November 28, 2009Vol. 23, No. 2

CENTRAL COMMUNITY SCHOOLSof DeWitt, Grand Mound, Low Moor and Welton, Iowa

Come and give it

Around Thanksgiving high school stu-dents are in the mood to help the less fortu-nate. Of course there is some competition between classes, but the main point is to give back to the community.

Student council expanded on the tra-ditional food drive and came up with two more fundraisers, Boots for Babies and Coats for Kids.

The can drive, student council’s main fundraiser, will be different. They are awarding the food party to the class and not a specifi c classroom.

The grade who brings in the most food by weight will win a breakfast party. “There aren’t any limitations or lists the students have to go by.” student council advisor, Mrs. Denise McAleer said.

“The student council charity commitee (including Courtney Bauer and Tessa Stocker) is very involved.” Mrs. McAleer said. “We also included Ekstrand and the middle school.”

“We are aiming for families that can’t afford a bunch of food for thanksgiving to have more this year,” Matt Daniels said.

Each Friday, student council will pick up the food from the classrooms and take it to the Referral Center in Dewitt.

Devin Happe is the chair for the Coats for Kids fundraiser, a fundraiser to raise coats for children who can’t afford to buy them.

“Our goal this year,” Happe said. “Is to raise at least three coats each size ranging from kids to adults.”

Coats for Kids, like the other fundrais-ers lasts from Nov. 2 to Nov. 20.

“We will ship them to Bettendorf Amer-ican Education Assosciation and they will clean them and send us back ones (coats) from another school,” Happe said. “So kids won’t have any coats from people here.”

Boots for Babies is another new fund-

Drop it like it’s cold. Melanie Saunders drops a used coat into the student coun-cil’s Coats for Kids fundraiser drop box. Photo by Eryca Schebler.

Now where did I put that grocery list? Matt Daniels picks cans up from classrooms for the annual food drive which ended Nov. 20. The junior class won the competi-tion for most food collected. Photo by Eryca Schebler.

Cross Country takes 5th

at state, Hetrick named

Coach of the Year

—Page 11

Oklahoma! sells out

and thrills audiences

Musical Review

—Page 9

Box 110 425 East 11th Street • DeWitt, IA 52742563-659-0715 • www.central-clinton.k12.ia.us

raiser that Lena Niemann and Hillary Drury are in charge of.

“Since it is a new fundraiser we don’t really have a goal,” Niemann said, “other

than to have a lot of people participate.”“The boots will be distributed through-

out Central School District by Mrs. Aman-da Greubel,” Niemann said.

Katie DorpinghausEditor in Chief

Fundraisers to benefi t the less fortunate

Eryca Schebler Features Writer

FCCLA fashions leaders for the future

John Quincy Adams once said, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Mrs. Valarie Betz and Ms. Beth Harrington-Scheckel are challenging stu-dents to become leaders with a new pro-

gram called FCCLA. Family, Career, Community Leaders of

America, or FCCLA, is a national student organization for high school students that Mrs. Betz and Ms. Scheckel are launching at Central. “People like the leadership as-pect,” Ms. Scheckel said. “It’s a good activ-ity to put on a resumé.”

Joining FCCLA is simple. “People can join anytime,” Ms. Scheckel said. “We do have membership dues, but it’s only $3 if

you just want to be involved. Just come to one of our meetings and we’ll feed you breakfast and give you a red shirt.”

Those who have joined FCCLA are learning about leadership and the family and consumer sciences. “We’re teaching leadership and how to get involved in the community,” Ms. Scheckel said. “We try to think of topics under the family and con-sumer sciences umbrella.”

“I joined for the leadership program,”

Jenna Duffy said. “And it’s good for your resume.”

Duffy, who was elected president of the group, looks forward to seeing FCCLA ex-pand. “We want to help more around the community,” Duffy said. The group plans on helping at the DeWitt Santa’s Workshop and Children’s Carnival on Dec. 5.

Members attended a FCCLA convention where they met with students from other schools. “My favorite part was defi nitely meeting new people,” Lena Niemann said. “We need to go to more conventions.”

FCCLA holds monthly breakfast meet-ings in Room 202. Each meeting features a guest speaker from the community.

Dave Necker, speaker at the Nov. 18 meeting and co-owner of Necker’s Jew-elers, spoke about struggles he has faced in his career and how he overcame them. “The world is not fair,” Necker told the group. “And I struggled with the unfair-ness of the world for a long time.”

“Then I realized that I didn’t want the world to be fair. I don’t have to be the best at everything; I just have to be a little better than everyone else. I just have to work a little harder than everyone else,” he said.

Necker also gave the group advice about having confi dence and making mistakes. “How you get confi dence and retain confi -dence is going to be your key to success,” Necker said. “I make a lot of mistakes, don’t be afraid of mistakes. Mistakes are how you learn.”

Preparing themselves to be the leaders of the future. Front Row: Advisors Mrs. Betz, Ms. Scheckel. Second Row: Aarika Stone, Paige McCulloh, Mackenzie Keeney, Hillary Drury, Jenna Duffy, Lexi Cheney, Lena Niemann and Lexi Meggers. Back Row:Kalee Pray, Ali Necker, Cara Melvin, Ashley Borota, Natalie Smith and Ravin Kilburg. Photo by Katie Dorpinghaus.

Lauren Weirup On Campus Editor

The Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 22’Tis the season to be hunting

Bang! The shot heard miles away. Hunt-

ing season is upon us, and is a very impor-

tant season for many students. Both male

and female students have taken their part

to help the enviroment by getting involved

with county conservation. Many think

hunting is bad, but hunting is not just about

killing animals, there is much more to it.

Hunting has been called a sport, a rec-

reational activity, and a danger, Winston

Henningsen calls it “population manag-

ment,” how ever you look at it hunting is a

neccesity. The Department of Natural Re-

cources (DNR) have set hunting seasons

to only a few days at a time.These seasons

help control over populations without com-

pletely wiping out a species.

The fun of hunting comes with rules and

responsibility. There is a plethora of laws

that hunters must follow to ensure that they

are being safe and not over killing.

There are laws that mandate you to take

a safety course before you can get your li-

cense, and you must have a license in order

to carry a weapon.

There are also laws that state you must

have a tag for every animal you ‘bring

down’.

If you take a look into the history of the

United States hunting has been a part of

the culture for centuries. People used to

hunt for their main source of foods. Even

today there are people who hunt for their

main source of meat and they prefer game

meat over the normal beef or pork. Game

meat is a healthier choice compared to

commercial meats. For example venison

(deer meat) inmuch leaner than beef and

a lot cheaper. “Hunting is a great way to

provide cheap, healthy meat for your fam-

ily,” Cody Kent said.

In general, hunting has brought several

advantages to both the enviroment and to

the hunters. So whether you are a hunter

or against hunting, realize that hunting is

beneficial to everybody.

Hunting recreationalfor outdoor types

Looking for a 14-pointer. Scott Adams eyes down the prize from his precarious perch in a tree. Lots of students enjoy hunting every year as a way to make a com-petition to see who is the best hunter in the school. Photo by Lauren Weirup.

Nate Cypher Features Writer

Things that go bump in the night

Everyone associates Halloween with

images of witches, ghosts, devils and hob-

goblins. But when it comes to haunted

houses people go crazy.

When Halloween comes round it is a

fun time of year, a time when candy and

ghosts come out. But it is also a time for

haunted houses. When you see hear the

announcements on the radio and T.V. for

Say hello to my little friend. Alexandria Naughton models her costume and doll. Naughton worked at a haunted house throughout the Halloween season. Photo contributed by Alexandria Naughton.

haunted houses you can’t wait until you go

see them.

