People

As a service project, the Bluffton High School student senate decided to hold a money drive this winter. The money that was raised is going to benefit a few families in the surrounding area, according to Pam Riffle, student senate advisor.

A member of each of the families chosen is serving the the United States armed forces.

"This project was high school-wide and involved the grades competing against each other for the reward of a pizza party," she said.

Bluffton High School grad Petty Officer Blaize Potts, serving in the United States Coast Guard in Alaska, recently received a citation for outstanding achievement while serving as flight mechanic aboard a Coast Guard HH-65C helicopter this past January. This rescue was selected for an award to be presented at a helicopter expo in Houston in February 2010.

The crew of which Potts was a member was dispatched from Cold Bay, Alaska, to evacuate a severely injured crewman with severe head trauma from the F/V Kodiak.