Doing their part, High School students come together to help community impacted by Elk Fire

SHERIDAN — Despite the irregular week Tongue River High School students had due to the Elk Fire, some students have been coming together to do whatever they can to help the community they call home.

Led by career and technical education teachers John Masters and Shawna Michelena, language arts teacher Patrick O’Harra and band/choir teacher Janessa Blain, TRHS students helped build boards for the U.S. Forest Service Oct. 3 that will be used to inform the public with updates on the fire.

The boards, which the students built outside of the Tongue River Valley Community Center in Dayton, will be distributed throughout the community.

“The forest service reached out to us and asked if our classes could help build them, and of course, at that time, we thought we’d still be in school. Then things progressed, and we were not allowed to go back into school, so we changed things up a bit and were able to get the green light to come here and put things together,” Masters said. “We wanted to provide an experience for some students to do their part and help out a little bit with the fire effort.”

TRHS senior Paxten Askamit said she thinks this is a way to help out her community and help them stay informed on updates and important information.

“I think just helping out our community in any way is one of our big things right now, and we want to make sure the people who are helping fight the fire know that we appreciate them and want to make sure that everyone is staying safe,” Askamit said. “By making these signs, we’re helping people so that if they don’t know what’s going on, they can see where they need to go and stuff like that.”

TRHS students were dismissed early Sept. 30 and moved online for Oct. 1 and 2 before school was canceled Oct. 3, and activities and practices were canceled for the rest of the week.

Askamit said she and her classmates have been taking it one hour at a time. Despite living in Ranchester, she said she feels empathy for the Dayton community.

“We take it one hour at a time because they had meetings throughout the week, so we didn’t know if we would have practice or school,” Askamit said. “I have felt safe, because I’m in Ranchester, but I feel for the people in Dayton and surrounding communities. I think we all feel together in this, because we know everybody’s impacted, and we’re from a small and tight community, so we all just care so much for each other.”

Parkman resident and TRHS sophomore TJ Watkins and his family have not only been preparing for whatever is to come, but they have also been offering their help to neighbors.

“The whole community has been ready to help each other. I’ve had friends from Sheridan that have asked if I need help evacuating,” Watkins said.

TRHS senior Kaden Hill said he has been trying to keep a positive mindset, despite the impact the fire has had on his community.

“A lot of people have been really sad about it, and I’m just trying to keep a positive mindset, so you know at least somebody is not down on themselves and can lift some people up if they can,” Hill said. “I just try not to be sad about it and hope for the best.”

Hill has said it has been encouraging to be with his classmates and help out their community.

“I think it’s really good that we can do something, you know?” he said. “For some of us, we can’t do anything, so really doing anything and even if it’s with our classmates…It’s nice to be able to do something.”

Masters said being able to watch his students come together has lifted his spirits.

“It really has helped me out and lifted my spirits just because getting to do a project with these students, hearing them laugh at each other and joke around brings a little bit of peace to the disaster here,” Masters said.

This story was published on October 5, 2024.