There are many haunted houses around

Dewitt and a lot of people at Central High

get groups together and they go as it is

called “Haunted Housing.” “I like haunted

houses and I love going in groups,” said

Amanda Benson. “My favorite haunted

house was Skeleton manor.”

Everyone has his or her own preference.

“I went to the haunted house in Low Moor

and it was good,” said Brooke Crater. “I

liked the mirrors at the end.”

The number of teens and adults who go

to haunted house has tripled over the years.

“The haunted house is $117 million indus-

try and a lot of people go to them every

year,” according to About.com.

Why do people like to go to haunted

houses’? Maybe it is the fun of being scared

or maybe it is just a hobby you choose.

Haunted house

goers enjoy

thrills, chills

Bree Dunkel Assistant Editor

Let it snow (x3)Your alarm clock goes off at 6:30 a.m.

playing the latest tune. You rub your eyes

and stretch, preparing for another long day

of school when you look outside the win-

dow and see 3 feet of sparkling snow cover-

ing the ground. Excitement rushes through

your veins and you rush to the television

to bore your eyes into the screen until you

see school is cancelled. You watch it come

across the bottom and feel overjoyed. To-

day you can spend all day in the snow.

Things to do in the winter seem to be

endless. Snowboarding, ice skating, sled-

ding, making snowmen and snow angels,

having snowball fights, and snowmobiling

are only a few examples and most people

participate in at least one during the winter

months.

Shawn Paarmann, a junior at Central, is

an active winter weather participant. His

main acitivity is snowboarding. “I love the

snow and how amazing everything looks,”

Paarmann said, “plus when I’m hittin’ the

powder on the slopes, nothing could feel

better.”

There are many places to be active in

winter activities. Some or more popular

then others. “We usually head to Chest-

nut, or “The Nut”, or we hit some spots

around the streets,” Paarmann said. Chest-

nut Mountain is a winter resort in Ga-

lena, Illinois that’s set to open Nov. 27 if

the weather permits it. Resorts aren’t the

only place to enjoy winter though. You can

step out into your front yard and collapse

into a snow angel or perhaps take part in

something a little more dangerous such as

a snowball fight.

Winter can have its pros and cons.

Cons: cold weather, driving in the snow,

and missing the sunshine. Pros: Christmas,

an exceptionally long break from school,

the beauty of snow covered fields, seeing

snowmen as you drive through town, hot

chocolate, and so much more.

Winter can be a pain but the positives of

winter and snow might just outweigh that.

Shredding the slopes. Shawn Paarmann shows off his snowboarding skills at Chest-nut Ski Resort in Galena, Ill. Photo contributed by Shawn Paarmann.

’TIS THE SEASON

Katie BlaserFeatures Writer

Ariani OehrleinOn Campus Editor

During Thanksgiving and the holiday season many people all over the world give donations of either money or items to those who are less fortunate than them. In DeWitt there are many organizations to give to. The Saint Joseph’s youth group is one of these organizations. They do a scavenger hunt around DeWitt to get food to give to the Referral Center. The scavenger hunt is a fun way for stu-dents to get involved and help while hav-ing fun at the same time. “I enjoyed doing it, but it was kinda cold,” Taylor McWilliams said. Many had fun despite the cold weather,

though. “It was good to do something dif-ferent,” Cassie Blaser said. Chris Tabor said that it was fun “because you get to get to be with friends and you are helping out people who are less fortu-nate than you.” Everyone likes helping others who don’t have as much as they do. “It makes me feel very good about my-self. To solve big problems you need to defeat the smaller ones,” Chris said. “The feeling that someone will have food on a table is amazing.” Students collect as much food as they can on their list and bring it back for the youth minister to bring to the Referral Cen-ter. “It makes me feel fortunate for what I have and how privileged I am,” McWil-liams said.

As the Thanksgiving days are coming to a close, many kids are getting excited about Christmas. For most people, the end of Thanksgiving leads to the beginning of shopping for the ones they love.

The very popular day to start of the spree is the day after thanksgiving. Black Friday is well known to many savvy families.

“Black Friday is just a chance when we know the discounts from all the advertise-

ments, and usually the most popular shop-ping day of the year,” Lexi Meggers said. “Of course I know what black Friday is!” Alison Rekemeyer said. “I’m going to go with my mom.”

Stores have morning specials and door busters for those willing to wake up ex-tremely early. “I’m going to wake up at 5 a.m.,” Abby Schneckloth said.

“I’ll probably wake up around 4:30-ish,” Cheyenne Gonzalez said.

For some people, early hours don’t mean anything. “Earliest I’d wake up, probably one in the afternoon,” Rekemeyer said.

Shoppers usually go with an item they want in mind, either for themselves, friends or family. Rekemeyer and Schneckloth both agree on shopping for themselves.

“I want to buy a new camera,” Reke-meyer said, and as for Schneckloth, her item of choice is a crock-pot.

“I’ll shop for family and myself, what-ever I fi nd,” Meggers said.

“I’m sort of doing both, I want to get stuff for my sister for Christmas but I want to see if I can fi nd anything for me, too,” Gonzalez said.

The best hot spots to shop include Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Circuit City, Sears, K-Mart and Target.

“Any store in the mall will be packed, as well as Target, Wal-Mart, etc.” Meggers said.

“Target and Wal-Mart, of course! I know the mall will be fi lled,” Gonzalez said.

“I would say electronics would be most popular, they are usually a big hit,” Meg-

gers said, as most people would agree. Electronics are the No. 1 item people

shop for on Black Friday. “Probably like video games,” Rekemeyer said.

The price range on this day varies for all shoppers; most go with a budget. “I’ll spend about $200,” Rekemeyer said.

“I’ll spend as much money as I have, which is usually not that much,” Meggers adds.

Others won’t be so easy on their mon-ey. “I’d probably spend about 50 dollars,” Schneckloth said.

“Well, I’m not going to try and spend all my hard earned money, but it depends on what the prices are like,” Gonzalez said.

Many think Black Friday has the best deals, but is it really worth your morning

hours and most of your wallet? “A con of Black Friday is all the traffi c in town,” Gonzalez said. “There are so many people going early, they’re all crazy,” Rekemeyer said.

“Facing the crowds, and spending more money than you expect is a con for me,” Meggers said. “You can get pretty good deals anytime of the year, you just have to look in the right spot.”

Rekemeyer said, “Most of the things are cheaper, but when people think things are cheaper, they spend more money.”

Schneckloth says no, “The best deals are when the stores have their own sales.”

Gonzalez says, “Yes and no, I mean they will have lower prices but it just depends on the demand of what people want.”

Editor in Chief: Katie DorpinghausAssistant Editor: Bree Dunkel Features Editor: Becca WalkerSports Editor: Bryan Connell

Page Design Editor: Katie Petersen Photography Editor: Alex Barr

On Campus Editor: Nichole Haack Graphic Design: Renee Christiansen

Review Editor: Melanie SaundersAdviser: Mrs. Christine Gilroy

THE PURPLE ONION WELCOMES LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. LETTERS MUST BE SIGNED.

