HOLIDAY 2016 MAHANOY AREA HIGH SCHOOL FREE … · BEAR FACTS MAHANOY AREA HIGH SCHOOL HOLIDAY 2016 The Envirothon is a competi-

BEAR FACTS MAHANOY AREA HIGH SCHOOL HOLIDAY 2016BearFACTSHOLIDAY 2016 MAHANOY AREA HIGH SCHOOL FREE

Students in grades 9-12 who would like to contribute to the next issue of Bear Facts, should sign up in Ms. Scic’s room any day during remediation or at 2:30. Topics are available or choose one of your own.

Congratulations to the Elks Students of the Month for OctoberJayda Byrne and Mike Joseph

Congratulations to the 2016-17 Future Business Leaders of America Officers

President Morgan Dewitt, Vice President Meredith Rhoades, Secretary Madison Cavenas, Treasurer Cade Bleashka, Historian Colin Fegley,

Reporter Taylor Evans, and Parliamentarian Isabel Casey

Congratulations to the Cast and Crew of “A Christmas Carol”High school students, under the direction of Mrs. Susan Scheeler,

presented “A Christmas Carol”. The timeless classic by Charles Dickens was performed on

Friday, November 18 and Saturday, November 19.

National Honor Society Inducts New Members

The Mahanoy Area National Honor Society held an induction ceremony on Wednesday, November 2. Ms. Kelsey Mansell, Class of 2010, was the guest speaker for the event. Ad-visors Mr. Kris Bet and Ms. Elise Popalis were proud to announce the following inductees: Meghan Babinsky, Brendan Bennett, Payton Bernardyn, Megan Bisco, Hannah Bruce, Nicholas Foley-Cavenas, Tiara Chescattie, Natasha Cunning-ham, Sydney Gnall, Jordan Hannon, Michael Hayes, Kailee Kaufman, Bree Kristopaitis, Justin Letcav-age, Matthew Lewandowski, Na-than Macleary, Riley Marion, Kath-ryn McCarthy, Madison Milewski, Maddyson Minalda, Kayla Schmer-feld, Seth Soriano, Leah VanHorn, Jessica Waldron.

Congratulations to the following Mahanoy Area students for beingse-lected to attend Lebanon Valley College Honors Band:

Matt Derr, Jessie Gunoskey, Kathryn McCarthy, Kayla Schmerfeld, and Joseph Gunoskey

BEAR FACTS MAHANOY AREA HIGH SCHOOL HOLIDAY 2016

Dress Down Day Benefits Neidlinger Scholarship

On Thursday, November 17th, in conjunction with the Great American Smoke Out, the annual Dress Down for Andrew was held. All monies collected benefited the Andrew Neidlinger Memorial Scholarship Fund that bestows an annual scholarship to a graduating Golden Bear football player, or cheerleader if no football players apply or meet eligibility.Andrew was a 2005 graduate of MAHS, a Golden Bear football player and team captain, and was an active member of his school and community. Andrew’s dress down days are held in conjunction with Kick Butts Day in April and the Great American Smoke Out in November because he was a committed member of the MA Teens Against Tobacco (TAT) while a student at Mahanoy. The Andrew Neidlinger Memorial Scholarship is administered through Schuylkill Area Community Foundation www.sacfoundation.com . All donations are tax deductible. The Foundation is a collection of philan-thropic funds, each created by a different donar for a variety of purposes. Each fund retains its own identity, donor defined objectives and benefits from pooled investments with other funds. Gifts to the Foundation are invested according to Foundation policy, and grants are then made from these permanent funds to qualified local charitable organizations as well as in the form of scholarships and awards. Please contact Eileen Kuperav-age, Executive Director at [email protected] or Sharon Koszyk at [email protected] if you wish to make a donation at any time.Thank you all for your generous and ongoing support of The Andrew Nei-dlinger Memorial Scholarship.

Veterans Day Memorial

This year the Mahanoy Area United Veterans, in conjunction with Ma-hanoy Area School District, held a Veteran’s Day program on Friday November 11. The Veterans were treated to a breakfast in our high school LGI room at 8:00. Students from elementary, middle and high schools decorated the grounds and gymnasium for the program. At 9:30 our school district was treated to the presentation. Guest speakers included Mr. Dave Bickowski, Mr. Fred Crawford, Mr. Ed Kleha, May-or Patti Schnitzus, and Veteran Mr. Lou Huber. Following the program at the school the band led the veter-ans to their memorial in town to lay a wreath, salute fallen soldiers, and play taps.

