Ticks are critters people don’t often think about — loose messages circulate: “Don’t forget to check yourself,” and “They carry diseases,” — but frequently, the threat of ticks are understated.
In order to foster awareness of the danger of tick-borne illnesses, sophomores Chris Allen and Kaitlyn Belina and freshman Lucas Ostermeyer have been researching, constructing, and promoting their HOSA project “Fight the Bite!” for the past nine months. On Monday, March 24, the team will compete at the State Leadership Conference in Rolla, MO, with hopes of advancing on to the international competition.
“Our goal is to inform the community about tick-borne illnesses, and really emphasize the need for change in our community. We are very upset because our family members are being affected, our friends are being affected, and we want change now,” Allen said.
Meeting twice a week and for hours on weekends, the team has worked together to accumulate research and culminate it into a five minute presentation they will present to a panel of judges in the category of Health Education.
“I believe we met well over 30 or 40 times that ranged anywhere from like 20 minute calls up to like seven hour work days. We spend weekends together,” Ostermeyer said. “I really don’t think that other people have been working on it for nine months, and it gives me a good hope that we might place very well.”
Additionally, Allen and Ostermeyer are co-social media managers for their instagram, @FightTheBiteOfficial, where they have spread information and conducted community outreach. Belina does most of their Digital Design. They’ve hosted two community presentations after school, conducting a pre- and post- survey for each, and have even planned a community picnic on Friday, March 21.
“We’re culminating all this educational information and pushing it out to the community in any way, shape or form possible,” Ostermeyer said. “After one of our presentations, we went from about 30 percent knowing how to properly remove ticks to being 100 percent.”
In total, they have amassed seven interviews from students and even one from Allen’s grandmother Dr. Jennifer Allen, who studies Alpha-gals syndrome, a potentially life-threatening disease that can occur after a tick bite. Tennis Coach Jeremy Rorhback has alpha-gals, and the relevance of this disease within the community contributed toward their purpose for “Fight the Bite!”
“The symptoms can vary from heart attack-like symptoms, all the way to just a minor rash. So like my grandpa, he can eat beef and just get a rash, and he refuses to give it up. But one of Jen’s patients, unfortunately, had a heart attack. It was actually the Alpha-gal… it can mimic anaphylaxis, so like your throat can close up,” Allen said.
Last year, Allen and Belina started their HOSA project called “Med-Link,” much later, and that interfered with their success — in the end leading to an all-nighter. However, this year, with a three person team, and their earlier start, Belina explains how that changed their workload.
“Honestly, it divided it more evenly. I’ll be honest at points we felt like one person wasn’t doing enough, or one person was doing too much, but really it evened out pretty well,” Belina said.
Ostermeyer explains how the project has helped merge two passionate interests together.
“There’s the competition side, and then there’s the love for the medical side.That’s what I love about HOSA and their competitions, is that they truly bring those two sides of me together,” Ostermeyer said.
Belina explained how Biology Teachers Melissa Broadfield and Jessica Rowe helped offer advice and feedback on the team’s project.
“A couple of teachers have helped us revise our work to make sure we’ve gotten everything. Make sure there are no errors, and just look over it or rate it as if they were judges,” Belina said.
After their five minute presentation, the team will be asked questions by the judges, proving their knowledge. In preparation for this, Allen used ChatGPT to generate questions about tick-borne illnesses and the project as a whole. At their community presentations, Broadfield and Rowe asked the team difficult questions to test their knowledge on a molecular level.
“We’re hoping judges aren’t going to ask questions like that, but if they do, we will be more than prepared,” Allen said.
Allen re-affirms the importance of advocacy for tick-borne illnesses.
“It’s so real and it could affect you at any time. And just going on a simple hike, you could get a tick, and if we don’t keep advocating, if we don’t keep posting stuff like this, if we don’t keep people excited about prevention, then nothing’s gonna happen,” Allen said.