Central Community High SchoolBox 110 • Old Highway 30 East • DeWitt, IA 52742

563-659-0715 • www.central-clinton.k12.ia.us

’TIS THE SEASONThe Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 2 3

Jenna BlondellFeatures Writer

Thanksgiving is a time for giving thanks, and Emily Willis, Alli Cavanagh and Krys-tal Jensen are especially thankful this year, with family circumstances. What do you have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving? Emily Willis is thankful that her grandfather is home again. After being in the hospital for a few days in Iowa City, her grandpa was able to re-turn home. “He had a form of a stroke,” said Willis. “I’m thankful that my grandpa came home, and that the stroke wasn’t too serious.” “I was planning a Halloween party, I was afraid I might have to postpone it because of him being in the hospital,” Willis said. “I wasn’t really concentrating on the party, I was more worried about his health.” Emily did have her party despite her worries. “Two days after being in the hos-pital he said to me, you better have your party.” said Emily of her grandpa. Alli Cavanagh’s father had unusual cir-cumstances when it came to a surgery to get his gall bladder removed. He went in to have a simple gall bladder surgery and wound up with two blood clots in his lungs. “I didn’t realize how big a deal it was,” said Cavanagh, “until the doctor said he could have died if he went home.” Blood clots are common side effects of surgery, but can be fatal. “If he wouldn’t have gotten a blood thinner,” said Cava-

nagh, “the blood clot would have blocked arteries in his heart.” A heart attack can be fatal. It’s scary to think it happens everywhere around you. It’s even scarier when it happens to a fam-ily member. Krystal Jensen experienced this. She was one her way to DeWitt from Maquo-keta when her mom started having chest pains. “She has never had them like this before,” said Jensen. Jensen made the rational decision to take her mom to the emergency room. “The doc-tors and nurses moved very quickly,” said Jensen. “They got her stabilized enough to transfer her to Genesis East.” When she got there they took her straight into a scope surgery. “They put in two stents,” said Jensen. “They ballooned one area to open the blockage.” Jensen’s mom was lucky and thankfully, she is all right. “She is a lot better now than when she came back from the hospital,” said Jensen, “but she still has to do heart physical therapy to get stronger.” “I thank god that nothing more serious happened to her,” said Jensen, “and that she is still with us.” Many have traditions. Some go to fam-ily houses every year, and others just stay home. Jensen and her family go to church every Sunday. “I am glad that she can go,” she said, “because it is important to her and to our family.” Jensen said many families provided meals for them for two weeks. Many families have survived injuries or bad experiences and look to see how truly thankful they are for their blessings.

Having fun, helping out.. Drew Dieckmann, Jordan Porth, Cameron Donovan, Lu-cas Sheppard, Cameron O’Neil, Brice Bowan and Carter Hemesath show off some of the food they collected during St. Joe’s scavenger hunt. Photo by Katie Blaser.

Youth group holds food drive

‘Black Friday’ shopping: Is it worth your time?

Scoping for good coupons. Alison Rekemeyer and Abby Schneckloth get excited over the newspaper ads. Photo by Ariani Oehrlein.

Some students give thanks because loved ones are still with them

Enter the room, and almost instantly the senses are overwhelmed with the smell of acrylic paint and wet clay, the scraping of charcoal on paper, and the obvious visual overload that walks hand in hand with the art room.

The art room has become meeting place of sorts in the mornings before class be-gins. Students are always welcome to go and have a place to sit down, scurry to finish homework, or to just hang out with their friends.

Not only is the art room available in the mornings, but also because of a recent ad-dition of ‘Art Club’, the art room can now be used by interested artistic protégés from 6-8 every Monday night.

Not so great at artistic expression? That’s not a problem. The newly founded Art Club is open to anyone even remotely interested or curious in anything artisti-cally related, and the beloved “Nordy” is always there to assist, guide, critique, and give advice.

“There are a lot of kids who are taking other classes, don’t have the materials at home, and like the atmosphere and the commodore of the art club,” said Ms. Sue Nordstrom. “This gives kids extra time to work artistically, because if you don’t set time aside, it just doesn’t happen.”

“I think it’s going really well,” Nord-strom added. “Two to six kids show up every week, so we’ll just keep on going until the kids decide they don’t want to anymore.”

On a rare occasion, great talent comes naturally, but more often than not, its something to be cultured and practiced, and something that takes time to grow. Art

club might be the perfect place to harvest your potential.

“I came to work on things I don’t nor-mally work on,” said Tiffany Allers, “To expand my artistic horizon.”

“It’s a really good environment to try something new,” she added. “You can ex-press yourself without being worried about being criticized and critiqued in a negative way.”

The subject matter and media varies constantly in art club. Nothing is required and the only rule is you have to be doing something at least a little artistic. This is the time where students catch up on sketch credits or projects for various other art classes being taken.

“I’m working on portraits right now, “ said Emily Willis. “But later on I’m going to be doing a project for WAMAC.”

“I’m so glad we thought of this now,” said founder Eva-Maria Conway. “It just hit me one day that we didn’t have any extracurricular opportunities for students interested in art.”

“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” she added. “But I finally decided to talk to Nordy about getting an art club on its feet, and it’s worked really well.”

After weeks of practice, several days of stressing, and a couple hours of quality time with Mr. Greubel and around a hun-dred of your closest band buddies; it’s fi-nally your turn to audition.

Four of Central’s students were accepted into the 2009 Iowa All State Band/Chorus, the auditions were on Oct. 24 at Fairfield High school; Emily Browne on alto clari-net, Jenessa Kyarsgaard on bass clarinet, Fletcher Paulsen with vocals and Colleen Tague on B-flat clarinet.

(I) “Freak out, shake, the usual”, Kyars-gaard said, (because) “I practiced, the week before.” Tague disagreed with Kyarsgaard, “I start practicing as soon as they come out in July,” Tague said. “(Before auditions you) practice your butt off, then have no face for the audition.”

Some students find it difficult to find time to practice during their busy sched-ules. Paulsen solved this problem by hav-ing a set time to practice, four days a week. “I practice once a week, late at night after everyone has gone to bed,” Browne said.

A fleeting moment is captured with the preciseness of a camera. A masterpiece is brought to life with the click of a mouse. When art and technology blend together seamlessly, the results are impressive. The booming technological era and fanciful art world together bring society into an entire-ly new dimension. One such example is the art department’s new website, featuring a rotating gallery of student artworks.

Ms. Sue Nordstrom, the high school art teacher, is enthralled with the benefits of using the iWeb program for the brand-new website to showcase her students’ talent.

“The iWeb site’s purpose is to make an art gallery available to the school and pub-lic so that they can view student artworks,” Nordstrom said. “In addition, it includes the first issue of the Muse fine arts maga-zine, the catalogue descriptions of all the art classes, class criteria, and grading for all the classes. Also, there is a link to Mrs. Dunlavey’s art classes at the high school and middle school.”

“I know the middle schoolers like to look at the high school students’ art work,” said Mrs. Cassie Dunlavey, teacher for art at the middle school and painting courses at the high school. “It fuels their creativ-ity and inspires them to continue taking art classes.”

The purpose of iWeb is to provide a way for the community to connect to stu-dent artwork and to help with other activi-ties in the art department.

“I wanted to do IWeb because we have art shows in the spring,” Nordstrom said. “Also, people are limited by location and time, and by doing this people can view the

‘Little black dress’ a hit with fashion class designers

Eva Maria ConwayStaff Writer

Sarah StoferFeatures Writer

Jordan LarisonStaff Writer

artworks anytime they want. Parents can look at the curriculum requirements any-time they want as well.”

“There is a link on the website for the grants we received,” Dunlavey said. “Four thousand dollars were granted to pur-chase equipment for the art department. It is my way to show the community how their monetary donations increase student achievement.”

Organizing this could have been a dif-ficult task. Dunlavey and Nordstrom, how-ever, found the project of placing the art-works online to be a breeze.