ATTENTION SENIORS YOUR CLASS DUES MUST BE PAID IN FULL BY December 16, 2016 IN ORDER FOR YOUR YEARBOOK TO BE ORDERED! GET THEM IN ASAP! Those of you that owe class dues will be receiving a letter in the mail with the amount due. If you have any questions please see Mrs. Brylewski.

National Family and Consumer Sciences Day

December 3 was chosen to recognize AAFCS Founder Ellen Swallow Richards, first woman graduate of MIT. Families were asked to make and eat a healthy meal together on that day in honor of her birthday. Photos of families preparing a healthy meal were posted to Facebook, Twitter, and/or Instagram using #FCSday and #healthyfamselfie.

Nutrition Advisory Council will be collecting non-perishable food items or $1 to see “Elf” on Thursday, December 22. Donations can be given to homeroom teachers by December 20. Members of NAC will collect them .

Donate and See “Elf”


The Envirothon is a competi-ton that is held once a year. Two teams per school are tested on their knowledge in soil and land use, aquatics, forestry, ecology, wildlife, and en-

vironmental issues. Mahanoy takes teams from the el-ementary, middle, and high school. Students need to have an interest in Pennsylvania ecology. If a student wants to participate they need to contact Mrs. Stone. Only ten students are able to go to the competition.

Envirothon

Safe Trick or Treat & Haunted Hallways

A Success

Once again our Safe Trick or Treat night and Haunted Hallways was a success. Both events were on Octo-ber 29th from 6pm to 8pm. More than fifty students participated, along with Area Education Association, PTO, Mahanoy Area Cross Country, Mahanoy Area Band, Mahanoy Area Football Boosters, SADD, Maha-noy Area Transportation Department, Drug and Alcohol Prevention, Student Council, Ski Club, The Rhoades Foundation, Mrs. Fegley, Mr. Holmes, Mrs. Flexer, Ms. Grochowski, Ms. Ulicny, Mrs. Gettig, Mr. Nester, Ms. Pollack. Special thanks to all who made this community and school event a success.

The next Olweus meeting will be on December 22, 2016. All members are going to be sharing a part of their ethnic traditions with their group. This can include any-thing from your culture such as language, food, dress, re-

Share Your Heritage

Annual Bloomsburg Math Competition A Popular Fall Activity

In 16 years it’s tripled in size, peaking this fall with more than 300 students representing 24 high schools from across Northeast Pennsylvania. BU’s annual Math Contest has become quite the targeted fall event for many schools, some of which enter multiple teams to compete in brainteasers, quiz bowl, and the popular Game of 24 card challenge. Along with the Math Club, students and faculty from the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics coordinate and run the all-day contest. The three competitions vary in difficulty and work off a foundation of geometry, trigonometry, algebra, logic and statistics. Adding to the contest’s popularity are several alumni, who once volunteered with the contest as BU students, now high school teachers bringing their current students back to campus as competitors. The following Mahanoy students attended the Blooms-burg Math Competition on Tuesday, November 15: Matt Derr, Samantha Gnall, Matthew Reed, Dylan Minahan, Mark Lawrence, Peter Osifat, Mike Joseph, Liam Man-sell, Chris Davis, Nolan Yanchuck, Kyle Loughlin, Chassitty Ramos, Megan Bisco, Justin Letcavage, Seth Soriano, and Kayla Schmerfeld.

ligion, customs, games, music etc. Please be prepared to share with your group. See Mrs. Brylewski if you have any questions.


2017 Yearbooks on Sale

$76.00

see Ms. Scicc in the high school art room

Bears Facts is a club run by Ms. Scic. In Bear Facts you gather information for the high school newspaper, which is published four times per school year. You can join by seeing Ms. Scic in the art room. The number of students that are members vary for each issue. All stu-dents in grades 9-12 are welcome to participate in any or all issues. There is something for everyone. Staff

members can meet with Ms. Scicc indi-vidually at any time during remediation or after school. All issues of Bear Facts can be viewed on the mabears website. It al-

lows alumni, current students, parents, and communi-ty members to see the latest happenings at Mahanoy Area.

