Students Pass A Cup To Help A Classmate

It's the small things that count sometimes. A few bits of change can add up into something bigger and a few small efforts can help with a bigger problem. Local Glasgow High School students have been working on continuing their efforts to help fellow classmate Nik Herman.

Denise Herman, Nik's mother, explained that last April Nik was diagnosed with kidney failure, more technically IGS Nephrophathy. The 16-year-old sophomore has had a rough year. He's spent time in Poplar being trained to work dialysis equipment at home. He's still attending school on a daily basis, but his lunch hour is spent doing dialysis and he spends an additional 10 hours each night hooked up to the machine.

For a kid in his prime, not being able to participate in sports and other activities has likely been a challenge. Last year the GHS Student Council, the class of 2017 and the local Key Club participated in a car wash to raise funds for the family. The community has also reached out to raise funds. This month the student council continued those fundraising efforts by passing a cup.

Change and donations from local classmates make their way into a red Solo cup. A little fun and friendly competition has made the fundraising a little more successful. The classroom that contributes $75 receives doughnuts. The cup was passed last week and the student council raised $588.05. The cup will be passed around again today for classrooms to have another change at doughnuts that are provided by the student council.

“It was brought up and whenever a student is in need we just do it,” MaKenzie Wesen, president of student council said.

“It's just the right thing to do,” Mary Fewer added.

Student Council Advisor Rod Karst said he thought that the Malta Key Club might also be looking to get involved and help raise funds for the family. Karst said that it's an easy fundraiser that doesn't distract too much from class time and costs very little to do.

In the meantime Nik has continued his treatments and has been taught to be more independent. He will have to take rejection medicines for the rest of his life. Denise said that they were still looking for a kidney match, the right blood type (B+) and the right conditions are always a process that takes time to figure out. His dad, Mike Herman is currently going through the process to be a possible donor for a transplant. Seattle Children's Hospital and the University of Washington Hospital have been working to make this happen, hopefully in the next three months.

Denise said that the community has been so supportive and the school has been good tow work with. They can't wait until Nik can get back to normal activities and get back to work at Gateway.