Dunlavey said, “iWeb is really user-friendly and the website is really easy to keep updated.”

“The process wasn’t hard,” Nordstrom said. “We’ve got a scanner that is fast and efficient.”

The works chosen vary considerably, from pastel works to mixed media to con-

Spitting image. Founder Eva-Maria Conway takes her self-portrait by storm and paints an eerily familiar face during the newly founded Art Club. Photo by Jordan Larison.

Lending a hand. Mrs. Cassie Dunlavey guides Haley Kreiter through the many brilliant masterpieces on the website. Haley Kreiter pauses briefly to take in the inspirational works of Mrs. Dun-lavey’s teen years.

“Every woman needs a little black dress.” Ever heard that one before? The fashion class, taught by Mrs.Valarie Betz, went to a shop called emeDesign in Erie, Illinois. While there, they got to talk to the owners of the shop and see the way that they run their business.

“It was an once in a lifetime experi-ence,” said senior Lexi Meggers of the fashion class, “and very eye opening to go and meet an actual fashion designer. I had never taken anything like the fashion class before,” Lexi said, “so I thought it would be interestingand it turns out its a lot of fun.”

Mrs. Valarie Betz, the teacher of the fashion class was excited to go on this field trip. “I have a background in clothing and tailoring,” Mrs. Betz said, “and I thought that it would be a good thing to expose the students to a designer.”

ON CAMPUS The Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 24New Art Club offers creative opportunities

Art just a click away on new iWeb site

STUDENT PROJECTS ON WEB SITE --Continued on Page 5

Becca WalkerFeatures Editor

Make it straight. Trying to make all of her pieces nice and creased, Jenny Franzen uses the iron to make sure the job gets done. Photo by Becca Walker.

“I chose to go to the emeDesign because it was featured in the newspaper a lot,” Mrs. Betz said, “and I thought it would be a good idea for students to meet face to face with the business owners Erica Mae and Shelli.” Mrs. Betz also said that the mother-daughter designers work out in the country so that their designs are not influ-enced by other designers around them.

This is the first fashion class that the school has had. In the class the students study vocabulary related to fashion, they do projects, and they have a computerized program called Digital Fashion Pro which lets students play around with different clothing ideas to create fashion designs.

The Central students who made it into All-State band said that the other All State band students were “most definitely” big-ger ‘Band Geeks’ than they were. But Fletcher thought that the other All State chorus members were “pretty cool”.

There were surprise all around when the students were accepted into the band, which will be on Nov. 19-20 at Iowa State University. “I wasn’t expecting it,” Tague said. Kyarsgaard and Browne were both very surprised because they didn’t think that they had good auditions. “It was a big relief,” Paulsen said. “ After not making it last year, I was very happy.”

Four take All-State awards

Hard work paid off. Jenessa Kyars-gaard, Fletcher Paulsen, Emily Browne, and Colleen Tague were selected for the Iowa All State Band or Chorus. Photo by Katie Dorpinghaus.

ON CAMPUSThe Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 2 5

Katie PetersenPage Design Editor

Melanie SaundersMovie Review Editor

You may think that all National Honor Society consists of are two yearly blood drives held here at the high school, but there’s really much more to it. For applicants, just getting in a big honor, but along with the accomplishment comes great challenge.

For the application process, there are several requirements to being accepted. You must have at least a 3.0 GPA, and each person being evaluated will be judged on Service, Leadership and Character.

Many times, members accepted are leaders in the school and hold some sort of authority such as a team captain, in student council or being a section leader in the band.

“I don’t get to evaluate the forms, but I want as many people possible to apply,” Ms. LeAnn DePue, NHS advisor, said. “I

am satisfied with the outcome.”On Nov. 5, 14 new members were

inducted into the prestigious society: Rachel Henning, Lindsay Smith, Justin Block, Caitlin Geise, Anthony Burke, Chas Cahill, Jennifer Keitel, Fletcher Paulsen, Michael Carr, Haley Kreiter, Bryan Connell, Mary Broadfoot, Katie Blaser and Taylor McWilliams. Also present were

NHS: Worth the extra effort

already existing members in NHS: Alan Buttars, Matt Daniels, Carrie Demmon, Taylor Donovan, Katie Dorpinghaus, Amanda Franck, Nick McClimon, Lucas Nastruz, Hailey Penningroth, Melanie Saunders, Tyler Smith and Colleen Tague.

With this large group, there are some higher expectations from last year. “I’d like to increase numbers for the blood

drive,” said Ms. DePue. “Weather hurt us last year. There wasn’t enough time between the winter and spring drives, so people who would have normally donated in spring couldn’t because they were too close together.”

So bring on the blood drives and community projects, because there’s nothing this group can’t handle.

Scholarship, Service, Leadership and Character. Front Row: Carrie Demmon, Taylor Donovan, Katie Dorpinghaus, Amanda Franck, Melanie Saunders and Colleen Tague. Second Row: Caitlin Geise, Anthony Burke, Rachel Henning, Michael Carr, Katie Blaser, Alan Buttars, Haley Kreiter and Justin Block. Back Row: Lindsay Smith, Chas Cahill, Fletcher Paulsen, Jen Keitel, Bryan Connell, Tyler Smith, Nick McClimon and Matt Daniels. Photo courtesy of William Luse Photography.

State Competition is not something usu-ally associated with the school band.

For the past two years, however, the Sa-ber Marching Pride has attended both State and Wilton Band competition.

“We were an exhibition band at Wilton,” said Mr. Greubel, “because it is a competi-tion for smaller bands.”

Band gets Division I rating at stateThis competition was a practice for the

band they received Division II rating and came in fourth overall.

“Only a week after Wilton we received a Division I at State,” Mr. Greubel said.

“I was freaking ecstatic,” said Christie Wiese. “It was good to see our hard work finally pay off after billions of hour of practice.”

“I tried to cut down on extra Monday night practices,” said Mr. Greubel, “but I tried to do more sectionals with different sections of the band.”

“People may not know this, but the last

time the band went to State was in 1999,” said Mr. Greubel. However that year the band was unable to play due to a rain can-cellation.

“We started going to State again last year,” said Mr. Greubel, “We got a Divi-sion II, but it was good for the kids to know for this year.”

These State Competitions do not even begin to compare with what the band will be doing next year.

“Next year we will be going to Florida and playing in the half-time show of the Orange Bowl.” Mr. Greubel said.

Students selected for elite academic group based on service, character

Tootin’ their horns. Under the instruction of Chloe Myers and Ryan McAleer, the band belts their flavorful Latin-themed music. It was enough to earn a one rating at state contest, a feat not achieved since 1992. Photo contributed by Melanie Saunders.

—Continued from Page 4

“For the site, I don’t put everyone’s pieces on because there would be too many,” Nordstrom said. “I select a variety of works from different classes and differ-ent students. I rotate works in and out.”

“For my classes, every project the stu-dents do go on the website,” Dunlavey said. “Photographing and putting them on the website is a way of showing off their artwork before art shows.”

Both teachers attended a workshop of-fered at a teacher in-service and now uti-lize the program in their classes.

“iWeb was a workshop I attended,” Dunlavey said. “Mr. Townsley was an in-structor and he taught me how to get start-ed with the software.”

Nordstrom said, “I use it in Graphic De-sign class for a student project and decided that it’d be a great way to show student art-work to the public.”

Haley Kreiter, a student involved in art at the high school, is pleased with the ex-tensive gallery online.

“It’s impressive to see how many good artists we have at school,” Kreiter said. “So many people you wouldn’t expect to be art-ists are actually really talented.”

