Eagan IndependentVolume 5, Issue 5 Eagan High School | 4185 Braddock Trail | Eagan, MN 55123 February 9, 2010

Recently the Scholas-tic Art and Writing Awards Program recognized many students at Eagan for their creativity and talent. The different awards included a Merit Award, the Silver Key and, the highest honor, the Gold Key. When asked about how she felt when she won the Gold Key award for her photograph of lilies, sopho-more Michelle Metcalfe said, “I was really surprised. I

didn’t even know Mr. Stanley submitted my photo.” An-other winner was senior Leah Zobott. She said, “I was really surprised and honored to win something for all of all of my pieces.”

The following are all the State Art Award winners: seniors Leah Zobott, Adam Iverson, Kelly Wood, and Al-yssa Noel; juniors Chan Chau, Hannah Hofmann, and Lars Johnson; and sophomores Brooke Binner, Michelle Met-calfe, Julia Rodman, Cortney Houdek, and Elizabeth Rohlf.

Also, 2009 graduate Catherine Glass, a previous Gold Key winner, received special recognition and won a summer scholarship at the Minneapolis College of Art &

Design. Her photo will go on to nation-als.

Con-gratula-tions to all the winners.

By Taylor DewallNews Writer

Eagan Students win Art Awards

Blithe Spirit: A winter ComedyBy Seth LynchNews Writer

The winter play Blithe Spirit will play February 25th through February 27th. Although the play has a small cast, it has much to offer.

The play takes place in the 1940s. Charles (played by Will Cox) is writing a book about the usage of mediums in homicide investigations. However, after inviting a psychic (Laura Stopfer) and holding a seance, they awake the spirit of Charles’ first wife, Alvira (Lilly Roe), who died seven years ago. Charles is now happily re-married to Ruth (Elleni Paulson), but it seems that Alvira still has some fight left in her and wants to sabotage the rela-tionship.

This play is the sixth play at Eagan to be directed by Mr. Melchior (along with five productions of Encore). “We always try to make sure that there is a variety in the plays we put on,” Mr. Melchior explained. “Last fall we did Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), the one act was a drama, and this winter we’re doing Blithe Spirit, a 1940s comedy. We have the musical Pippin scheduled for the spring.”

“When we’re deciding on a play, we take into account opportunities and varieties of the actors and the experience

for the audience,” states Mr. Melchior. “The one act had a cast of almost all men, except for two wom-en, and this play has five women and two men.” But with this small cast came some tough deci-sions. “We had about forty people try out for seven roles,” Mr. Melchior explained.

However, the cast seems to have grown close. “The cast is great, hilarious, and we’ve really grown close,” explains Lilly Roe, who plays Alvira, the dead wife. Such a small cast means that everyone has a large role in putting it together.

“I spend anywhere from 3-4 hours a day working on this play,” states Roe. “Even more on the days we have dress rehearsals.”

And the hard work

doesn’t come without prob-lems. “We have special effects that have glitches, some of the characters have Brit-ish accents that can be very difficult, and we must try to construct practices that make the most out of the students’ time,” explains Mr. Melchior.

“Just being able to morph into Alvira, who is just insane and crazy, is really fun,” com-ments Roe. “And with a cast this small, we have all really bonded and grown close.”

Tickets for Blithe Spirit will be on sale for the rest of the month.

Art titles from top to bottom: Leah Zobott’s “From the Trees to the Sky,” Chan Chau’s “Self Portrait,” and Michelle Metcalfe’s “Calla Lilies.”

Photo by Rachel Larson.Juniors Elleni Paulson and Will Cox along with

senior Lilly Roe.

2010 Marks Eagan’s 150th MilestoneBy Joe StelmanNews Writer

The calendars have turned but 2010 means more than just a new decade for the City

of Eagan. It marks Eagan’s sesquicentennial anniversary - a celebration of 150 years of history. While most students know Eagan as the thriving suburb they call home, many

may be surprised to learn that its humble origins predate the Civil War.

Beginning as a township in 1860 with a mere few hun-dred people, Eagan has since

grown into Minnesota’s eighth-largest city with upwards of 70,000 resi-dents. But for most of its history, Eagan has remained far from heavy growth. Most of the city’s 150-year tenure was distinguished by buggy and stage coach trans-portation, while 100 years ago most families lived on large parcels of farming land a mile away from the nearest neighbors. For a brief period of time, Eagan even enjoyed recognition as the “Onion Capital” of the United States. In the wake of recent subur-ban growth, Eagan’s careful development, cleanliness, and safety have placed it among the top-ranked livable cities in the country.

It is among these charac-teristics and accomplishments that Eagan residents are find-

ing some-thing to celebrate in this milestone year. To lay the plans for a year of commem-oration, Eagan Rotary Club and Dakota County

Regional Chamber of Com-merce board member Scott Swenson was appointed head of the volunteer executive board responsible for oversee-ing this year’s sesquicenten-nial festivities. The board is comprised of members from several businesses and orga-nizations, including Eagan residents, city workers, and representatives of local em-ployers including Thomson Reuters and Superior Colli-sion.

Eagan’s 150 years logo

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d2010 Medallion HuntdWhat am I looking for? The medallion is a gold medal with a blue ribbon attached. When you find it, bring it to Ms. Sten-saas in room 114 to claim your prize.Where to look: North – not beyond the sidewalk in front of the pond (absolutely not in the athletic fields)East – not beyond the sidewalk abutting the student parking lotSouth – not beyond the sidewalk abutting the teacher parking lot (however the “island” in the horseshoe is game)West – not beyond the middle school “line” (the imaginary line made by the glass doors to the middle school)The Prize: The winner(s) will get catered lunch of their choice for six people during a lunch period worth up to $50! Plus, you’ll be recognized at the Pepfest and have bragging rights for a whole year.The Clues: The first clue appears here. There will one clue per school day from Feb. 9 to Feb. 18. Subsequent clues will appear on the TV announcements during PAWS and run through the morning. A running log of medallion clues will be posted on the Eagan Independent website. The website can be accessed by going to the school website, then clicking on Activities>Publications>Eagan Independent. The Rules: STUDENTS MAY NOT LEAVE PAWS OR CLASS TO SEARCH FOR THE MEDALLION! This rule was broken last year and the medallion hunt will not be able to continue should that happen again. The medallion lies in a place where no damage is to be done to the building to find it (i.e. it’s not in a ceiling tile, in a light fixture, inside a trash can, on the building roof, attached to the American flag out front, etc.) It may have been hidden inside or outside the actual building though. Happy hunting!

Clue #1: 38 days to Spring Break, how about we takeA breather from our busy routine.