Bear Factsget involved

Global Education Program Fundraiser

Show your Bear Pride at Christmas

The Global Education Program, coordinated by Ms. Scicchitano, sponsors many fundraisers to help students raise money to help them experience educational travel. Currently, custom Mahanoy Area Christmas ornaments are for sale for four dollars each. They are gold with black artwork. They are available immediately but quantities are limited. The program has three trips scheduled. The next on will take place from March 22 to April 1, 2017. Travel-ing to Venice, the Alps, Paris and London with Ms. Scicc and Mr. Nester will be Katie and Kyle Loughlin, Haley Obrzut, Peter Osifat, Cole Macieunas, Trevor Flynn, Lauren Starkey, Sarah Herring, Meredith Rhoades and Chassitty Ramos. This will be the third trip sponsored by the GEP. Educational travel offers experiences that students cannot learn about in a classroom or from a text book. Future trips include Spain, France and Italy in March, 2018 and Greece and the islands of the Mediterranean Sea in March, 2019. See Ms. Scicc for more informa-tion.


Mahanoy Area Wrestling

Are you thinking of joining a club or sport? Well, then you should consider joining Mahanoy Area wrestling team. The team is coached my Mark Lawrence and Sam Quick. Coach Lawrence has around twenty years of coaching experience. Coach Lawrence said, “I coach for the love of the sport and for the kids.” Wres-tling is a sport unlike any other. “It teaches you to work through more adversity than any other sport,” Coach said. Wrestling consists of one- on-one matches, where the two wrestlers try to win by pin, fall or by having the most points at the end of the match. One thing to keep in mind though is that wrestling is actually both a team and an individual sport. “I think it is a great team and individual sport, there is no truer team sport,” said Coach Lawrence. The wrestling season consists of dual meets, which are school vs school matches, and individual tournaments. The season starts in November and ends around March. “It is tough, physically and mentally...” Coach Lawrence said. The practices are not by any means a walk in the park. The only things needed to join the club are a hydration test, physical, wrestling shoes, and a never give up attitude. If you want to join the team, talk to anyone on the team or to one of the coaches. To those people that are scared to join because of a lack of experience, there is no better way to over-come those fears than just joining and trying it out,” said Coach Lawrence.

There are many different kinds of clubs in this school. They range from athletics to academic and everything in between. One academic club in particular is quiz bowl. It is a trivia competition with knowledge you already posses. There are two teams of four that try to answer questions faster than the other team and gain more points. The competition itself helps the students on the team realize that they have actually learned a lot from their years of school and are able to remem-ber it. Mahanoy Area competes against many schools in Schuylkill County, including Blue Mountain, Nativ-ity, Pottsville, North Schuylkill, and Tri-Valley. Quiz bowl covers categories such as math, science, geogra-phy, history, sports, English, religion, and mythology. A student does not have to be good at all categories. Quiz Bowl is a fun and positive learning experience for every student who wishes to test their knowledge with their classmates and other schools.On December 5th, Quiz Bowl traveled to Pottsville where they played Pottsville and North Schuylkill. Ma-hanoy lost two close battles. There are no requirements to join quiz bowl. The advisor of the club is Mr Nester. See him if you are interested in joining..

Mahanoy Area Drug Coalition Meeting

Thursday, January 5, 2017 at 2:30 in the high school LGI room

The Quiz Bowl Team enjoys a bite to eat together after their meet in Pottsville.


Mr. DiCasimirro met with members of the senior class on Monday, October 3, to update them regarding Vil-lanova College/ Curvey Scholarship, the Common Ap-plication, Penn State Schuylkill application fee waiver, visiting representatives, and the upcoming Financial Aid Information Night. During the first two weeks of October, Mr. DiCasi-mirro met with juniors to have each student complete the forty-five minute Pre Administration section of the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT). Ju-niors also received the PSAT Student Guide and Prac-tice Test. Penn State Schuylkill held an application session on the morning of Tuesday, October 4 in our high school library, at which the application fee was waived. Seven seniors took advantage of this opportunity. On Friday, October 7, representatives from Villanova University. Both Christopher Kovolski, Assistant Vice President, and Michael Gaynor, Director of Admis-sions, visited Mahanoy Area and met with a group of interested juniors and seniors. These two gentlemen spoke about the application process, the Curvey Schol-arship, majors and programs of study. On Thursday, October 13, thirty-eight juniors and thirteen seniors attended the Schuylkill County College Fair at Martz Hall. Fifty-six colleges and other schools of higher education, along with three branches of the

