Carl Junction community gathers in prayer for student battling illness
CARL JUNCTION, Mo. — The power of prayer was on full display tonight in Carl Junction.
Many members of the community gathered at Bulldog Stadium to pray for Elijah Schultz.
The 7th-grader has been at Children's Mercy in Kansas City since this weekend battling meningitis.
You'll recall, we featured him prior to his appearance in a commercial on 'Super Bowl Sunday.'
RELATED: CJ student featured in Super Bowl commercial
Eli has a passion for football, and plays quarterback.
According to the family, he has a team of doctors, disease, nephrology and pain, trying to determine the origin of the meningitis.
On social media, the family also said they were humbled beyond words when it came to tonight's event.
'Shannon and Tobin both work in the school district. Eli is super involved in, you know, academics and athletics and he's just a very well-loved kid. So, I just want everyone to see what the power of community and the power of prayer – and just, gathering together – and the power of numbers – what that can mean for the Schultz family,' said Kerri Sunday, event organizer.
'The Schultz family is very well-loved and known in our community. They are constant supporters of educators, as they are educators themselves, but also of students. They are amazing Bulldog supporters of all students,' said Ronda Lawson, CJ special education teacher.
The family has been posting updates on Facebook, which you can find here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Marineland remains closed in Niagara Falls, Ont., says it hasn't decided if it will open this year
With the busy summer tourist season in Niagara Falls, Ont., weeks away, Marineland says it still hasn't decided if it will open this year. The beleaguered aquarium told CBC Hamilton in an email Tuesday "no final decision has been made." "As Marineland has repeatedly publicly stated, we continue to be actively engaged in a sale process and transition to new ownership," said the statement from the marketing department. "The long-term health and welfare of the animals remains Marineland's priority in the transition process." As of Tuesday, its main phone number wasn't working, its Facebook page was taken down and its website made no mention of its reopening date. This time last year, its reopening date of June 28 was already posted to its website, according to internet park has traditionally closed for the fall and winter, and reopened in the spring, but in recent years scaled back operations, said Janet Adams, an employment co-ordinator at the Niagara Employment Help Centre. At its height, Marineland would hire 500 to 700 seasonal employees, she said. But last year it hired only a few janitors and cashiers, and called back employees from the year before, Adams said. This year, they haven't posted any summer positions at all, impacting students looking for work, she said. 18 beluga whale deaths since 2019 Ontario's Animal Welfare Services has been investigating Marineland for five years, visiting the park more than 200 times since 2020. Eighteen beluga whales, one killer whale and one dolphin have died at Marineland since late 2019 — including one beluga earlier this year. The province declared in 2021 that all marine mammals at the park were in distress due to poor water, but told The Canadian Press last year the water issue had been brought up to standard. In 2024, Marineland was found guilty under Ontario's animal cruelty laws over its care of three young black bears. The bears lived in an enclosure that measured 48 square feet and their outside area was 360 square feet, and lacked water and climbing structures, a provincial court heard. However, the bears needed to be in an enclosure at least 10,000 square feet, animal welfare inspectors determined. Lobbyist working on animal export permits Last month, Marineland sold one of its properties that included an office building to a numbered corporation for over $2.7 million, according to land records. It's down the road from the sprawling main park. Earlier this year, it got permission from the City of Niagara Falls to sever the large park into four parcels to take out mortgages. Tom Richardson, a lawyer who represents Marineland, said at a public meeting in February that it needs the money to continue funding park operations and eventually move its animals, including more than two dozen beluga whales, as well as bears and deer. "It's to address the elephant in the room, and that is the moving of the whales and other creatures," he said. After the animals are moved, the park will merge the parcels back together, rather than sell them off individually, said Richardson. In March, a consultant for Marineland, Andrew Burns, registered as a lobbyist to "communicate with government officials" about obtaining permits to trade endangered species internationally and export cetaceans, a classification of aquatic mammals that includes whales and dolphins. Burns didn't respond to a request for comment.
New York Post
2 hours ago
- New York Post
‘Very rare' oarfish washes up on beach, sparking doomsday fears: ‘We're cooked, aren't we?'