Time to celebrate Winter Blast weekWrapped in silver, blue and green.

EdITorIAlEagan Independent | Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The Staff

Editors in Chief Weronika JanczukLauren Schmitt

NewsKaila Vogt - EditorSeth LynchMayzong LeeJoe StelmanAlanna ThelenTaylor Dewall

FeaturesJouapag Lee - EditorKristine GatesTara HuuskoPearce OlsonSarah SwensonMegan Westlund

SportsRachel Berryman - EditorMolly MartinezDaniel PetersCameron VanDykeMatt Novitski

Photography Rita Kovtun - EditorRachel LarsonMichelle Metcalfe

AdviserSara Stensaas

The Eagan Independent is a monthly publication produced by Eagan High School students from all grade levels in a cocurricular setting.

We are committed to provid-ing a limited open forum within the community of Eagan High School - one in which opinions, discussion and input are always wel-comed and encouraged.

Comments, questions, thoughts and ideas may be addressed to:

Eagan Independent4185 Braddock TrailEagan, MN 55123

or e-mailed to:eaganindependent@gmail.com

Letters to the editor must be signed by the author and be 500 words or less. Letters to the editor submitted that are more than 500 words may be edited by the staff. Letters may also require editing if they contain false or libelous statements.

Editorial policies and content decisions are made by the editorial board. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the writer and/or the Eagan In-dependent staff and are not necesssarily the opinons of the adviser, administration, students, faculty or Indepen-dent School District 196.

Editorial Policy

By Weronika JanczukCo-Editor in Chief

recent Controversies: Take #2

Some recent issues—con-troversial to some, completely unimportant to others—de-serve to be cleared up. Among them stands the man pageant that Eagan’s National Honor Society (NHS) wished to hold as a fundraiser but the ad-ministration disallowed after teachers complained about the ‘ethics’ of such an event.

The rumor was that the teachers’ complaints and the supposed ‘auctioning off of men’ were the main reasons against the pageant. Accord-ing to Dr. Reikowski, how-ever, the main concern was who would handle the crowd of boys—“one participant does something a little crazy, the next participant wants to step it up a notch,” she says.

Supposedly it would be hard to control the guys.

That’s a fair reason for concern, to some extent.

What bothers me is that there wasn’t any discourse between NHS advisors/of-ficers and the administration. Officers Johnny Dulac and Vidur Sharma both explained that the idea was shut down without the administration making an effort to fix the problems—“its decision was final,” explains Sharma.

If anything, the adminis-tration should consider what things could change to hold the event—instead of prevent-ing a fundraiser from coming to life, it should strive to make it happen, particularly in an economic setting as this one, and particularly for a group that is meant to be ‘honorable’ in nature.

How is the issue of the crowd to be fixed? I strongly believe that the administra-tion is underestimating the nature of the men who would participate in this event. It is NHS-sponsored, after all—hopefully, it’s sufficient to

The Man Pageant

place the responsibility on Mr. Mass and Ms. Francek to observe and limit the possi-bilities for performance. Some of my best guy friends were going to participate, and I know for a fact that ‘racy’ and ‘inappropriate’ could never describe what they wanted to do at the pageant.

Senior Chris Gelke ex-plains that he wanted to strut down the stage to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and dance after posing, and senior Garrett Bowling had a simi-lar idea in mind—walking down the stage to a song. Part of the concern may relate to the event’s name: a “man pageant” instead of a “tal-ent show,” which probably skewed the entire event’s supposed content for some people.

What about the ‘ethics?’ I have a hard time with this one . . . I don’t see anything wrong at all in limiting the participation to one gender. The auctioning at the pageant would not relate to the men themselves, but instead to date packages. The participa-

tion both in the pageant and the auction would be com-pletely voluntary and thus would prevent any scenarios that could cause embarrass-ment.

The teachers that com-plained, and now the admin-istration, must be sure to note the precedent for a pageant like this—in multiple school districts, where the nature of the pageant is even edgier (the actual men are auctioned off, for example)—and must not forget that we are a dif-ferent generation. Something that would have gone a bit too far maybe even a decade ago is perfectly all right these days.

It’s a bummer to me that NHS has already moved to-ward implementing its Plan B (the Hygiene Week), but that step shouldn’t stop them from still considering doing this event—perhaps relabeling, perhaps restructuring, will need to happen, but I don’t know of an event in my four years at Eagan that got stu-dents as excited to be a part of something as this pageant.

Fundraising

By Lauren SchmittCo-Editor in Chief

With budget cuts topping ten million, fundraising for schools clubs seems more important than ever. But, a recent crack down on how a group can fundraise is mak-ing things a little trickier. Well really, these rules are new news.

As it turns out, buy-ing raffle tickets for raffles of anything of any value as a minor has been illegal for quite some time. It is also against the law for a school to make more than double the worth of the product, and half the money must go towards travel expenditures for off-site events. (This is all in section 349.12, section 609.755 and 609.76; subsection 33 of Min-nesota State gambling statues in case you care to look for yourself.)

This means raffles for events such as the Fringe Fes-tival Theater trip are okay, but a raffle for groups that do not travel are nearly impossible to legally pull off. Groups not run through the school bud-get, like the Senior Party, can

also have raffles free of the laws imposed on schools.

This brings us to a second major fundraising commandment. Thou shalt not gift money or a gift cer-tificate to student as a prize, if it comes out of the district budget, lest the parent of this student take the prize away and personally use it.

Personally, whether or not the parent takes it hardly seems like the biggest issue. I understand there is a concern that the money or gift cards could be used for something the school can’t or doesn’t want to support—cigarettes

or alcohol if the stu-dent is eighteen for instance.

Gift cards are only okay if the card has been donated. If it doesn’t come out of the district budget, it doesn’t go into the records.

During my four years here, I

can name off many examples of these rules being broken. A few years ago Robotics raffled off an iPod touch to students, although now they only sell their raffle tickets to adults. Student Government has done a couch raffle for the homecoming football game, stopping this year for a lack of a couch.

While it would be conve-nient to blame the administra-tion it is hardly fair to criticize law-abiding policies. Students will have to be a little more creative, as long as this new idea isn’t a man pageant.

FLEX DaysWe have now had three

flex blocks and will soon have our fourth. The goal from the outset has been to decrease failures all over the board, but particularly for freshmen. For the class of 2009, only half of the freshman who failed only one class their first trimester graduated from Eagan. Only one in three of freshmen that failed two or more classes their first trimester graduated from Eagan.

Clearly this needed to be addressed, and the flex days are part of a larger plan of intervention. “Students are more aware and teachers are more likely to reach out,” says Mr. Thompson.

