![Adding a tray of canned corn to the pile, junior Michael Collop assists in transporting donations for the Holiday Food Drive. The event, hosted schoolwide from Dec. 10-17, raised over 5,000 food items to deliver to the Parkway Food Pantry, helping several families in need. [The drive] is a great thing for us to do because you're giving to those who are less fortunate, and it helps provide for people who can't provide for themselves. [The] competition is always fun, too. It was fun to be in [social studies teacher Jess] Chazen’s class, because he always gets worked up over [the competition]. He made it exciting, and was always convincing us to turn in cans for the drive,” Collop said.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/feature-photo-unsung-2.png)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
![On Friday, a night full of celebration kicked off in a flood of green in honor of former 2023 graduate Jaydon Woodall. Athletics director Jeff Taggart took the night as a moment to reflect on Woodall and the impact he made. “The fact that we have that option to bring more awareness to [organ donation] and how we can save somebody else's life down the road, to the idea of being an organ donor like [Woodall] is worth everything. Coming together as a community says a lot about how much he means to us,” Taggart said.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/image1-1200x800.png)
“To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” This quote by Dr. Seuss has stuck with senior Eileen Meara as one of her favorite sayings. The 17-year-old was one of several hundred moved by former 2023 graduate Jaydon “JJ” Woodall, who tragically passed away this summer.
With Friday night lights coming to an end and senior night wrapping up, Woodall — who was a football player and wrestler — was honored in the last home football game of the season, with the crowd decked out in green to raise awareness for organ donation. Paying tribute to Woodall through donation awareness was easy for Meara.
“[Woodall] had just graduated from West. He was a football player and wrestled. He was very passionate and very good at both of his sports. When [Woodall] passed, he donated various organs, [including] parts of his heart, both kidneys, bones and tissue to Mid-America Transplant,” Meara said. “He was just so influential. He was such a powerful, determined and driven person. They had an announcement about [Woodall] at a previous [football] game, but I don’t think anybody was made aware that it was going to happen. For this game, I talked to PWest Superfan. I wanted to do a green theme and make it an honor for [Woodall], because he was an organ donor, and they were on board.”
After talking about the game’s theme with Superfan and discussing with various teachers how to make her idea come to life, Meara went to principal John McCabe to talk about the idea of honoring Woodall through a football game. McCabe agreed quickly and reached out to the to get the idea approved by the Parkway School Board.
“McCabe was thrilled by the idea, and the Parkway School Board approved of it because it’s a living memorial. I was so excited. I almost started to cry, I was so happy,” Meara said. “I got in contact with the family support coordinator Liz Harry from Mid-America Transplant. We contacted back and forth through a huge email chain and [worked] through the entire process.”
Through working with Mid-America Transplant, who donated hundreds of green bracelets — which Woodall was often seen wearing, representing organ donors — engraved with ‘Donate Life’ on them, Woodall was honored. The significance of Woodall’s donation goes deeper, as his father was a transplant recipient after battling long-term effects of childhood cancer.
“One thing I distinctly remember about [Woodall] was that he had that green bracelet on at all times, on and off the football field,” Meara said. “Because of that, the target of this game was to raise donations to put towards Mid-America Transplant in [Woodall’s] honor and legacy. Continuing that legacy for him and his family honors everything he’s done for us and everything we can give back as a community. I hoped to really get the message across because [Woodall] would give anything for anyone, and he taught me to do the same,” Meara said.
Athletic director Jeff Taggart recalls the game night as a great honoring of the joy Woodall brought to everybody around him.
“Because [Woodall] was seen as such an exceptional young man, the impact that he made with choosing to be an organ donor impacted me to save somebody else’s life by signing up to donate. Just being here for one year, I had the chance to get to know him; he had a million-dollar smile, [he was] just an electric kid. The fact that we’re able to still remember the positive impact he had even after he left us is something important. It makes you remember that our whole purpose of being around is just to be a good person, to do things for other people. [Woodall] exemplified that. It was a great evening to honor him and be with his family,” Taggart said.
Woodall’s impact reached many, wherever he went. Coaching Woodall through football for four years, head coach Jeff Duncan was often inspired by him.
“He had such a kind heart and was super hard working. I can see the impact [the game] had on our team as well as the coaches. We talked before the game about the way that he played, the passion that he played with, and how we wanted to honor him and play in that same way. I think honoring Jaydon was something special for our team, community and school, and making people aware that they can make a difference by registering can also save the lives of others,” Duncan said.
As the game came to a close, around 200 bracelets and ‘Donate Life’ shirts were passed out. Roughly $900 was collected through cash and online donations.
“This game was to raise awareness [for organ donation] and how important it is to cherish your friends and loved ones. I’ve heard this a million times, but you really never know when your last time [with someone] is. It’s very important to embrace every moment and stop letting other stuff get in your way of being a good person and being who you are. People like [Woodall] are prime examples of being amazing, powerful and genuinely good people; those people are really hard to come by,” Meara said.
This story was originally published on Pathfinder on October 26, 2023.