armed service, arranged for representatives to attend the fair and speak with interested students. Seven schools of higher education and two branches of the armed service made arrangements for representatives to meet with Mahanoy Area seniors during the month of October. On the evening of Tuesday, October 18, a financial aid information program was held in the Mahanoy Area High School Library. Lisa Cecchini, from the Finan-cial Aid Office of Penn State University, spoke about the FAFSA. (Free Application for Federal Student ), PHEAA (Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency) and related topics. Marybeth Matz from Schuylkill Area Community Foundation explained the award and scholarship applications available on the SACF website. Mr. DiCasimirro presented informa-tion dealing with scholarship and award applications specifically for Mahanoy Area seniors. On the morning of Wednesday, October 19, the PSAT was administered to eighty-four juniors and three soph-omores. The testing took place in five classrooms; it began at 7:50 a.m. and finished at 11:20 a.m. Students will receive their scores sometime in January. A meeting was held on Tuesday, October 25, to meet with all junior students to distribute the ASVAB Over-view Guide and explain this battery of tests.

Guidance Corner

Here’s the quote, you name the Christmas movie that it’s from!1. “Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.”2. “What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”3. “It’s a one year membership to the Jelly of the Month Club.”4. “You’ll shoot your eye out kid!”5. “He never got his picture on bubble gum cards, did he? Have you ever seen his picture on a bubble gum card? Hmmm? How can you say someone is great who’s never had his picture on bubble gum cards?”6. “Uh, since the United States Government declares

Name That Christmas Movie!this man to be Santa Claus, this court will not dispute it. Case dismissed.”7. “Bless this highly nutritious microwavable macaroni and cheese dinner and the people who sold it on sale. Amen.”8. “We’re your worst nightmare... Elves with attitude.”9. “Fog as thick as peanut butter”10. “Lovely, glorious, beautiful Christmas, upon which the entire kid year revolved.”11. “The thing about trains... it doesn’t matter where they’re going. What matters is deciding to get on.”12. “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”


“FOR LASTING MEMORIES”

Daniel’s

PHOTOGRAPHY110 West Centre Street

Mahanoy City, PA 17948

570-773-2972


1.HowmanytimesdoesSantacheckhislist?2.TheGrinchisascuddlyasa______?3.ItwouldhavebeenalaughtoseeMommydoingwhatlastnight?4. One foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to saywhat?5.Goodtidingstoyou,andallofyourwhat?6.WhowasseatednexttomeadayortwoagointhesongJingleBells?7. Why do I want my two front teeth for Christ-mas?8. What did Frosty The Snowman do when theyplacedthemagichatonhishead?9.WhatdoesAlvinwantforChristmasinTheChip-munkSong?10.OntheeleventhdayofChristmas,whatdidmytruelovesendtome?11.I’mdreamingofaWhiteChristmaswithwhat?12.WhatdoJaniceandJenwantforChristmasinthesongIt’sBeginningToLookALotLikeChrist-mas

1. Twice2. Cactus!3. Kissing Santa Claus!4. Rudolf With Your Nose So Bright, Won’t You Guide My Sleigh Tonight?5. Kin!6. Miss Fanny Bright!7. So I could wish you Merry Christmas!8. He began to dance around!9. A Hula Hoop!10. Eleven Pipers Piping!11. Every Christmas card I write!12. Dolls that will talk and will go for a walk!

Christmas Trivia

Answers to Christmas Trivia

4TipstoKeepingYourNewYear’sResolutions

You’vemadeaNewYear’sresolution?Congratulations:Researchsaysyou’re10timesmorelikelytosuccess-fullyalterabehaviorthanyouwouldifyoudidn’tmakeastart-of-the-yearvow.Andmaybethat’swhysome45percentofAmericanadultsringintheNewYearwitharesolution.But will they keep it?According to statistics, almosthalfwillgiveupontheirgoalswithinsixmonths.Avoidbeingoneof them.Nomatterwhatyou’vevowed—toloseweight?getfit?savemoney?—thesefourtipswillhelpyouachieveyourgoal.