For those curious about art online, visit the high school web page, www.central-clinton.k12.ia.us and click fine arts link.

Student artprojects gracegallery ofnew website

Lauren Weirup

On Campus Editor

ON CAMPUS6The Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 2

Off to Indy they go

National FFA Convention is filled with talent, fun, education and inspiration. Ev-ery year FFA chapters from every state and Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands take the trip to the National Convention which is held in Indianapolis, Ind.

The 82nd National Convention was a place of opportunities for students to come together and find common interests in col-leges, careers and contests.

With everything from Career Develop-ment Events (CDEs) to walking around the Indianapolis mall, you will never run out of things to do.

“Watching CDE contests at the national level helps teams prepare for the contests in the coming year,” Matthew Costello said. There is a career show of more than 300 colleges and around 400 cooperations trying to recruit students and future em-ployees.

At several sessions throughout the day, National FFA Officers present different awards or guest speakers. One of the guest speakers was Mike Rowe of the hit TV show Dirty Jobs. He spoke about working hard and enjoying what you do, not just working for the money.

“Mike Rowe is just an average guy who loves what he does,” Costello said. “He is using what he has learned for the better-ment of the earth,”

Each year only a few students from each state are selected to participate in the Na-tional FFA Chorus. Eleni Boesch not only got the chance to represent her chapter but

the state of Iowa as well participating in the National Chorus. She had to go to Indiana three days before the convention started in order to practice with the new choir and director.

“Even though we all came from all dif-ferent states we all seemed to act like a family,” Boesch said.

The national band and chorus stay in a separate hotel in downtown Indy. With constant practice, the choir had little free time so they spent a lot of time together. “I built some amazing friendships,” Boesch said. “It was hard to let them go.”

DeWitt had five members receive their American FFA Degree, the highest degree an FFA member can achieve. These mem-bers earned more than $7,500 and 2,250 hours of labor, that went toward their Su-pervised Agricultural Experience (SAE). These students had to have been out of school for 12 months, and had to have pre-viously received his or her State FFA De-gree.

The members who achieved this award were Brady McNeil, Brandon Franck, Brandon McCulloh, Meghan Henningson and Glen Mommsen.

Walking down FFA Way. Students Logan Kennedy, Nick McClimon, Caleb Beer, Renee Christiansen and Patrick Diedrich stroll downtown Indy. Photo contributed by Erin Weirup.

Lack of sleep can cause problemsAlexandria Naughton

Page Editor

Most students do not know the impor-tance of sleep.

Eight hours of sleep is a good amount of sleep for a person to get, but not many people get that many hours of sleep every night.

How much sleep do students get at night?

“Probably six,” Hillary Drury said, “be-cause you can tell if people get sleep by what they do in class, or how they pay at-tention.”

Spencer Hicks agrees. “Probably like six, because kids stay up really late.”

Creighton Fox estimated less sleep for the school. “I would say five, because a lot of people stay up late with either stress with homework, or playing video games, and a lot of people who are in sports don’t get home ’til late.”

Kids have been known for falling asleep in class. Many kids who fall asleep miss out on things that may appear on tests, or

quizzes. “When I don’t get enough sleep, I don’t

pay good enough attention in class,” Drury said.

Others find their sleep in class is more important. “I sleep in class when I’m bored,” Hicks said, “but sleep doesn’t af-fect how well you do.”

There are certain classes, or certain times of the day that are the worst for peo-ple to stay awake during the day.

“Fourth block, definitely fourth block,” Hicks said. “Usually those are my boring classes and I’m ready to leave, so I put my head down.”

The first block and fourth block seem to be the hardest to stay awake in. “Some morning classes, I’m still trying to get awake,” Fox said.

Students get out of school at 3 p.m. That leaves 17 hours for students to sleep. What is keeping students up late at night?

“Internet, cell phone, facebook, home-work,” Drury says. Hicks says, “TV, boy-friend/girlfriend, computer.”

Too much sleep is also bad. “You’re in the sleep mode all day,” Drury said.

“It could go both ways,” Maggie Ge-hlsen said. “Some people get drowsy if

Did you know the movie “Mean Girls” is based on a real life story? It is about rela-tional aggression, a bullying behavior that affects a person’s social acceptance.

Ms. Beth Harrington-Scheckel’s human relations class is doing a unit on relation-al aggression. This class is mostly being called the “Means Girls” class, because it is a real life thing.

Many students were not aware of the class as the “Mean Girls” class. They fig-ured it was just another unit, until they started to realize how relational aggression is everywhere around us. Natalie Shank, who is attending the class, said “finding out about how serious human aggression is,” is

Real life plasticsNew ‘Mean Girls’

class teaches about

relational aggression

Ali Cavanagh

Features Writer

a main concern of hers.Both girls and boys are aggressive.

Boys, however, use physical aggression, while girls use relational aggression. Boys use bullying and taunts and usually end up getting physically aggressive. Girls mostly use relation aggression: lies, rumors, se-crets, betrayal, bullying, gossiping, taunts, harassment, exclusion and ignoring.

“I think it is out there definitely,” said Ms. Scheckel. “ I think it is in every school.”

Most relational aggression is light, but some can be serious. Sometimes students feel threatened to leave school, or not come to school, and the relational aggression can cause depression and sometimes suicide.

Many teachers see relational aggression in their own classroom.“I see it more sub-tly,” Mrs.Scheckel said.

Some students who experience rela-tional aggression may feel left out, lose friends, have difficulty experiencing in-timate relationships later in life, become depressed, have suicidal thoughts, or may seek revenge.

FFA chapter heads to National Convention

Gossip girls. Ms. Beth Scheckel teaches students such as Jenna Blondell how to

avoid the relational aggression around the school. Photo by Alli Cavanagh.

they get too much sleep, but others pay more attention if they get more.”

Others believe that sleep is not a bad thing. “I don’t think you can get enough sleep, I think sleep is good!” Fox said.

“If you’re active, you are not tired, but if you aren’t active, you get tired,” Hicks said.

“That is why school should be more in-teractive.”

YEARBOOKSWILL BE SOLD DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER FOR $40.

YOU MAY ALSO PURCHASE YOUR YEARBOOK ON-LINE THROUGH THE SCHOOL WEB SITE.

DON’T MISS OUT ON THE HAPPENINGS OF THE YEAR.

PUBLICATIONS CLASS WILL ALSO HOLD ITS ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN IN DECEMBER. DISPLAY ADS, SALUTE ADS AND

PARENT ADS MAY BE PURCHASED THEN. IF YOU WANT TO MAKE SURE A PICTURE OR MESSAGE GETS INTO THE YEARBOOK,

PURCHASE A SALUTE AD.

Lustrous new floor

brightens up the gym

New role, familiar face

Dakotah Doolittle

Staff Writer

Katie Dorpinghaus

Editor in Chief

ON CAMPUSThe Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 2 7

“It has a lot more traction than the old floor,” Coach Kurtz said. “When we prac-ticed last year, it looked like we were wear-ing skates: we slipped all over the place.” The boys’ team has also appreciated the change “It’s brighter and easier to jump off of the new floor,” captain, Scotty Burke said. “And it has more cool designs.” Questions about whether the gym floor should be used for roller-skating in P.E. have sparked some controversy. “I don’t like it,” Burke said. “It scratches up the floor too much. It’ll make the floor as bad as last year.” “It makes me mad,” Jen Keitel said. “We just got a new floor and I can already see the marks from the roller-skates.” Others disagree. “It doesn’t really bother me,” Hunter said. “The marks are just a sign of our warriorism.” All roller-skating does is make marks in the wax.” Mr. Cook says. “It doesn’t dam-age the floor.” The school will also be performing more maintenance on the new floor. “During Christmas break we will re-wax the floor,” Mr. Cook said. “We used to do it every year, but with the construction in the last few years, we decided it wouldn’t do any good.”

