Image provided by: Texas A&M University
About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 18, 1986)
Friday, April 18, 1986/The Battalion/Page 3 State and Local APO pledges to repair halfway house in Bryan 33 The Right Pace g*- Gabrielle Bradfield puts “Spot” through his paces to practice for the Little Southwest Livestock Show Photo by Anthony S. Casper sponsored by the Saddle 8c Sirloin Club. The show will be held Saturday at the Louis Pearce Pavilion. By Paula Vogrin Reporter Texas A&M students may be planning to relax during the coming three-day weekend, but the Alpha Phi Omega pledge class will be get ting its hands dirty repairing a local halfway house. The pledges will help dig, frame and pour a 150-foot sidewalk, then build bookshelves, and paint and clean the interior of the Mary Lake Halfway House in Bryan. Mary Lake is a home for mentally disabled adults returning to the community from state instituions. Such community service projects are a required activity for the pledges of Alpha Phi Omega, a na tional service fraternity. To become an active member a pledge must complete 50 hours of community service and participate in the pledge class community project. Lynnette Curry, vice president of the APO pledge class, said the pro ject is one of the largest ever under taken by a pledge class. “In the past, pledge classes have painted the Twin City Mission and cleaned up the grounds of the Boy Scout Camp,” Curry said, “but they’ve never done anything as com plicated as what we’re doing with the sidewalk.” The sidewalk will connect a park ing lot to two buildings of the Mary Lake Halfway House. Curry said Thursday night that the Vertex Equipment Co. cleared the ground for the sidewalk. Curry said the whole process would take three days. First a place for the foundation will be dug, she said. “Friday we’ll lay the wood and wire frame,” she said, “and Saturday we’ll pour the cement.” APO raised money for the project by sponsoring a car wash and a fund drive. The car wash netted $200, and area businesses donated the rest of the funds. Besides building the sidewalk, APO will construct a set of bookshelves for one of the rooms in the Mary Lake facility. “Some of the rooms are pretty bare,” Curry said, “and the bookshelves will be a welcome addi tion.” Curry said the lumber for the bookshelves was donated by Furrow Building Materials in College Sta tion. In addition, APO will paint and clean the inside of the buildings. She said 70 people will participat ing in the building and renovation activities. APO members will be di vided into groups to work in differ ent areas and on different shifts. With the completion of the Mary Lake project, Curry said she expects 63 of APO’s 86 pledges to complete their requirements for activation. APO has performed other com munity service projects this semes ter. Every week APO members visit the Boy’s Club and provide activities and companionship. APO also helped clean-up the town of Millican as part of a statewide campaign called clean-up campaign called, “Don’t Mess with Texas.” Activities on campus include man ning the tables at blood drives and operating the night shuttle van from Parking Annex 56 and 61, more commonly known as the Fishlot. vandle snakes with caution, common sense, expert soys sageii toil t Unio V0U1K ' esla J By Homer Jacobs Reporter insist ■rron: ;ed$t risra, venic nber the The word “snake” brings to mind Ions of slimy, slippery, rat-swal- j|ing creatures of death. But Dr. James Dixon of the Wild- e and Fisheries Sciences Depart- ent says although snakes can be ffigerous, few people die from lakebites. In fact, about one death a year is Sorted in Texas resulting from a iisonous snakebite, with most fatal- jHoccurring in children, Dixon B Dixon says there are 35 different s of snakes in Brazos County, g seven that are highly poi- mous, five of which are relatively Mirnion. ’Many times people are bitten and taken to the hospital and don’t know what kind of snake it was,” he says. “But if they take the snake, it can be identified so that doctors can admin ister proper treatment.” Dixon says the most common poi sonous snakes in the area are the timber rattlesnake, the cottonmouth moccasin, the copperhead, the pigmy rattlesnake and the coral snake. Copperheads are the most com mon venomous snake in Brazos County; however, it takes 100 milli grams of this snake’s venom to kill an adult, Dixon says. He then added that the copper head only possesses between 70 and 80 milligrams of venom. A 4-foot western diamondback, on the other hand, has up to 200 milligrams of poison but needs only 100 to kill an adult, Dixon says. “No snake ever gives you all he’s got,” he says. “The snake knows ex actly how much to give you.” The American Red Cross advises that all victims of snakebites be taken to a hospital immediately after being bitten. The American Red Cross advises that all victims of snakebites be taken to a hospital at least four to five hours after being bitten. • Keep the victim from moving around. • Keep the victim as calm as pos sible and preferably in a lying posi tion. • Immobilize the bitten extremity and keep it at or below heart level. Dixon advises those who are bit ten on the arm or leg and are within 30 minutes of a hospital to tie a light pressure bandage around the limb between the bite and the heart to slow down the blood flow. Most snakes lie in brushpiles, high grass and anywhere there is food, he says. Dixon recommends that if a per son is going to frequent these areas, then the person should wear thick, loose-fitting clothing. “If your clothing fits loose, then he can hit your leg and miss (the skin),” he says. He warns that people who have killed a snake should not underesti mate the staying power of the rep tile. “After cutting a snake’s head off, a snake can still move and bite you at least an hour after killing him,” Dixon says. He says he is opposed to the rat tlesnake round-ups that occur every year. He says snake hunters often in advertantly kill armadillos, turtles, lizards and other animals that live in holes in the ground. Dixon says most snakebites occur in July and August, and if a person would use common sense, then problems with snakes would be mini mized. “When you think about snakes, normality of the brain usually does not apply,” he says. Correction In its April 11 issue, The Bat- till ion incorrectly reported that the Department of Modern Lan- start a In fact, the department already has a graduate program in Span ish but plans to expand the pro gram. The Battnikm also reported that the department has ex panded its recruitment to mi nority students. The department already recruits minority students but intends to intensify its search. to (Efl »atml lilized 1 He 1 anintO'i iC il han i rets It I is sysitaj jgress or jo® Battafe Your last chance in 150 years to see a Texas-sized sesquicentennial tribute: luntip THE-OLDEST LIVING lerron eked illing i ntix^ alia"' 1 ' :s, m i prole 11 enseW at i areefj e UiP eeds® 1 art tu^ rt Mi -itislif 0 ' iatf* doing' 8 hro"; polidf) luse# ie lvi4 rman'j ul.f! ,i!i/ f() : rated Mini 51 ' sact tll!: : W j P by Preston Jones Feisty, cantankerous, gregarious and slightly senile Colonel J.C. Kinkaid is the oldest living graduate of the 1901 class of Mirabeau B. Lamar Military Academy. He has risked life and limb through two world wars and survived the rigors of countless Texas droughts. But can he survive his “loving” family trying to sell his beloved land and the special memories (and secrets) it holds? MSC Town Hall/Broadway and the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley present “The Oldest Living Graduate” April 24 at 8 p.m. in Rudder Auditorium at Texas A&lM. Part of Preston Jones’ Texas Trilogy, this special tribute to the people of Texas is made possible by the Texas Commission on the Arts. Don’t miss your chance to reserve the best seats in the house! Tickets are available at Ticketron and the MSC Box Office, 845-1234. VISA and MasterCard accepted. Ticket Prices Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 Non-Student $8.50 $6.75 $4.50 Sr. Citizen/Student $7.50 $6.00 $4.00 6-PACK UNDER GLASS THIS BUD'S for you: BUDWEISER®-KING OF BEERS®•ANHEUSER-BUSCH. INC •ST LOUIS