BeSpecificVaguegoalswon’twork.“You’vegottodevelopaspe-cific action plan for change,” says John Norcross,Ph.D.,coauthorofChangeology:5Steps toRealizingYour Goals and Resolutions ($25, amazon.com). MapoutyourstrategybeforeNewYear’sarrives.Ifyouwantto loseweight, targetaprecisenumberofpounds toshed, then set concrete mini-goals and the dates onwhich you aim to accomplish each of them. Want tosavemoney?Determinetheamountyouwillputasideeachmonthand identifyexplicit changes inbehavioryou’llmaketogetthere,whetherthatmeansskippingyourafternoon latteorcarpoolingtoworktosaveonfuelcosts.

MakeYourGoalPublicShareyourdecisiontochangewithfriendsandfamilywhocanoffersupportwhenyou’rewaveringanden-couragementwhenyou’redoingwellatstickingtoyourresolution. “Public commitments are generally moresuccessfulthanprivatedecisions,”saysNorcross.

SubstituteGoodBehaviorsfor“Bad”Don’trelyonwillpoweralonetohelpyouchange,ad-vises Norcross. That approach won’t work. Instead,buildinahealthybehaviorthat’sincompatiblewiththeoneyouwanttochange.Soifeatingyourusualmidaft-ernoontreatrunscontrarytoyourgoalofdroppingafew pounds, put together a small like-minded groupandcommittotakingaquick,briskwalkatyournormalsnacktime.Eachtimeyouputthebrakeson“bad”be-havior,you’llincreaseyourconfidenceinyourabilitytomakethechange.

TrackYourProgressRecordorchartyourchangedbehavior.“Researchin-dicatesthatsuch‘self-monitoring’increasestheprob-abilityofkeepingyourresolution,”saysNorcross.

Answers to “Name That Christmas Movie”1. It’s a Wonderful Life2. How The Grinch Stole Christmas3.National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation4. A Christmas Story5.A Charlie Brown Christmas6. Miracle On 34th Street7. Home Alone8. The Santa Claus9. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer10. A Christmas Story11. The Polar Express12. It’s A Wonderful Life


Useless Christmas Facts and Trivia

1.The Song White Christmas is the biggest selling Christmas single of all-time.2.Sugar Plums are chocolate candies that are filled with fruit preservatives or other sweet cream fillings.3.The Christmas Poem The Night Before Christmas written by Clement Moore was originally titled A Visit from St. Nicholas.4.The Song Jingle Bells was originally titled One Horse Open Sleigh .5.Did you realize the name Santa Claus is not men-tioned once in the popular Christmas poem The Night Before Christmas .6.Early Christmas trees were decorated with fruits, flowers and candles which were heavy on the tree branches. In the 1800’s German glass blowers began producing glass balls to replace the heavy decorations and called then bulbs.7.Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was written and created by Robert May. May was an employee of the department store Montgomery Ward, and created Ru-dolph for Montgomery Wards who issued coloring books each year to children at their stores for Christ-mas. 8.The most popular version of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was recorded by Gene Autry in 1949 and sold 2 million copies of the song in one year.9.Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the company. 10.In North America, children put stockings out at Christmas time. Their Dutch counterparts, however, use shoes. Dutch children set out shoes to receive gifts any time between mid-November and December 5, St. Nicholas’ birthday.

1. Lose Weight 2. Getting Organized

3. Spend Less, Save More 4. Enjoy Life to the Fullest 5. Staying Fit and Healthy

6. Learn Something Exciting 7. Quit Smoking

8. Help Others in Their Dreams 9. Fall in Love

10. Spend More Time with Family

Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions

The Ski and Snowboard Club is selling t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, sweat shirts, hoodies, and sweat pants. The shirts are dark grey and the pants are black. There are two choices for the shirts. One is a snow board and the other is skis. The pants will have the polar bear logo. If you would like to order, please see any ski club member or fill out the form in the office.

Ski Club Fundraiser Underway

Documents

HOLIDAY 2016 MAHANOY AREA HIGH SCHOOL FREE … · BEAR FACTS MAHANOY AREA HIGH SCHOOL HOLIDAY 2016 The Envirothon is a competi-