The amount of freshman that failed one course or more during the first trimester did drop about thirty percent from 64 students to 46 from 2008 to 2009. The change from 2005, where there were 91 fail-ures is even more dramatic. So what has changed since?

The addition of PAWS in 2006 was arguably the bggest change since it affects every school day. However, while there are designated work-days in PAWS and it may im-prove the community feeling within the school, it is hard to argue that PAWS decreases failure.

Pinpointing the exact cause is near impossible because there are so many contribut-ing factors, but the numbers are moving in the right direc-tion. The success of the inter-vention and flex days will be impossible to confirm until the data can be gathered on

who makes up the graduat-ing class of 2014. The real test will be the retention rate for the graduating class that had these intervention measures their freshman year. While failures are moving in the right direction, I think flex days have a long way to go.

Statistically, remediation is working, but I think enrich-ment is missing the mark. Rather than choosing new activities or embracing unique opportunities, hundreds of students are choosing to have a block of study hall. Having a double block to catch up on homework was hardly seems enriching.

Just as bad in my opinion are the sometimes required, class specific, events. Reviews only for AP Statistic or AP European History students or open art just for AP Portfolio students doesn’t introduce anyone to something new. It is just another class period.

I understand the attraction of an hour to get ahead in a class—or just an hour to catch up from a hectic week, but that shouldn’t be the point. Remediation at least contrib-uting to fewer failures and hopefully that will continue, but the majority of students who don’t need remediation need a flex day purpose too.

Photos courtesy of flickrcc.bluemountains.net

Jane Bernez: New district 196 Superintendent:

By Alanna ThelenNews Writer

She may be new to the job, but District 196 Superin-tendent Jane Berenz is cer-tainly not new to the district. She has grown up in the district, worked in the dis-trict, and has seen the district grow from a small, rural area district to the fourth largest school district in the state.

Superintendent Berenz has been active in the dis-trict since kindergarten; she graduated from Apple Valley High School. This is her 23rd year of working in the district. Before becoming the super-intendent, she was a teacher, principal, and the director of teaching and learning. She was appointed superin-tendent through the school board. Superintendent Berenz had to apply for the position and go through an intensive interview process before be-ing voted in unanimously by

the school board.She explained that the

reason she wanted to become the superintendent is the im-portance of the district to her. Having attended school in the district and now with her chil-dren in district schools, it was important to become even more involved. Berenz states: “Given that it’s so impor-tant to me, I wanted to work within the system.”

The job of the superin-tendent, Berenz explains, is to “oversee everything. The most vital component is to make sure we’re providing the very best education for all of our students, so I’m an advocate for all our students who attend 196. It’s much like in a corporation. I oversee the whole operation, but it comes down to whether our students are successful in the classroom.”

The superintendent reports to the school board,

which is like her boss. It makes the final decisions, while the superintendent gathers information and makes recommendations.

Her favorite part of being a superintendent, she says, is going to schools and talk-ing to students and teachers. She will observe classes, ride the bus with kindergarten-ers, serve food, and attend events such as performing arts shows and the Eagan High School Veterans Day assembly.

One thing that is proving difficult for the newly ap-pointed superintendent and the school board is dealing with the budget cuts within the district. Students will be affected by the budget cuts in areas such as class size. With a good amount of money go-ing to people who work with the students, budget cuts will lessen the number of

By Twie SouvannavongNews Writer

This year, Eagan’s One Act performed After-math by Eric Jensen and Jessica Blank. They’re us-ing it as a piece to compete in the Minnesota High School League State One Act Play Festival.

Aftermath tells the story of eight Iraqi refugees who fled the home country of Iraq to escape the disar-ray and violence that came upon Iraq when the Ameri-cans invaded. Senior Micaela Johnston was delighted to say that “being in this play intro-duced me to a new culture as well as gave me enlighten-ment.”

This particular play has just made its debut in the fall of 2009 in NYC. Eagan High School is the first high school performing this play outside of NYC making it a regional premiere. “It’s like really an emotional play,” said Jordan

Oxborough. Lauren Draves plays Naimah, the wife of Jordan Oxborough’s char-acter Fouad in this play. She says, “I like being the wife of Jordan because I’m just very comfortable with him.”

The One Act’s cast list includes seven talented students, six of which are seniors. The six seniors are Javier Ferreira, Adam Hus-sein, Micaela Johnston, Jordan Oxborough, Codi Sœun and Lauren Draves; the junior is Arny Roy. Auditions were

one Act Showcases Iraq War Aftermath

Hands, Hearts To Help Haiti

By Alanna ThelenNews Writer

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated the already im-poverished country of Haiti, leaving thousands dead or homeless.

The strong quake struck about ten miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital. An aftershock of a 6.1 magnitude followed eight days later, adding to the cha-otic state of Haiti. Buildings made of cinder-block and makeshift structures crumbled easily from the intense tremors. Death tolls, originally estimated from 45,000 to 50,000 have now risen to between 100,000 and 200,000. People have been buried by the thousands in mass graves. It is estimated that 1.5 million Haitians—over 15% of the population—have been left homeless by the earthquake.

The homeless are now being moved to tented vil-lages. Looters rob the remains of grocery stores to find food and supplies. After Haiti’s prison collapsed, inmates escaped and now roam the streets. The already unstable government completely crumbled along with the

presidential palace. The small island nation is in a state of chaos.

Food, water, supplies, and money are being deliv-ered to the devastated coun-try. Other countries including the United States, China, and Haiti’s neighboring nation, the Dominican Republic, have sent rescue crews to try to

find sur-vivors in the rubble. On Friday January 22, the Hope for Haiti telethon was broad-casted, featuring acts such as Taylor Swift, Bono,

Bruce Springsteen, and Rihanna. It raised $57 million for relief efforts.

An organization here in Eagan, Feed My Starving Children (FMSC), is also con-tributing to the aid for Haiti. FMSC relies on volunteers to assemble meals and sends the packaged meals to countries in need of food. With one million meals already in Haiti at the time of the earthquake, FMSC is planning on sending an additional three million meals to help the people of Haiti meet their basic needs.

Last week Eagan High School students were able to buy paper hands and hearts to help Haiti relief.

Photo by Kaila Vogt Eagan helps with Haiti relief.

Photos by Michelle MetcalfeThe one act’s full cast.

Junior Arny Roy plays an imam, an Islamic leader.

Senior Codi Soeun practices for the one act.

Senior Lauren Draves plays a woman who flees Iraq.