Is there about to be an apocalypse? A rare 'doomsday' oarfish has washed ashore yet again — this time in Australia, sparking fears that a catastrophe could be around the corner. 'I just knew it was something unusual and weird,' Sybil Robertson told the Guardian of the 'fantastic' flotsam, which she discovered while walking her dog on Ocean Beach in Tasmania on Monday. Advertisement The Strahan resident became curious after seeing a streak of silver on the beach, and, when she approached, she realized that it was a massive sea creature. 3 An oarfish sighting is 'a very rare occasion when one washes ashore,' said Neville Barrett, a fish biologist and associate professor with the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. A beachgoer found the one above earlier this week in Tasmania. Sybil Robertson 'I could see it was a long fish, but I had no idea what kind of fish,' Robertson recounted to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 'As I got closer, I could see the beautiful coloring around its head, and the markings on it were fabulous.' Advertisement Aside from a few injuries, the shimmery specimen appeared to be in good condition. The Aussie posted pics of the serpentine sea creature to the 'Citizen Scientists of Tasmania' Facebook page, where marine experts confirmed that the ethereal-looking animal was an oarfish. 3 Robertson found the critter (pictured) while walking her dog on Ocean Beach in Tasmania. Sybil Robertson This particular specimen appeared to be around nine feet long, much smaller than their maximum size of 56 feet — the longest of any bony fish. Advertisement Scientists said the find was particularly special since the creepy critters generally reside at depths of up to around 1,650 feet deep. 'It's a very rare occasion when one washes ashore,' said Neville Barrett, a fish biologist and associate professor with the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies. 'There's not many reportings at all.' He said that very few people have seen the denizens of the deep alive. 3 This giant oarfish was found washed up on the California coast in 2013. Catalina Island Marine Institute Advertisement In the unlikely event that the elusive critters do surface, they are likely sick or close to death, according to scientists 'Occasionally, when they are sick, apparently, they swim up to the surface for unknown reasons,' Barrett said. However, superstitious folks have viewed the oarfish as a sign of doom. According to Japanese mythology, the serpentine plankton-eaters will purposely rise to the surface and beach themselves whenever they sense that trouble's on the horizon. In fact, doomsday fears ramped up during Japan's deadly 2011 Fukushima earthquake and tsunami when dozens of the pelagic beasts washed ashore in the two years preceding the catastrophe. Doomsdayers on Reddit felt this latest sighting was another sign of the apocalypse, with one writing, 'We're cooked, aren't we?' 'Tasmania should evacuate. Or batten down the hatches,' declared another. Advertisement A third warned, 'The oarfish is seen as a horrible omen. Like a black cat breaking a mirrored salt shaker under a ladder bad.' However, Barrett said he doesn't 'put much credence' in this theory, claiming that a beached oarfish is just a 'random event' — rather than a bad omen. 'There's no real evidence there's any linkage,' he said. 'I can imagine a significant earthquake could disturb mid-water fish and stun them and lead to some coming up, but that's at the same time [as the disaster].'
American Press
3 hours ago
- American Press
Jim Beam column:Ivermectin can cause problems
Louisiana state Sen. Mike Fesi, R-Houma, is sponsoring legislation that will make it easier for people to purchase ivermectin, a questionable drug.(Photo courtesy of Facebook). Louisiana's Republican public officials haven't stopped complaining about former Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' handling of the COVID pandemic since he left office. Edwards' actions actually saved many lives, but that has been conveniently overlooked in GOP efforts to promote some of their own weird plans. State Sen. Michael 'Big Mike' Fesi of Houma, for example, is sponsoring Senate Bill 19 that would authorize pharmacists in Louisiana to dispense the ivermectin drug without requiring a prescription from a patient's physician. The Advocate reported that ivermectin is a powerful anti-parasitic drug approved to treat specific infections in humans and was widely used in animals, particularly horses and livestock. Why is Fesi sponsoring such a potentially dangerous drug? 'We were misled during the COVID era, and that's where all this comes from,' Fesi said. 'As a free people, I know we can make our own decisions on what we want to do.' Yes, but shouldn't a doctor have to prescribe a drug as dangerous as this one? Unfortunately, Dr. Ralph Abraham, the state's surgeon general, doesn't think so. He said a lot of people are getting the drug from veterinary supply stores. Abraham said, 'I can pretty much assure you if you asked 10 of your friends, one or two of them are probably taking ivermectin on a periodic or a daily basis.' No surprises there since the drug has seen a surge in off-label use due to internet-fueled claims that it can treat a number of conditions or even cure cancer. The newspaper said actor Mel Gibson in January said on 'The Joe Rogan Podcast' that three friends with Stage 4 cancer got better after taking ivermectin and fenbendazole. Why anyone would take Gibson or Rogan's medical advice is their mistake. The drug is effective against parasites and its developers won the Nobel Prize in 2015. However, large studies have shown no significant benefit for COVID treatment, and ongoing research on its potential role in cancer remains preliminary. The Advocate said experts caution that early promise in preclinical trials rarely translates into effective therapies in humans. OK, here are some of those experts: Dr. Jon Mizrahi said he now fields requests for ivermectin constantly in his New Orleans practice as a cancer specialist. He said his gastrointestinal cancer patients began asking for it during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over two weeks this spring, he said more than half of his new patients asked about the drug. Some hoped to combine it with chemotherapy. Others planned to take ivermectin instead. They had problems. Two patients had to delay chemotherapy because ivermectin elevated their liver enzymes. One patient, newly diagnosed with late-stage cancer, wanted to try ivermectin before chemo or radiation. Two months later, that person's cancer had gotten significantly worse. The newspaper said Mizrahi is one of dozens of cancer specialists in Louisiana raising concerns about Fesi's bill. In a letter signed by 40-plus providers and the Cancer Advocacy Group of Louisiana and Louisiana Oncology Society, opponents of the bill emphasized that standard cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy are grounded in rigorous clinical trials, while ivermectin lacks research. Dr. Mary Maluccio, a surgical oncologist specializing in rare cancers in New Orleans, said she hears about ivermectin upward of a dozen times a week. Two of her patients died of liver failure after adding ivermectin to their regimen without informing the care team. The patients had cancers requiring aggressive chemotherapy that put their livers at risk anyway — but Maluccio suspects ivermectin contributed to the swift pace of decline. The newspaper said for many cancer patients, experimenting with holistic remedies — green tea, turmeric, smoothies — is a way to feel some control. Maluccio said she doesn't fault them for it. But ivermectin, she said, isn't just a harmless add-on. For patients facing advanced or rare cancers, the desire to try anything can be understandable, Maluccio said. But it becomes difficult to treat cancer with proven methods if a drug without known interactions is added to the mix, or there is no protocol for how taking it might impact surgery. It's extremely difficult to understand how 28 of Louisiana's 39 state senators voted for Fesi's bill, and four of them represent this corner of the state. I'm sticking with my physicians, not those who, like Abraham, are touting ivermectin as some kind of wonder drug. Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or Reply Forward Add reaction
