The Arrow staff has 14 members. All members are needed to complete our task of delivering news to the student body and surrounding community. When flu season came around, we were hesitant and tried to take precautionary measures. I especially made sure the journalism room was equipped with hand sanitizer and tissues. Unfortunately, two members of the staff got the flu.

The first member to fall sick was our beloved photographer and occasional news reporter, sophomore Madi Foley. Foley is in charge of taking the majority of our pictures. She came down with the flu right after Christmas break.

“I came to school the day after Christmas break, and then I was out for the rest of the week,” Foley said.

Our staff was just beginning to embark upon our next print newspaper, themed “March Madness.” Foley was responsible for several assignments the first week after break.

“I had a lot of pictures assigned to me, but they were re-assigned to Caleb,” Foley said. “I also had a MeToo Movement article to write, and it was re-assigned to Jaila.”

Photographer and news reporter, sophomore Caleb Struchtemeyer felt the burden of all the assignments but gladly stepped up to help our staff.

“It was kind of hard because it was a lot of work thrown at me all at once. It was stressful because I was running all around trying to take all of the picture,” Struchtemeyer said, “but it was good because I got grades for it. It also helped [Foley] because she didn’t have to run around once she came back to school.”

The middle of March came around and we thought we were safe from the flu, but sophomore Gabby Troche, news reporter and rising Online Manager, contracted the flu.

“I missed two days of school and had so much work to make up when I came back,” Troche said.

The staff will be full of new faces next year because we have many graduating seniors. In anticipation, our returning staff has planned meetings to prepare the new reporters. Brae Davies, rising Editor-in-Chief, got a concussion and could not run the meeting happening on March 16. Troche is second in command, but she could not run the meeting because she had the flu. Once again, Struchtemeyer came to the rescue and ran the meeting successfully.

Our staff could not have made it through the flu season without Struchtemeyer and others who stepped up to fill in empty spots. We are nearing the end of March and the staff seems to be in good health. I do not want to jinx our staff so I am just going to end this here.