It was held from 4 to 6 p.m. for elementary school students from the Shawnee Mission district from underprivileged homes.
“The carnival is a fun event for the Head Start students,” Student Council sponsor Sarah Dent said. “Since the students already have two events in the fall and winter, we made the carnival in the spring.” The two other events for Head Start students are the Head Start Halloween carnival and Adopt-a-Tot.

While StuCo hosted the event, other clubs, including French club, The Girl Effect, Arts and Crafts club, Mural club and Key Club, participated by contributing games, prizes and activities for the Head Start students. Spirit Club, Club 121, Future Teachers of America and girls’ soccer also participated.

“There [were] many carnival-type games, since After-Prom donated some games,” junior Anna Feyerherm said. “Girls’ soccer did hair spray-painting, and StuCo did many of the games.”

Other games included a sack race, musical chairs and a ring toss. Each club runs games of their choosing.

“[The carnival] went really well, although not many [Headstart students] showed up, since we only publicized by e-mail,” Feyerherm said.

The Spring Carnival was funded by the Rock-Paper-Scissors tournament and StuCo. The tournament brought in $200, and the rest was paid for by StuCo and participating clubs. StuCo coordinators junior Erica Austin and senior Anna Feyerherm ran the carnival.

“This [was] the carnival’s first year, and we’re really excited,” Dent said. “We really hope we can keep doing this for years to come.”

-Michael Griffin

The second runner-ups were Christian Buller and Sandy Tickles.

The first runner-ups were Matt Broll and Rachael Zdeb.

The Prom King and Queen were Abdul Ankrah and Misha Modiri.

The Prom King and Queen, Abdul and Misha, at the dance on April 24th, 2010.

The event will take place April 19 on the track. Students needed to contribute a minimum of $40 to the Shalom House, a local homeless shelter, by April 9th in order to participate.

Members of StuCo, CCC, varsity drill team, Amnesty International, Interact Club, IB, Key Club, Coalition and NHS sleep in homemade, cardboard boxes as a reminder of the struggle the homeless endure to find shelter.

“It’s a way for students to have a better understanding of what it’s like to sleep on the ground in a box, not in a bed, with no shower to wake up to,” senior Emily Ferbezar said. “It puts them in the mind set of not having the normal luxuries of the every day life we experience.”

Orchestra conductor Bishop

Heritage Music Festivals are held in cities all around the country every spring and allow band, choir and orchestra groups to perform.

“It’s a way that if you want to take your orchestra or band or choir on a trip, you could justify it educationally,” orchestra teacher Jeffrey Bishop said. “We need to go and have a quality musical experience.”

In the past, the orchestra has participated in festivals in Dallas, St. Louis, Anaheim and Orlando. This is the first time they have gone to Chicago.

At the festival, the orchestra will perform three pieces.

“Bailes para Orquesta” by Richard Meyer, “Elegy” by Dwight Beckham and “American Reel” by Kirt Mosier.

“The music I selected was designed to showcase the depth of our orchestra program. We have a really strong cello and viola section that is featured in ‘Bailes,’” Bishop said. “I really wanted to do music that the kids would like, that they wouldn’t get sick of after preparing it for a month.”

In addition to performing, the students will visit the Shedd Aquarium and the Museum of Science and Industry.

While touring the city and during the performance, Bishop has high expectations for his students.

“We represent Northwest,” Bishop said. “We play our best. We are our best.”

The schedule put the spring musical “Big River” and “Leaving Iowa” only two weeks apart. About a month ago, the show was cast and they had a week of rehearsals.

“We’re doing it because I have two weeks before it’s supposed to open,” drama teacher Keli Rogers said. “We can’t seem to get our schedules straight in order to have a decent length of time to do a show.”

“Leaving Iowa” is about a man from Iowa who moved to New York and is going home to Iowa for his nephew’s christening. Two or three years previous, his father had died and was cremated. The man was supposed to spread his father’s ashes on the farm where he grew up.