Voices of Hope Sing-a-thon

By Mayzong LeeNews Writer

Under the direction of Judy Sagen, Eastview High School hosted their 2nd annual Voices of Hope; the Eagan High School choir par-ticipated in the 16 continuous hours of vocal music.

The event was held on February 5th from 7:30am - midnight in the Eastview per-forming arts center. Eastview hosted not only Eagan High School but also church choirs, community choirs, notable singers, professional artists, and soloists of all ages.

The Voices of Hope partnered with the non-profit organization the Angel Foundation of Minnesota to provide financial aid to cancer patients. This year’s goal was to collect over $25,000 through performance fees, corporate sponsors, ticket sales, and merchandise/food sales.

Suggestions for Voices of Hope came forward when the Women’s Chorale held a rehearsal in the fall of 2008;

one student was dealing with her mother’s diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Afterwards many other students came forward and admitted that they too had been affected by a friend member or family who had cancer. Thus, the question, “How can we help?” came to be. Almost instantly the group came up with the idea of using its voices and music to send support to those who were affected by cancer.

However, being part of a choir and/or using music is not the only way to support the Voices of Hope; purchas-ing merchandise such as a shirt or bracelet greatly helps or by making small donations which go a long way to help those in need.

Photo courtesy of www.voicesof-hopemn.org

held on December 16th of last year.

“This play is very fun,” according to Cody Sœun but, also time consuming. “Yeah, being in this play is very consuming. You must be very dedicated to do it,” furthers Adam Hussein.

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Eagan Independent | Tuesday, February 9, 2010 3

THE WINTEr olyMpICSEagan Independent | Tuesday February 9, 2010

Vancouver 2010By Megan WestlundFeatures Writer

On July 2, 2003, the Inter-national Olympic Committee selected Vancouver as the host city for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympics Winter Games. Athletes and spectators from around the world will gather in Vancouver and the alpine resort of Whistler in February and March 2010 to celebrate

winter sporting excellence. The Games, along with the region’s spectacular natural playground and its vibrant venues, will put Vancouver in the spotlight as a premier sporting destination.

The city will host events such as the opening and clos-ing ceremonies (to be held at BC Place Stadium), Ice Hockey (at Canada Hockey

Place and UBC Thunderbird Arena), Figure Skating (at Pa-cific Coliseum), Speed Skating and Short Track Speed Skat-ing (at Richmond Olympic Oval and Pacific Coliseum), Freestyle Skiing (at Cypress Mountain), Curling (at Van-couver Olympic Centre), Ice Sledge Hockey (at UBC Thun-derbird Arena), and Wheel-chair Curling (at Vancouver

Paralympics Centre). Over 80 countries will par-

ticipate in the Olympic winter games and over 40 countries will participate in the Para-lympics winter games, a total of 5,500 Olympic athletes and officials and 1,350 Paralym-pics athletes and officials. 1.6 million tickets will go on sale, and it will be no surprise if it sells out because of its Cana-

dian location.Vancouver is known to

be one of the cleanest cities around. Because of its good management and its leader-ship in philanthropy (concern of human welfare), it is one of the top vacation spots and is rising in population. In fact, the city’s mission is to “create a great city of communities which cares about its people,

Bringing Together Culture and PoliticsBy Sarah SwensonFeatures Writer

At Home in the ColdLocal Atheletes Compete in the Olympics

Minnesota native Lindsey Vonn has permanently put our state on the map. Vonn became the first female to win back-to-back Worlds in 2009 for downhill skiing and the Super Giant Slalom, or Super G. Also included on the list of accomplishments are two silvers at Worlds in 2007, and 7th place in the Super G, and 8th downhill at the 2005 Olympics in Italy. Lindsey has 30 racing wins under her belt: 17 Downhill, 8 Super G’s, 4 Combined, and 2 in Slalom.

Growing up in Burnsville, Vonn strapped on skis and cruised down Buck Hill at just 3 years old. She began racing

at 7 and skiing internationally at 9. She would become the first female American to win Italy’s Trofeo Toplino competition (for skiers age 11-14). Vonn and her family decided to relocate to Vail and the Colorado mountains to give Lindsey a better area to train and compete.

Vonn also has a slew of injuries to bounce back from, and she has continued to train and race even until tough circumstances. In 2007 she sprained her ACL and ended her season early in a training crash. Another training crash resulted in a knee sprain in November of last year. During a celebration at the Worlds competition in 2009, Vonn severed a tendon on a broken champagne bottle, and she was almost forced to sit out. She underwent surgery and donned a splint in the Slalom where she finished second; however, she split a gate in her next race and was disqualified from Worlds.

Despite these injuries though, Vonn continues to race and is headed to Vancouver for the 2010 Olympic games. She is currently one of the favorites in her events, and hopes to bring home a gold medal.

As most Eagan High School students know, the Winter Olympics begin this year on February 12th in Vancouver. Over 80 countries will come together to compete for gold medals in events including figure skating, skiing, hockey, curling, and more. These Olympics are not expected to be particularly dramatic or controver-sial. However, there have been many games throughout history that have been notorious for political reasons. Politics have often been in-volved in the Olympics, even though that wasn’t the original intent. The Summer Olympics began in 1894, when the Interna-tional Olympic Committee was founded. The first Olympics were held in Athens in 1896, and included nearly 250 male athletes from 14 countries, although most were from Greece. The goal of the In-ternational Olympic Committee was to connect people from differ-ent countries around the world and make different countries more cooperative. In 1920, the Summer Olympics in Antwerp Belgium in-cluded a week of winter activities with figure skating and ice hockey premiering. After this was successful, the International Olympic Committee decided to create a separate Winter Olympics. The first official Winter Olympics were held in Chamonix, France in 1924. For several years, the Winter Olympics were held during the same year as the Summer Olympics. In 1992, the last Winter and Summer Olympics were held in the same year. In 1994, the Winter Olympics were held in Lillehammer, Norway. Although the goal of the Olympics was not to involve poli-tics, many of the games have been overcome with politics through-out history. In 1916, 1940, and 1944, the games were not even held because of World Wars.

Lindsey Vonn

Natalie Darwitz

Photo Courtesy of upadowna.com

Photo Courtesy of kttc.images.worldnow.com

Natalie Darwitz has been a captain of the U.S. women’s hockey team since 2007 and has recently been selected as a captain for the Olympic team which will compete in Vancouver this February. Dar-witz, a former Eagan student, is a star forward, and will be repre-senting the U.S.A. in her third Olympic appearance.

