renn

Covid is taking a toll on our community and on local artists.

Students at James Williams Middle School interviewed both Ashley McLaughlin, Program and Operations Director of ArtStart in Rhinelander and Tom Barnett, local cartoonist/artist and studio owner. 

Ashley McLaughlin summarized the sentiment of Covid’s effect on ArtStart and the artist community stating: “The creative community remains ambitious and is collaborating to create solutions. There’s not always a fast track to get there, but we continue to move forward.”

Ashley tells us, “There are fewer opportunities for organizations and for artists overall. Musicians have not been playing as many shows as they would like, and a majority of galleries have closed, so there have been fewer opportunities to get art on display.”

Though Covid has been a challenge for many in the artists community, they have still managed to rise to that challenge. Ashley McLaughlin states: “The great thing about artists is they can come up with out of the box opportunities to promote themselves and creatively direct ArtStart to do out of the box activities.”

Tom Barnett is one of those artists. He is completing art for clients all over the country and the world through satellite work, however, Covid is also widely affecting Tom’s local business. “Class sizes went from 20 to 10 with distancing and masks.”

Ashley McLaughlin states: “It’s been pretty dramatic for our organization because we haven’t been able to keep people coming into our facility. We have been working to stay connected with artists and the community through virtual galleries and musician support. No matter the difficulties of Covid, it’s forcing Rhinelander to change and reflect on what is working and what is not.”

Tom Barnett has observed, “Covid is causing divisions in our community. I have been absolutely heartbroken to see neighbors confronting neighbors of different ideologies and different perspectives of whether masks are [helping].”

The Rhinelander artist community is doing all they can through Covid, and we all hope it ends soon.

Covid’s Impact On Care Work

Ali Birk, Reese Gehrig, Sam Strong, and Ashton Renn

Covid is having a strong impact on the northwoods community. Students at JWMS interviewed Rob Birk, a Physicians’ Assistant in Rhinelander urgent care as well as Theresa Menuetes, a social worker for individuals in hospice care.

Rob Birk is on the front lines and recalls how things were before Covid. “Before Covid, we were busy. A lot of low grade illness, broken bones, cuts needing suture, heart attacks, and things like that. Now we see those things plus Covid treatment.”

What’s more is Covid shows up differently in different people, “Some individuals have minimal symptoms while others are very sick.”

No matter how it looks, Rob Birk is seeing Covid in the northwoods. “Covid has really set in for our area. We are running out of hospital beds and nursing staff to care for individuals. Even outlying areas that we were transferring patients to are filling up as well. Now, we are seeing patients with Covid every day. I’ve seen too many to count. The other day when I came into work, as soon as my boots hit the floor, I never stopped. It was one Covid patient after the other.”

Emergency staff are working long hours and hospitals are trying to hire more nursing staff, laboratory techs, and other diagnostic help. Unfortunately, Rob Birk sees that, “Right now, there aren’t enough bodies to fill those vacancies.”

All hospital staff are working tirelessly to help and keep others safe. Hospital staff rely on their personal protective gear. “The amount of personal protective equipment we use has definitely changed quite a bit. We all have families, wives, children, husbands, and we do not want to bring the illness home.”

Theresa Menuetes does at home visits with individuals in hospice care. She told us, “I have individuals that have tested positive on my caseload, and those with terminal diagnosis as well. As I work in hospice, the people I work with all have other health issues, so if they got Covid, it would not be good.”

Theresa recalls, “Before Covid we could hug our patients, hold their hands, sing to them, but now, as a social worker, I’m not as essential as a nurse is, so I can’t get in to see of lot of patients on a routine basis, so they’re not able to get the end of life care they’ve been accustomed to. Sometimes, all I can do is stand outside their windows and wave.”

These negative effects have weighed heavily on families, “When you’re talking about end of life, and someone is dying, you can’t even hug the family member that’s crying. We’re trying to meet patient needs and be creative around what we can and cannot do, but it’s been extremely difficult.”

Though Covid has weighed heavily on our community, Theresa reminds us, “Don’t take for granted the ability to hug people around you. Make that connection with the people around you, the people that need it.”

Ben worked as the Special Topics Correspondent at WXPR from September 2019 until November 2021. He now contributes occasionally to WXPR. During his full-time employment, his main focus was reporting on environment and natural resources issues in northern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula as part of The Stream, a weekly series.
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