Slipping and Sliding. Students scooter across the new gym floor during P.E. class. Students have been rollerskating and using scooters on the new floor, which has

marked it up and sparked complaints about scratches. Photo by Katie Minick.

Basketball season has officially begun, and brought with it hours of conditioning and thousands of sprints. But this year, players’ blood, sweat and tears will drip onto a brand new floor. The old floor, which was installed in 1957, was ripped up this summer, and as fast as the floorboards were torn up, they were snatched by people looking for keep-sakes. “We were thinking of auctioning off the floorboards for a fundraiser,” athletic di-rector, Mr. Brent Cook said. “But people just came in and took them from the dump-ster.” At practices, the new floor has impressed players and coaches alike. “The new floor is way shinier and nicer,” Alex Hunter said. “Now they just need to add a JumboTron to the scoreboard.” Girls’ coach, Mark Kurtz agrees. “The floor has brightened the whole gym,” he said. “In practice we can see everything better. Hopefully, it will inspire us to play better.

For many years the head coach of Cen-tral High School’s wrestling team has been Kurt Kreiter. But last year he stepped down from the head coaching position. So the de-bate was who is going to be the new head coach? Finally, and after much debate former assistant coach Edwin Vance was chosen.

People are sad to see Coach Kre-iter leave but are exited to see how the

New coach. Coach Ed Vance oversees Chris Cambell, Logan Brundage and other wrestlers in his first week of practice as head coach. Coach Vance replaced Coach

Kurt Kreiter who stepped down after 20 years. Photo By Renee Christiansen.

Vance takes over reins of wrestling team

new season will go. “ I think it’s awe-some, Vance is a beast, its a good change a nice change.” said Dustin Fox.

“Well my first year of varsity was with Kreiter but I like Vance as a coach so i think it was a good choice.” said Nick Jewell.

Greyson Doolittle agrees. “I think Vance will be a good head coach,” Doo-little said. “But there’s one main thing that makes Kreiter better, and that’s experience as head coach, which will come in time.”

Coach Vance, however, is ready for the job. “ I was an assistant coach for six years,” Coach Vance said. ”We are doing some off-season wrestling in the spring, making sure all equipment is here, find-ing ways to promote the club, and trying to get more kids to go out for Sabertooth.”

Although being a head coach requires much work and dedication he is not afraid to make the sacrifices needed to be the head coach of Central’s wrestling team.

Mary BroadfootStaff Writer

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Chas Cahill! Luke McGuire watches Chas leap into a

mountain of leaves during the FFA’s Rake N’ Run. Photo by Renee Christiansen.

Rake and RunFFA members donate

time to rake leaves

Forty high school student volunteers: enthusiastic, 22 leaf-covered yards: plenti-ful, 6 hours: hard work, 1 community ser-vice project: priceless. The DeWitt Central FFA’s annual fall service project was once again a success. On a chilly Saturday in early November, a group of FFA members got together at nine in the morning to rake lawns for needy people around DeWitt. “The Rake N’ Run is a good service project for us,” said Mr. Dan Smicker, DeWitt Central’s FFA advi-sor. “Kids need to be taught to give back.” “An FFA member came up with this idea five or six years ago,” Mr. Smicker said, “after that, we took it and ran.” Central’s FFA officer team contacted local churches

and compiled a list of elderly and disabled people in the community that could benefit from this project. Once the date was set, FFA members quickly agreed to help out. Many members had friends helping, and others were asked by Mr. Smicker, result-ing in a large turnout of volunteers. “It’s the right thing to do,” A.J. McNeil said, “and by volunteering, we give back to the community and make it better.” The people that were helped can’t get out and rake their lawns themselves, so they are very grateful that someone will make their yards look nice for the fall. “They were surprised and wanted to pay us,” McNeil said, “we didn’t take the money, but (their appreciation) made us feel good. We did take the lemonade and cookies that they gave us though.” At the end of the day, 40 truckloads of yard waste were hauled to the city compost area outside of town and 40 FFA members were worn out from a long day of physi-cal labor. But next year they will do it all again because as A.J. McNeil said, “it’s fun and it’s a good thing to do.”

New Moon has finally — last Friday, Nov. 20 — come out. In the second installment of Stephenie Meyer’s amazingly successful Twilight series, the romance between mortal and vampire soars to a new level, as Bella Swan dives deeper into the mysteries of a supernatural world she strongly desires to become part of, only to find herself in greater danger than ever before.

In the book, Bella has her 18th birthday, a date she didn’t want to come. After an incident at her party, Edward Cullen and his family leave the town of Forks, Wash., trying to protect Bella from the dangers that are in their world.

Heartbroken Bella sleepwalks through her senior year of high school, numb and feeling completely alone. She discovers that Edward’s image comes to her whenever she puts herself in jeopardy.

With more vampires, werewolves, motorcycles, Italy and cliff-diving, cast and crew had their work cut out for them. With more of the passion, action and suspense that made Twilight a global sensation, the movie version of New Moon brings back Hollywood’s hottest love teams.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, respectively, bring back their roles as

Hi, My name is Andie. I’m a senior and I’m a member of Pubs Class. I enjoy hanging out with my friends and going to all the sporting events at school. You can write to me in care of Pubs Class about anything from what classes to take, to if you should ask out your crush.

I’m very easy to talk to and I’d love to help anyone who needs a little outside advice. Drop off your anonymous letters to the office and your letter will be answered in the next issue.

Can’t wait to hear from you.

Sincerely,Andie

Andie

Columnist

Alex Barr

Features Writer

Super Fan, another Twi-hard. Chelsea Garton enjoys watching previews online for the new movie New Moon that came out Nov. 20. Photo by Renee Christiansen.

‘With more vampires,

werewolves, motor-

cycles, Italy and cliff-

diving, cast and crew

had their work cut

out for them.’

$VN�$QGLH

Melanie Saunders

Reviews Editor

Riches. Jewels. Good fortune. All are temptations faced by everyone, but how far is one willing to go to achieve those stan-dards?

In the movie Fame, five teenagers at-tending the most prestigious performing arts high school in New York City are fol-lowed throughout their four years of high school as they learn life lessons about greed, power and sticking to their guns about their beliefs.

The film starts out with an intense day of nerve-racking auditions in all areas of per-forming arts, such as acting, singing, film and instrumentation, in order to be part of the incredible school. Out of the thousands of potential candidates, only 200 people are chosen to be a part of the freshmen class.

It continues to follow these students through tough times with families, making new friends, finally breaking out of their comfort zone to find out who they are as a person and what their destiny in life is.

The plot was a little scatterbrained and slightly confusing at times to follow, but all in all a good movie to see with the family.

Inspiring and moving, it made me want to get up and dance in the theater, but I didn’t want to mortify my poor little sister who was viewing it with me.

There were all of the old classic songs from the original, such as the tune which gives the movie its title, Fame. I predict this will not be the last time we’ll see some of the fresh faces featured in the film.

The breakout star by far was Asher Book, who has the voice of an angel and acting skills to match, so look out for him in the near future.

This is definitely the type of film you would want to see over and over, just be-cause of the realistic nature of it.

The Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 28 REVIEWS

‘Twi-hards’ infatuated

with sequel

New Moon

"

Renee Christiansen

Graphic Design

Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. Hunk actor Taylor Lautner co-stars as Jacob Black, a member of the mysterious Quileute tribe.

When asked about the event, Sadie Banowetz said she was excited about seeing the movie sequel.

“I’ve read Twilight and seen the movie,” Banowetz said. “They’re both so good, but the book is much more detailed. I know the sequel New Moon is going to be great. I’m a huge Twilight fan, everything about it is just so addicting. In my opinion Jacob Black is so hot! I’d rather choose him than Edward.”

Madeline Wright also plans on seeing New Moon with her foreign exchange student Marta Goldona. Marta knows all about Twilight,” Wright said. “She’s read all the books and is excited as everyone else.”

After seeing the film, Chelsea Garton

was pleased. “I liked the movie of New Moon because it follows the book a lot better than the Twilight movie did.” she said. “The actors were really good once again.”

Overall, the movie did extremely well in the box office, because of the “ T w i - h a r d s . ” A c c o r d i n g to Web site associatedcontent.com, New Moon broke the previous midnight box office record set by Harry Potter. The sales for the midnight showing totaled $26.3

million dollars. While the Twilight sequel recieved

dismal reviews from critics, the sales seem to beg to differ. Many feel that the critics aren’t the target audience, anyway.

At the end of the movie I was definitely pleased, although it was more than two hours long. This is definitely a great movie to see with friends and family.

New Fame a fresh take

on vintage

musical

Katie Minick

Features Writer

Mr. H responds to ‘ransom’ note for duck, cow

As if Mr. Hans Hinrichsen getting his Christmas tree stolen every year wasn’t bad enough, now his duck and cow have come up missing. Three students were respon-sible for the disappearance of the animals. These students wish to remain unnamed so they will be called Fred, Jane and Miko.

Mr. Hinrichsen has had these animals for many years. “Years ago the duck was the hall pass,” he said. “I decided to retire the duck but people started giving me more ducks.”

Mr. Hinrichsen has a much different purpose for the cow. “Students put home-work anywhere and expect me to find it. “Put it under the cow” is the standard an-swer to “Where do I put my homework?” Mr. Hinrichsen said.

The duck thieves hoped for a hilari-ous reaction. “I wanted him to cry,” Jane said. “I think he knows I stole it but I’m not sure.”

“I just wanted him to be very depressed,” Miko said.

Mr. Hinrichsen’s reaction was very

different. “Here we go again,” was all he could say to describe himself.

“I thought it would be funny to take his precious cow,” Fred said. “He always teas-es me so this is my way to get revenge.”

The ransom note was also just a little extra. It stated that Mr. Hinrichsen was to run up and down the senior hallway singing Party in the USA in his Hawaiian shirt.

Sadly, he waited until class had begun and he only stayed by his classroom. “I just wanted to see him do something stupid and obnoxious,” said Fred.

Unfortunately, Mr. Hinrichsen’s ani-mals have not returned even though he gave in to the ransom note.

“I did what it demanded and my cow still doesn’t return,” Hinrichsen said.

Why steal these animals? “I did it just because I wanted to,” said Jane. Jane and Miko were partners in crime in the theft of the duck, while Fred worked alone.

“I thought it was cute and squeaky,” said Miko. “It was all basically for com-edy,” said Fred. “I thought it would be funny to watch Mr. Hinrichsen give in to our demands.”

It wasn’t a tricky process to get their hands on these prizes. “I put it in my sweat-shirt during class,” Jane said. “We used the

buddy system,” Miko said. Fred obtained the cow in a different way. “When Mr. Hin-richsen was out of the room, I snatched and grabbed,” Fred said.

Many people believe these criminals have regrets about their actions, yet, they don’t.

Will his cow and duck be given back soon? Only time can tell. “I have no re-grets,” Miko said.

His end of the bargain. Mr. Hinrichsen

sings Party in the USA to retrieve his sto-len animals. Photo by Katie Minick.

9MUSICAL REVIEWThe Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 2

Bree DunkelAssistant Editor

Oklahoma! was quite a hit. The seats were sold out all three days the musical was performed at the Operahouse Theater in DeWitt.

The acting was great and the dancing was pretty impressive. I was especially fond of the Persian accent of Ali Hakim, the peddler, played by Dakotah Doolittle and all the character’s southern accents. The main characters were natural and looked as if they were born to be on stage.

The love story between Laurey (Audrey Machovec) and Curly (Fletcher Paulsen)

Oklahoma! is

more than OK

Dancin’ at the Box Social. Front Row: Joe Slapnika, Megan Salyars, Lucas Blondell, Darcie Farrel and Seth Johnson. Back Row: Erin Dorpinghaus, Alex Engelmen,

Jasmine Kong, Austin Daniels, Mariah Driscoll, Andy Risinger, Grant Housman, Natalie Smith, Bryan Connell, Carly Bauman and Tommy Petersen. Connell said his

grandmother’s cousin was a cowboy in the original film. “It took us two months to synchronize and polish this really hard dance.”

took main screen while the love triangle played by Amanda Benson, Dakotah Doo-little and Bryar Bloomer won the crowd over with their liveliness and humor.

The vocals of the men blew me away and the ladies’ vocals were fantastic. The acrobatic skills toward the end of the musi-cal required a lot of strength and skill. So kudos to Bryar Bloomer for being able to flip girls over his shoulder 6 times in one weekend.

And kudos to Amanda Benson and Han-nah Harlson for having that much faith in Bryar to not drop them on their faces.

The rivalry between the Cowboys and the Farmers added to the overall wittiness and charisma of the musical.

It’s safe to say Oklahoma! was much more than OK.

Farmer And The Cowman Should Be Friends (right). Aunt Eller was played by Kristen Dierickx.

Lonely Room (far right). Mike Carr as

Judd sings of loneliness.

People Will Say We’re In Love (left). Fletcher Paulsen as Curly and Audrey

Machovec as Laurey share a dance.

All Er Nothin’ (above). Bryar Bloomer as Will Parker and Amanda Benson as

Ado Annie perform a song together.

All photos by Melanie Saunders.

10 OPINION The Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 2

Katie Dorpinghaus & Bree Dunkel

Sharing some family love. Derek Fox, Dustin Fox, Creigton Fox, Josh Fox, and their cousin Mr. Matt Ohnemus, history teacher, show how loving families can have fun on Thanksgiving. Photo by Katie Dorpinghaus.

Thanksgiving is... warm turkey on a cold day, family football games in the backyard, three days off school to spend with your loved ones, and eating so much you can’t fit in your pants.

Unless you’re a wrestler. Then Thanks-giving is watching everyone else eat twice their weight in mashed potatoes, stuffing, and buns as you look on with sincere ha-tred sipping your glass of water in your three layers of Barney-purple sweats.

Thanksgiving brings families together at the start of the turkey and... rips them apart by the pumpkin pie. At this point the only thing you are probably giving thanks for is that no one has cut your uncle’s head

How to survive Thanksgiving off with the carving knife.

Football is a Thanksgiving tradition for most families. Watching, playing, cussing out the idiots on the television who don’t know how to play the game and admiring Grandpa as he jumps and screams at the television without spilling a single drop of his late-afternoon beer.

For months in advance, we count down the days until Thanksgiving break when we can have a few days of serenity.

Until Mom wakes you up at 6 a.m. on the first day of break yelling at you to load up into the family van all the food she spent hours preparing. Suddenly your peaceful alone time has been transformed into family hell with 30 of your youngest cousins running around like chickens with their heads cut off telling you about how they found a hair in Aunt Marge’s green bean casserole.