Having started ice skating when she was only four years old, Darwitz had no problem making Eagan’s Varsity hockey team as a seventh grader. In her first varsity season, she totaled 85 goals and 48 assists in just 25 games. She was not even enrolled in the high school before she had scored 170 goals for Eagan’s team. Darwitz was so impressive that she was recruited for the national team when she was only 15 years old, and she spent most of her junior year training for the 2001 World Championships and the 2002 Olympics in Lake Placid.

When Darwitz played for the University of Minnesota, she set school records with 246 points and 144 assists. While attending the school, she was a three-time All-American, as well as a three-time finalist for the selective Patty Kazmaier Award. In the 2004-2005 season, Darwitz set an NCAA record of 114 points. The star athlete graduated from the U of M in 2007.

Five years earlier, Darwitz made her first Olympic debut in Salt Lake City, where she scored a team-high of seven goals, and also won a silver medal. She was also successful in the 2006 Olympics in Torino, where she was awarded a bronze medal with three goals and three assists.

The Eagan graduate also played hockey outside of the Nation-al Team, and was named league MVP in the Western Women’s Pro Hockey League while she played for the Minnesota White-caps in 2006-2007. Darwitz led her the Women’s National Team to three World Championship gold medals in 2005, 2008, and 2009. At 2008 Worlds, she was named Best Forward in the World by the International Ice Hockey Federation, and tied for the lead in scor-ing the following year at 2009 Worlds.

Natalie Darwitz has had an extremely successful career as a hockey player, judging both by her statistics and watching her play first-hand. She will be greatly supported as she continues to build her legacy as a dominant hockey player and make Eagan proud.

By Molly Martinez; Sports Writer

By Cameron VanDyke, Sports Writer

Photo Courtesy of eastonhockey.com

Photo Courtesy of gopher-sports.com

Word in the HallsAre you watching the Olympic this year? Why or why not?

What is your favorite sport to watch?By Megan WestlundFeatures Writer

Yes. I mostly only watch hockey because it is my favorite and my uncle was on the American team in 2004 when they got silver in the championship game against Canada.

-Jenna Housley (11)

Yes I plan on watching the Olympics. I enjoy watching the variety of sports with people from all around the world competing. My favorite is snowboarding because their tricks are fun to watch, also hockey.

Eagan Independent | Tuesday, February 9, 2010 5At a Glance:

The Winter Olympics •Events in the Winter Olympics: Alpine Skiing, Biathlon, Bobsled, Cross-country Skiing, Curling, Figure Skating, Freestyle Skiing, Ice Hockey, Luge, Nordic Combined, Short Track Speed Skating, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, Snowboarding, and Speed Skating. •Fewer countries participate in the Winter Olympics than the Summer Olympics. •Prior to 1924, figure skating and ice hockey had been events in the Summer Olympics. •The United States has hosted the Winter and Summer Olympics four times. •The United States has hosted both the Winter and Summer Olympics more than any other country (followed by France for the Winter Olympics with 3 times, and the United Kingdom, following the 2012 OlymPics, for Summer Olympic games with 3 times). •The 2014 Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia. •While the Summer Olympic Games have experienced several boycotts, the Winter Olympic Games have only experienced one. Taiwan boycotted the 1980 Winter Olympics.

environment, and the op-portunities to live, work and prosper.” One of its major tourist attractions is the world famous Stanley Park, which is one of more than 180 city parks.

It is a “family city” full of events for everyone to enjoy including 100 Days of Summer, offering great live music festivals and fun out-door activities, many of which are free or nearly free, such as Capilano Salmon Hatchery, which is open year-round and offers the opportunity to learn about the life and

spawning habits of salmon. For the culture-seeker, visit Chinatown at dusk, a won-derful evening market where you can try delicious Chinese delicacies and deserts, as well as shop for many useful and frivolent items.

Some of Vancouver’s com-petitors for the 2010 Olympics were Salzburg, Austria and Pyeonchang, South Korea, but in the end lost out to Vancou-ver because of Vancouver’s geographical location, world likeability, and technical merits.

Bringing Together Culture and Politics

By Tara Huusko; Features Writer

Many Olympic games have included political boycotts that some-times overshadowed the actual events. In 1956, Egypt, Iraq, Leba-non, Switzerland, Spain, and the Netherlands all boycotted, because of the Israeli invasion of Egypt, and the Soviet Invasion of Hungary. The 1976 games were also marred by boycotts from 26 African countries. In 1980, 62 countries, led by Jimmy Carter and the US, boycotted the Summer Games because of the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. As retaliation, in 1984, 15 countries boycotted the Olympics in Los Angeles. In 1988, North Korea boycotted the games in Seoul because of war with South Korea. In 2008, several countries considered boycotting the games, although eventually none did. Violence and political unrest have affected a few Olym-pic games. In 1936, the games were held in Berlin. Hitler used the Olympics for propaganda of the Nazi regime, and the all athletes from Germany were of the Aryan race. However, these efforts were overshadowed by the four gold medals earned by African American runner Jesse Owens. In 1968, more than 200 student protesters were gunned down and arrested in Mexico City. The Munich Games in 1972 are potentially the best known for negative reasons. 11 Israeli athletes were kidnapped and eventually killed by Palestinian terror-ists. Politics have often played a large role in the Olympics, although mostly for negative reasons. The Olympics are supposed to be an opportunity for the countries of the world to have more co-operation and get along better through sports. If countries are able to remember this throughout the Vancouver games, then the focus will indeed be on the sports, rather than the controversy or drama between the different countries.

Graphic by Michelle Metcalfe

Bizzare Sports at the olympicsThere’s a Team for That?

By Kristine GatesFeatures Writer

Everyone has a favorite Winter Olympic sport they like to watch, how-ever, just recently for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, a new kind of sport has been approved and added to the list. Considered a “freestyle skiing event,” the new Ski Cross is sure to draw attention to itself. Ski Cross is an event based on Motor Cross and Snowboard Cross. For each race, there are four skiers, each one putting both their Freestyle and Alpine skills to the test. Deemed rugged and technical, the course is filled with “features” that will be sure to make this sport entertaining. Some of those listed are: jumps, hills, turns, flats, rolls, banks, moguls, and traverses. The skiers have a “massed start,” where they all leave the gate at the same time, and due to the high a risk of injury, athletes wear helmets and padded body armor under their racing colors. This sport is also amazingly fast. The average speed for men is about 19m/s (65 mph), and 14 m/s for women. On average, each skier spends about 25 percent of their time airborne. Although athletes are not allowed to push, pull, hold, or block other skiers on sections of the course that passing can happen, personal fault or full out wipeouts are possible if not prob-able. As 2002 Olympic skier Jake Fiala was quoted on sportswriter Alan Abrahamson’s blog, “There’s more of an understanding among the athletes that we don’t want to kill each other, but you can get away with some things out there.” Though considered a sport for decades, it will make an official debut in 2010 at Vancouver. Abrahamson wrote on his blog, “You want crashes? You want a sport where the winner might well be the last one standing?” In which case you might want to tune in and watch Ski Cross.

