Maple Avenues Creative Side
Did you get your Golden Ticket?
By Liam Madigan
Maple Avenue Middle School presented the musical Willy Wonka Friday Feb. 5 to the seventh. This play had an outstanding amount of over 100 students all in either 6th 7th or 8th grade. Produced by Kathy Fogarty and directed by Candace Calvin the shows played 7:00 Friday Feb. 5, Saturday Feb.6, and Sunday Feb.7 at 2:00. Other adults that filled key roles include the music director, Karen Munski, Shelly Collier, choreographer, Scott Walrath doing lighting, and Dale Hegenberger, sound. Many adults also helped with the play.
Each scene featured special effects such as nut cracking squirrels or the infamous "people" floating from drinking too much pop. There was a concession stand outside, raffle baskets, and even an actual rolling candy cart!The singing and dancing was the buzz of the school on Monday morning...BRAVO!
The Maple Ave Art Gallery By Annie Getz
You don't have to go to a gallery to see this gallery, just look at our school walls.
Our gallery is the place where the art teachers formally place our art. The gallery is kind of like a refrigerator where the art teachers place our art so people can see it.
The Art Gallery is actually a long tradition of displaying the students art, but a couple of years ago some teachers came up with the great idea of making a gallery. First they had to get permission from Mr. Byrne, our school principal,
Then the art teachers and custodians teamed up the teachers chose where the art would go and the custodians put in new anchors. So next time you see a superb piece of art being shown remember that there is more to the gallery than is seen.
February Holidays/Events
Valentines Day...Is it a day of love or something else?
By: Liam Madigan
As you all know, Valentines Day is coming up, so I thought Id do an article on the history of Valentines Day. But this isnt the story on love and romance, this story is about death. Thats right; I said death, the death of St. Valentine, to be more precise. So, Valentines Day centers on the story of the massacre of St. Valentine. This article will tell you some of the stories of St. Valentine and his mysterious death.
One of the ancient stories tells of a priest (a.k.a. St. Valentine) who served during the third century in Rome. When emperor Claudius II decide that men who were single made better soldiers than men who were married, so Claudius banned marriage for young men. When Valentine heard of this decree, he went against it and continued to perform marriages in secret. When Claudius heard of this, he ordered Valentine to death, therefore making St. Valentines day.
Another one of these legends tells that Valentine actually wrote the first valentine letter himself. While Valentine was in jail he fell in love with another woman- possibly the jailors daughter. Before his death, it is said that he wrote a letter, which he signed at the end, from your valentine, which is an expression we still use today.
Although the history of Valentines Day is still murky, it is certainly known that St. Valentine was a very romantic figure. So there you have it, the history of Valentines Day.
Maple Avenue Helps Haiti
An Amazing Show of Student Generosity
By: Paul Harrington
Many students showed their generosity during the Super Bowl Challenge for Haiti this month. So many in fact that $1,053 was raised. This was enough to by 1 care package ($1,000) and some or all of the shipping.
If you have seen the pictures of Haiti you have probably seen the tent cities (row after row of large tents) that provide shelter for earthquake victims. Well, those are actually care packages! In a care package there is a tent for 10 that is split into three rooms, medicine, blankets, water, clothing, cooking utensils, and other survival equipment. Buying the care package was done through Rotary International.
I interviewed Student Council advisor Mrs. Andrews about the Fundraiser, and when I asked her if the fundraiser met her expectations she said yes. I also asked her what the average donated was. She responded that $1 was usual but that there was $300 in $20 bills. Next I asked her how many students she thinks contributed she said probably well over half. Last I asked her if she expected to get 2 care packages she answered no because even if everyone gave $1 there would only be about $1,500.
The Student Council has found Maple Avenue students to be very generous and it definitely showed here!
Above, Dr. Joe Greco accepts a check for $2,200 for the American Red Cross. Sixth grade students in Maple Avenue Middle School's Hathorn House quietly raised the money over an 8 day period by reaching out to their families.
Pictured from Left to Right are:
Elliot Hungerford, Dr. Joe Greco (Assistant Principal - Hathorn House) Jenna Stiansen, and Reese Arthur.
No Name Calling Week: In Maple and the World
By Eli Fisher
By now, everyone in our school knows what happens on January 25th-29th No Name Calling Week. And its perfect timing for us, with the recent debut of The Get Up Stand Up Club. But what you might not know is that No Name Calling Week is a national event.
The week was inspired by a young adult novel known as The Misfits, in which four friends are made fun of based on their weight, sexual orientation (one of the friends is gay), height, intelligence, and other factors. They run for student council and base their campaign on wiping out name calling in their school. Despite their loss, the principal creates an annual No Name Calling Day. No Name Calling Week was created in 2004, a year after that book was published, by a coalition of many organizations, principally Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) and Simon & Schuster Publishing. It is targeted at grades 5-8, the grades in which it is believed that name calling is the worst.
I would like to thank Mrs. Jackling for providing information for this article. It also contains information from nonamecallingweek.org and the Amazon.com page for The Misfits.
Mapletogian
February 2010 Issue-Vol.5