“The son takes the urn of ashes and sets it out. It’s a couple of hours to get to grandpa’s farm. When he gets there he discovers that the farm is now a Wal-Mart. He doesn’t really feel like he can scatter his father’s ashes at Wal-Mart,” Rogers said.
The man then sets out to find another place to scatter his father’s ashes and, in the course of doing so, remembers several of the vacations his family took when he was a child.

“There were several incidences that happened during vacations that are really funny,” Rogers said.

In the show, Julia Stanislav is the mother; Joe Uhl plays the father; Luke Meyer is the son; and Cassie Jones is the sister. There are also four other male roles and three other female roles.

“Leaving Iowa” will run April 29, 30 and May 1. Tickets are $7 or $3 with an activity pass.

Girls:

• Kelsi Horner
• Misha Modiri
• Christine Nelson
• Bailie Phelan
• Jenni Pinkelman
• Jennifer Sommerfeld
• Christina Strauss
• Sandy Tickles
• Sierra Trussell
• Hannah Williams
• Rachael Zdeb

Boys:

• Abdul Ankrah
• Mickey Baltzley
• Matt Broll
• Christian Buller
• Adam Giacalone
• Vik Govindarajan
• Jon Kankam
• Kevin Krumme
• Kyle McGahee
• Cody Parks
• Ed Spaunhorst

The dance is for all juniors and seniors. Any outside guests must be registered in the office by filling out a form.

Tickets for Prom will be around $25 for 1 ticket and $48 for 2 tickets.

The theme for this year’s prom is “Electric Avenue,” and the After Prom theme is “Under the Big Top.”

The idea for After Prom began when parent Bonnie Perkins began organizing all-night after-prom parties at her daughters’ high school after her friend’s 18-year-old son was killed while driving drunk.

The prom committee spends all year getting ready for this event, starting in September. There are about 40 people involved to help make the event a success.

“It pulls out the creative side that I don’t get to see teaching AP Government,” prom committee advisor Sara Schaufler said.

Schaufler helps pick out themes and colors as well as making sure the decorators set up everything and take everything down the night of prom.

“It’s like being an event planner,” Schaufler said. “I’m just lacking the head-set.”

-Rachel Ferencz

“This concert is different because it gives us the opportunity to work with the orchestra and get to know more about them,” junior Matt Harrison said. “It makes [the experience] a lot more incredible.”

The program featured three choirs, as well as Chamber Orchestra and several Symphony Orchestra members. A Capella Choir took the stage to sing “All That Hath Life and Breath, Praise Ye the Lord” by Rene Clausen, which included a solo by sophomore Isabel Zacharias. The smaller 21-member Chamber Choir then sung “Seek the Lord,” written by the same composer, but directed by senior Andrew Shaw.

“Every year seniors have an opportunity to direct a choral piece if they are interested in a career in musical education,” Shaw said. “It was nerve-wracking, but it was worth it in the end, and the choir did a good job with the song.”

The Chamber Orchestra then played two pieces: “Epilogue,” an original composition by orchestra teacher Jeffrey Bishop, and the “Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra and Piano Obligatto” by Ernest Bloch, which featured sophomore Amanda Hedrick on piano.

The next piece, “Regina Coeli” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, was played by both the orchestra and choir. It also included parts for trumpet, oboe, timpani and harp.

“Music in our curriculum is like picking a book for English class. There are certain things that the piece works on, and we have to pick something that choir and orchestra can both do well,” Bishop said. “[‘Regina Coeli’] is a good one to use, and we’ve done it in the past.”

“It’s a very mature piece so it must have a lot of dynamic changes. Plus, it takes a lot of control,” sophomore and audience member Melissa Balino said.

Both the orchestra and choir had been preparing “Regina Coeli” for weeks, but they only had the chance to practice together twice. The piece closed out the 33-minute concert.

“The choir alone is a just a choir; the orchestra alone is just an orchestra,” Harrison said. “Together, it makes a wonderful ensemble.”