By Cameron VanDykeSports Writer

The 2010 Winter Olympics are approach-ing quickly and there are many fun and interesting sports to watch during the Olympic Games, but one sport that very few people know about is the biathlon. Biathlon is a unique sport that was intro-duced to the Olympic Games in 1960 for men, and not until 1992 for women. It combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. The competitors must ski distances anywhere from 6km to 20km, trying to complete the course in the least amount of time. However, throughout the skiing course athletes stop at shooting ranges several times to try and hit as many targets as possible using a .22 caliber rifle. There are five targets at every stop; each one located 50 meters away from the shooter. Athletes must ski one penalty loop for every time they miss a target. The sport is a challenge, because the skiing segment calls for great speed as well as the physical demands of racing, while the shooting portion requires incredible accuracy, concentration, and control. When the race begins, competitors start one at a time, and a new athlete begins every 30 seconds. Athletes then ski into the shooting range, where they must set down their ski poles and prepare to shoot the designated targets. Each target zone has five plates that must be hit in order to avoid penalties. Depending on the race, biathletes shoot at the targets in either a standing po-sition or lying down on the stomach. When lying down, the target is about the size of a golf ball. For standing athletes, on the other hand, it is about the size of a grapefruit. There are a number of different events for biathlon. In the individual event, men race 20 kilometers, and racers stops four times at the shooting range. Another event, called the pursuit competition, racers are selected based on the top 60 finishers in the sprint. There are also relay events that include four-person teams, where each person skis three legs, and stops twice at the shooting range. The biathlon team representing the U.S.A. at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver will consist of nine biathletes – five men and four women. Returning Olympian Tim Burke, the World Cup leader, is the team favorite for America this year. The team is training hard in hopes of bringing home his second Olympic medal.

Photo courtesy of outdoornewswire.com

Ski Cross

Photo courtesy of salomonbiathlon.blogspot.com

The Biathlon

Word in the HallsAre you watching the Olympic this year? Why or why not?

What is your favorite sport to watch?I am going to watch it because it’s really exciting and only comes around every four years, also because it is in Canada. My favorite sport to watch is curling because it’s cool and unusual. It is different from most sports

-Andy Benedict (12)

Yes I plan on watching the Olympics. I enjoy watching the variety of sports with people from all around the world competing. My favorite is snowboarding because their tricks are fun to watch, also hockey.

-Kaleigh Solheim (9)

Eagan Independent | Tuesday, February 9, 20106Twenty Questions

With John Williams

1. If you could have any view in the world visible from your room, what would it be? The Grand Canyon2. If you could erase one word from anyone’s vocabulary, which word would it be? Umm.3. If you could be in any movie, which one would you be in? The Hangover4. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen someone do while driving? Someone getting dressed5. If you suddenly found your-self at school in only your un-derwear, what would you say (in one sentence) to everyone? “This is me.”6. If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why? Frodo Baggins, because he doesn’t have to wear shoes.7. If you could change one thing from history, what would you change? Prevent the Holocaust. 8. What is the most played art-ist on your iPod? Linkin Park9. If you wanted your death to have the maximum dramatic effect on people how would you choose to die? Drowning in ice cream.10. If you had to pick the most beautiful sounding word in English, which would it be? Facetious 11. If someone made a movie of your life, which actor/ac-tress would you choose to play you? Will Smith12. What’s your least favorite sound? The mosquito ringtone

13. If you could speak with a foreign accent, which would it be? South African14. What piece of news do you consider the most important in the past few years? The Earthquake in Haiti, it makes you focus on other important things rather than America’s economy.15. If you could communicate with any animal, which would it be? Dogs16. If you could add one class to school what would you add? Skydiving17. If you could meet anyone famous in history, who would it be and why? Jimi Hendrix, because who doesn’t want to meet him?18. What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen? Stepbrothers19. If the United States had to sacrifice one state, which one would you get rid of and why? Oklahoma, because I haven’t heard of anyone from there.20. If you could switch places with any celebrity in the world, but you had to be that person forever, who would it be? Travis Barker

Photo by Kristine Gates

dinner & A Movie

By Pearce OlsonFeatures Writer

Set in the not so distant future and thirty years after a world war, Eli, played by Denzel Washington, is cross-ing a wasteland that was once called America. A traveler not by choice but by necessity, Eli travels in peace, but when confronted is not afraid to take down challengers. The Book of Eli tells the story of Eli who heard a voice shortly after the world war. This voice directed him to a book and told him to travel west. Eli is unaware why he must do it and unsure how he will travel from the east to west coast. The world war destroyed parts of the ozone layer leav-ing extremely high exposure to the sun. Only a few hu-mans survived the era, leav-ing people that once treasured gold and money as a sign of wealth, to basic necessities like clean water and fuel now more valuable than human life. Because clean water has become so difficult to find, those who know where it is inherit a lot of power. Which is what happens to Carnegie (Gary Oldman), Carnegie is a character that emerges when Eli has to stop in his town for supplies. Car-

negie is a dictator in the town because he knows where a reliable source of water is, but his relevance to Eli happens when he finds out that Eli is carrying the book that he has been searching for years.

By this point in the movie, the viewer still has little idea on how important this book really is. But when Carnegie comes into view and shows complete obsession of obtain-ing this book, the story turns from a man relatively peace-fully walking across the des-ert, into a game between cat and mouse. Carnegie believes that if he acquires this book he can rule the world. The Book of Eli is the perfect example of a film that presents a relatively simple plot but urges the audience to try and dig deeper into the real meaning of the story. The film is filled with amazing cinematography. This movie delivers a perfectly plausible

post-apocalyptic world, one that draws from the western and the tradition of science-fiction dystopia. Everyone is wearing neutral long sleeved clothes, large sun glasses and always look dirty like they haven’t showered in years.

The action in the film was realistic and entertaining but when viewers go to see an action movie, most would expect more action than this presented. The opening minutes are also somewhat bor-ing, Eli is so serious and such a straight shooter, that it’s hard for viewers not to

become weary of multiple scenes of Eli just walking. The movie starts to pick up in pace when the villain Carne-gie comes into play. He brings a better rounded character to the film and gives Eli his first real test of defending the book. After watching this film I left the theater, confused and disappointed. I understood the basic story but was left clueless on why you would make a movie out of it. In any other circumstances this movie might have been one of the worst movies I have seen in a while, but the visu-als where what helped this movie though. The Book of Eli receives 2 out of 4 O’s.

