Klamath Falls, Ore. – A gift from some Oregon Tech students is helping to warm the holidays for those who may be facing their last Christmas.
Students in the Bio-Health Sciences Club has been making blankets for High Desert Hospice for several years.
Student Marissa McGinnis is a member of the club. “This year we wanted to make it bigger and better than all the rest of the years.”
The club decided to make a blanket for each hospice patient.
“We weren’t really sure that the number was, and we asked and found out it was 70 patients.” McGinnis explains. “And so, we talked it over, and we were like, ‘let’s do it – let’s go for it.”
With help from Joann Fabrics, the community, and their adviser, they achieved their goal.
And the results are appreciated.
“Patients just love them.” Notes Barbara Golden of High Desert Hospice. “They’re bright, and cheery, and they cheer them up, and they’re warm and fuzzy – and they’re so appreciated.”
“Hearing these stories, they really appreciate the small things.” Notes student Christian Gomez. “A blanket – it can really change someone’s life.”
The blankets will soon be comforting hospice patients.
“It’s just one of those things at Christmas that just makes you feel good.” Golden reflected.
Gomez agrees. “It warms my heart to be able to help people like this.”
KOTI-TV NBC2 reporter Lyle Ahrens moved from Nebraska to Klamath Falls in the late 1970’s. He instantly fell in love with the mountains, the trees and the rivers, and never once regretted the move.Lyle’s job history is quite colorful.
He’s managed a pizza parlor; he’s been a bartender, and a “kiwifruit grader” at an organic orchard in New Zealand. A Klamath Falls radio station hired Lyle in the mid 90’s as a news writer and commercial producer. In 2004, Lyle joined the KOTI/KOBI news operation.Lyle notes with pride that he has a big responsibility presenting the Klamath Basin to a wide and varied audience.
“The on-going water crisis has underscored the fact that the people and the issues in the Klamath Basin are every bit as diverse as the terrain. Winning and keeping the trust of the viewers, as well as the newsmakers, is something I strive for with each story”.
When he’s not busy reporting the news, Lyle enjoys astronomy, playing guitar, fixing old radios and listening to anything by Sheryl Crow.