Photo courtesy of movies.ign.com

Junior’s Grill

The Book of Eli

By Sarah SwensonFeatures Writer

Located in a strip mall on Duckwood Drive in Eagan is a tiny little restaurant called Junior’s Grill. It is a fairly small restaurant with only ten or so tables along with a counter to sit at. Immediately upon entering for breakfast, a few parties had to huddle up by the door to wait for a table, although it only took a few minutes for us to be seated. Even though the amount of tables squished into the small restaurant made it feel a little cramped, the décor of Junior’s was enough to distract from that once we sat down. It was decorated like a typical 1950’s diner; the walls were painted white, and there were many black and white pictures hanging, featuring different pop culture refer-ences from the fifties and six-ties. A shiny aluminum base covered a few walls and the area above the grill. The seats were made of red leather, as were the stools bolted into the ground near the counter. The atmosphere at Ju-nior’s was noisy and bustling, but it seemed like a very homey place. Many of the diners seemed to be regulars, who held on conversations with the wait staff. No one

stayed in the restaurant for an extremely long amount of time, because most people were able to get in and out very quickly. The menu includ-ed breakfast, lunch, and dinner options. For breakfast, the menu featured dishes with the standard breakfast fare, such as eggs, hash browns, bacon, sausage, and other similar items. Several of the breakfast items included more exotic breakfast items as well; Cajun and Spanish flavors seemed common on the menu. For lunch and dinner, the menu features burgers, salads, sandwiches, steaks, and shakes. Everything on the menu is between $2.99 (for a hot dog) and $15.99 (for a featured steak). Everything is moderately priced- most menu items for all of the meals seemed to be less than $10. I ordered the Eggs Benedict, which came with hash browns, off of the break-fast menu. The food came

relatively quickly, and I was pretty happy with it. The hash browns were wonderful and by far the best thing I ate on the plate. However, the eggs in the eggs benedict seemed over cooked, as though they had been hard boiled instead of poached. The yolks were hard, and the hollandaise sauce, which I typically like, seemed a little too sweet. I was only able to eat one out of the two eggs, even so, the meal was plenty of food and I left full. The cost of the food wasn’t outlandish, and I was satisfied with my meal. I would be interested in trying their lunch and din-ner options and seeing what they had to offer. Overall, I thought that Junior’s was adorable, and their food was fine. I would give Junior’s 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Photo by Sarah Swenson

By Kristine GatesFeatures Writer

SporTSEagan Independent | Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Boys Swimming aims for state

By Molly MartinezSports Writer

After losing their first meet against Eden Prairie, the boys’ swim team dove off the starting blocks to a great season. The Wildcats are 7-1 and placed 2nd in the Hudson invita-tion and 3rd in both the Maroon and Gold and the True Team invitations.

Eastview gave the team some good competition when the teams met, but Eagan came out on top when seniors Will Meagher and Weston Sternitzke as well as junior Zach Sundry stole the lead in the 50-meter free style and refused to give it up.

The team has also broken numerous records this year, and the swimmers seem to continually increase speed.

Captain Will Meagher etched his name at the top of

Eagan’s record books when he swam a 200-meter individual medley in 2 minutes and .02 seconds. Zach Bonifacio broke an 18-year-old Eagan High

School record by .12ths of a second in the 50-me-ter free-

style, earning him second

place in the competition. An-other swimmer, junior Griffin Voss, has a total of 18 records in nine events, 15 of which he set in 2009.

Along with setting records, the team has bonded and had fun throughout the season. Freshman Scott Moss explains: “I think the best part of the swim team is that you get to compete with yourself and against the other teams, and ev-eryone on the team has a

really strong bond.” Moss has already enjoyed

his first season as a Wildcat, and many other team mem-bers agree. When interviewed at the start of the season, senior captains Grant Gittus, Weston Sternitzke, and Will Meagher all unanimously agreed that they had a great team this year and were all looking forward to state in early March.

The team has its final meet of the season on February 12 vs. Rosemount, before they move onto sections. Section 3AA Preliminaries start on February 24 and continue until March 6 (the state

finals).

Photos courtesy of the Eagan High school website

Wrestling Hopes To Finish Season Strong

By Matt NovitzkiSports Writer

With its new coach, Tim Hartung, the Eagan High School Wrestling team has delivered a promising record so far this season. The team has had a couple of rough spots, including their match on Thursday, Janu-ary 28, where Eastview defeated the team 50-11. They did compete in the Rochester Century Invita-tional on Saturday, January 30, however, and competed well.

The Eagan wrestlers have shown a lot of effort and have worked hard this season to fight back against this season’s

Photos courtesy of the Eagan High School website

CongratulationsSophomore Jess Hart and

Junior Julia WolterHart and Wolter were named Pioneer Press Athletes of

the Week on January 25th and February 2nd respectively.Hart has averaged around 15 points per game for the

Wildcats as the season winds down.Wolter posted a season-best 38.35 in the all around dur-

ing the dual meet against Chaska/Chan.

tough competition in the Lake conference. Fresh-man wrestler Samson Ghebregergish said, “We like to say we take pride in being Wildcat-trained.” That training has paid off, seeing as Eagan’s team has done a great job this sea-son and hopes to continue to do so at these last few meets of the year.

The Wildcats have their final meet of the season versus Lakeville South at home on February 11. After that, the boys start their section tournaments at home on February 19 and their season could continue all the way until March 6, when the state tournament concludes the wrestling season.

olympic predictionsWhich Teams will Take Gold

By Dan PetersSports Writer

Between the Olympic opening ceremony this Friday (2/12) in Vancouver, and the closing ceremony on February 28, there will be a lot of events to watch and millions around the world will be captivated. Here are a select few events and things to watch for, along with predictions of who will go home with the gold.

Most gold medals: Team USA. Although this has not happened since the 1932 Winter Games in Lake Placid, this year’s games are close to home, giving the U.S. a good chance to win.

Men’s Snowboard-Half Pipe (2/17): Shaun White, USA. He is arguably the best snowboarder in the world and just recently picked up an X-games gold medal.

Women’s Individual Bi-athlon (2/18): Andrea Hen-kel, Germany. She has had a good year in her races, and should be a top contender in Vancouver.

Men’s Indi-vidual Biathlon (2/18): Chris-toph Sumann, Austria. One of Austria’s best biathletes looks to give Austria its first gold medal in the event.

Men’s Giant Slalom (2/21): Ted Ligety, USA. He is preparing

to add a second Olympic gold medal to his resume.

Women’s Giant Slalom (2/24): Tina Maze, Slovenia. A great Slovenian skier looking to give the country its first gold medal in the event and second one overall.

Women’s hockey (2/25): Canada. Canada has the “home-field” advantage, and is also one of the world’s top teams.

Women’s figure skating (2/25): Yu-Na Kim, Korea. She is one of the best in the world but could be challenged by a couple of talented Japanese skaters.

Women’s curling (2/26): Sweden. Sweden won this event in the 2006 Games in Torino and the team has con-tinued to have strong seasons.

Men’s Curling (2/27): Switzerland. Watch for this team; it’s capable of upsetting a couple of the other favored teams.

Men’s hockey (2/28): Can-ada. The Canadians should grab a medal (as should

the women in hockey), par-tially due to their home advantage and popularity of hockey, and also because they have a very talented team.

4-man bob-sled (2/28): Rus-sia. This strong team is looking to upgrade its silver medal from 2006.

Photo courtesy of www.giantbomb.comShaun White

Photo courtesy of yeinjee.comYu-Na Kim

Photo courtesy of topnews.in

Christoph Sumann

By Tara HuuskoFeatures Writer

Coffee: The roasted seeds are more commonly called coffee beans, which come from coffee plants. More specifically, the coffee beans come from the cherries on coffee plants. These trees are grown in more than 70 countries worldwide.

The word coffee is derived from the Ottoman Turkish “kahveh”, via the Italian “caffè”. All coffee beans come from plants in the genus “Coffea”. Although there are thousands of species of plants within this genus, with tremendous variance in size and shape, only two are of commercial importance: “Coffea arabica”, and “Coffea canephora”, the latter more commonly called “robus-ta”, after a prime variety. A third species, “Coffea liberica” has found some localized production in Liberia, but it is of minor significance in the global market.

Originally, the beans were not roasted and brewed; one of the first coffee drinks was a tea brewed from the leaves and cherries. To make coffee, the beans must be ground and brewed, a fact that most people are already familiar with. However, most people don’t know the different techniques for grinding the coffee beans. The burr mill is commonly thought of as the most supe-rior method for grinding coffee beans.

According to the International Coffee Organization, 116,428,000 sixty kilogram bags of cof-fee were produced by exporting countries in 2004, making coffee the second most widely traded commodity, behind only petroleum.

What is . . . C O F F E E?

Eagan Independent | Tuesday, February 9, 20108Eagan Students Try out For

professional opera By Mayzong LeeNews Writer

This year the Eagan High School choir depart-ment tried something new; getting students to participate in auditions for a professional opera at the University Of Minnesota School Of Music.

The idea of letting high school students audition for a professional opera was first introduced when the opera director from the U of M wanted to do a community outreach program. The only thing that students had to do was prepare a solo. The first group of students to audition was in the fall for the play La Rossigno; out of the many high school students that auditioned, three Eagan High School students were cast.

The play that students tried-out for this year was The Magic Flute written by Mozart. “[The auditions were] just a simple audition process with another director from

Bursville,” says Ms. Marschall from the choir department who helped students pre-pare for the auditions. The auditions were based on a student’s ability to sound classical because it was an op-era piece that they would be singing for. Chosen students would get a chance to per-form in a chorus along with professional opera singers.

Only a certain amount of students were selected to audition for The Magic Flute due to the complica-tions of scheduling with the spring school play Pippin. Ms. Marschall also adds that, “Productions [at school] al-ways come first but this was a second choice.

Out of the many that auditioned Ty Trainer, a senior, was the only student from Eagan that was casted. For him the auditions were, “Really casual, I was actually surprised that I thought that they would be more formal. All I did was walk in to the

room and sang my prepared solo.” While auditioning, Trainer “Didn’t know what and what not to expect and I didn’t know what to look forward too.” For Trainer the most exciting thing for him is being on stage itself, saying, “I’ve never been on stage and in costume before with professionals, so this is really something that I’m looking forward too.”

The next auditions are most likely to be in late September because the next opera after The Magic Flute is not expected until late fall. The auditions are open to any high school student who shows an interest in the performing arts or wishes to perform on a professional stage.

The Magic Flute per-formances will be on April 15th- 18th at the University of Minnesota School Of Music. As Trainer puts it, “Come see it!”

Sesquicentennial continued from page 1

While the panel is directly associated with the city, it acts as a separate organiza-tion of volunteers and oper-ates within an independent budget. According to Dianne Miller, assistant to the city ad-ministrator, fundraising was done by a volunteer group to make sure “that City funds were not being allocated to the festivities.”

The executive board is responsible for planning community events related to the 150-year anniversary. Swenson comments: “It’s not as much about creating new events as it is to celebrate the ones we already have going on in our city.” While some new events have been in the making, such as a birthday kickoff party on January 9th, a March State of the City ad-dress by Mayor Mike Maguire and a July 4th Funfest, other longtime city events are also being utilized for the celebra-tion, including Eagan Art fes-tivals and the annual National Night Out in August.

“We all share a common

goal, and that is to celebrate Eagan’s great history and also to look at a bright future,” continues Swenson.

Above all, city leaders point to community involve-ment as one of the most important parts of the celebra-tion. Just one aspect of this heightened sense of commu-nity is the goal to fill city food shelves with 150,000 pounds of food in 2010. Food collec-tion will be weighed in the Municipal Center throughout the year.

The city also expresses a desire for the active participa-tion of many different groups and organizations in this year’s celebration, includ-ing support from groups and activities at EHS. To propose a public event honoring the anniversary, groups can reg-ister at www.eagan150.com for approval by the volunteer board.

As Eagan’s landmark birthday is honored through-out the year, hopefully stu-dents here at EHS will find a little bit to celebrate as well.

teachers, which will in-crease the class sizes. Budget cuts will also decrease fund-ing for arts and athletics, causing the participation fees to increase, and potentially leaving some students behind.

Ideally, Berenz would like to see that students in 196 “have many opportunities to choose from. I don’t want to limit students’ opportunities. It’s providing all the academic opportunities that are going to make sure that your post secondary experience is suc-cessful.”

Another responsibil-ity of the superintendent is of great interest to many students—declaring snow days. However, contrary to popular belief, she doesn’t do it alone. She will be up at 3 or 4 A.M. talking to people in the transportation depart-ment and superintendents of other districts around the

area. By 5:00 A.M. she will have made her decision so students can be contacted early enough to reduce risks for students on the roadways. “ You really don’t want to call school off. Either way you worry about kids’ safety... Some people you make very happy and some people aren’t very happy-- same deci-sion.”

Superintendent continued from page 3

Photo essay by Rita Kovtun