Still, every year, when Thanksgiv-ing rolls around, we get caught up in the hubbub of holiday spirit. We choke down Grandma’s fruitcake, get three hours of

sleep, fight for the last Wii at Target and put up with annoying relatives.

In the end, no matter how dysfunctional

Fahrenheit 451 is the story of Guy Montag, a fireman living in the near fu-ture. In this story, the future seems very wrong. The firemen don’t stop fires; they start them. Their jobs are to burn and destroy all books, burning anyone who gets in their way. Technology has gotten out of control, taking over the world and the way of life for many, if not all, people who live in that society. In this story, the future is very differ-ent. All books are illegal and must be burned, and that includes anything that gets in the way of their being burned. Books have to be burned because peo-ple started getting angry and offended by what the authors said. It’s censor-ship gone wrong. One of the firemen is a man named Guy Montag. He has never really given the world around him much thought, that is until he meets his new neighbor, a young girl named Clarisse, who has a very particular outlook on life. She sees the little things, like what the rain tastes like, and she sees how the world changed. With three little words, “Are you happy?” She makes Montag see what he has been missing. This sends Montag down a dangerous path of se-crets and lies as he tries to find what is missing from his life. He puts not only himself in danger, but also the ones he loves. Most characters in this story are life-less and stupid, not noticing the world around them. They are too addicted to television. They are too busy with their lives to notice they’re being controlled by their own government. They don’t notice that their own children hate them, or that they’re angry at the world. In this world, all the kids are violent

Emalee ThulGuest Columnist

Are you scared of the future? Fahren-heit 451 will confirm your thoughts of the future if you are scared. Guy Montag is a fireman whose job it is to start fires — fires that burn books — and he enjoys his job. Books are viewed as evil and they must be censored. Ray Bradbury wrote this book in the ear-ly ’50s, and it was supposed to take place in the future United States. The future he wrote about is meant for now. This book contains tons of diverse, figurative lan-guage and complex writing, but there is not as much straightforward action. There were many themes to this book. One was the use of technology. Montag’s wife, Mildred, gets consumed by technol-ogy. What could happen is exaggerated, but the point expressed is good. Technology, if

It’s not about censorship, it’s a warning for all of us

Boring in a nutshell:3 out of 10 stars

used in the wrong way, can make your life worthless and confusing. Mildred cares only about her tele-vision shows. She thinks they are real life, and she ends up talking to walls. Much of what she says makes no sense: “‘Don’t get excited, I’m trying to think.’ She laughed an odd little laugh that went up and up.” There are a couple spots of good ac-tion in the book, but there isn’t enough. The rest of the book is basically dia-logue and random about nothing. Bor-ing! The lack of action makes the book hard to get interested in. The only high adrenaline spot of ac-tion was when Montag is chased by po-lice through the streets and alleys. You can tell what is going through Montag’s mind, and you can feel the rush of blood through Montag’s veins — and yours: “He ran steadily for six blocks in the alley and then the alley opened out into a wide empty thoroughfare ten lanes wide. It seemed like a boatless river frozen there...” If only there were more spots in the book like that. The writing style of the book was what really bored me. It was hard to follow. There seemed to be a ton of metaphors and sometimes you couldn’t tell if the part you were reading was happening in the book or if it was a metaphor: “He was a thing of brush and liquid eye, of fur and muzzle and hoof, he was a thing of horn and blood that would smell of autumn if you bled it out on the ground.” Can someone please tell me what that means? This book is definitely not meant to entertain the reader, but rather to in-form. If Bradbury had included more action, my rating would have been bumped to a 5 out of 10. One more bad thing about this book is the ending. It didn’t really come to a conclusion; it just stopped. That’s it. Bradbury should have kept going and explained what happened to the world. I recommend Fahrenheit 451 only to teachers and hardcore science fiction readers.

Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 challenges ninth-grade readers

Learning about Big Brother. Freshmen (front) Hannah Macumber, Emily Kram-er, (middle) Junior Thomas, Cameron Donovan, (back) Shelby Carlson and Cara Melvin celebrate Bradbury’s book. Photo by Ms. Liz Dague.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ms. Liz Dague’s fresh-man language arts class has been studying Ray

Bradbury’s book Fahrenheit 451.

Here are two essays reflecting differing opinions of the

science fiction book.

and angry. It’s okay to kill people. It hap-pens all the time. People die and they’re forgotten, their memories are too painful to think about, so let’s burn them, too, char-acters think, Better not to think about them and be happy rather than be sad. Ray Bradbury wrote this story as a warn-ing that we must not become like the char-acters in this book. He believes technology can be dangerous if not used in the right way. Look at our lives now: We are liter-ally controlled by technology. Try going at least one day without using technology, like no music, television, Internet, nothing. It’s hard just thinking about it, isn’t it? Al-most impossible, it seems, but it isn’t. Sometimes we just need a break from everything and it helps to take in what we have and consider what we really don’t need. We need to focus on what we really need, not what we want. Do we really need that new big screen television, or does our old one work just as well? That’s what we need to think about when we go out and see all those new televisions, computers, phones, and the newest iPod. Bradbury wrote this book as a warning. He didn’t write it about censoring books; he wrote it as a warning about how our lives could be if we let our lives get con-trolled by technology. This warning should be taken as such. I recommend this book to everyone. Ev-eryone should read this book at least once. It makes you think not only about your own life, but also about our own government.

our families are, we’re still a tiny bit thank-ful they are with us to celebrate.

Until Christmas break.

Hunter IlgGuest Columnist

A click away. Zach Rowland fills out an online college application. College appli-cations have become easier through online forms. Photo by Renee Christiansen.

Melanie Saunders Movie Review Editor

ON CAMPUS 11The Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 2

Renee ChristiansenStaff Writer

Seniors have tough decisions ahead

Each year the class of seniors must de-cide what they will pursue in their next years of life. Many seniors have already made the decision to go on to higher learn-ing at some form of college. But deciding where to go and actually applying are very tedious tasks.

The college application process starts long before a student’s senior year. Many students have been thinking about where they want to attend since they were little kids.

“I’ve always planned on going to Iowa State,” said senior Kristen Dierickx. “I hope I get accepted because I don’t know where else I am going to apply.”

Even if a students are unsure about which college they want to go to, most take the ACTs sometime in their high school years. And many students go on college visits to see which campus would be the “best fit” for them.

At the beginning of senior year, most students begin deciding where they want to apply. There are many factors to consider when choosing a college. It is important

to consider your major, interests, distance from home, cost, sports, and other extra-curricular activities. Both Carrrie Demmon and Easten Lovelace chose Iowa State be-cause of its superior engineering program.

“There are good options for my major if I would change my mind on what I wanted to do,” said Lovelace. “And my mentor goes there so he has helped me choose.”

Once a student has decided which schools to apply to, then it is simply a mat-ter of filling out the application and sending in your information. Well, it sounds sim-ple. Most applications take some thought to make sure they are filled out correctly, and all of them take time.

Applying to many colleges is a good idea if a student is unsure where he or she wants to go, but application fees can get expensive. “I apply to all the schools that offer free applications,” said Lovelace. “ I have nothing to lose.”

There are other problems that students run into when applying to the colleges of their dreams. “There were some problems with transferring our dual credit courses,” Carrie Demmon said.

Students hope that the hard work they put into their college courses in high school can be transferred to the school they choose.

Conference champs. District champs. Fifth at state. Not bad for a cross country team that lost Frank Futselaar, district champ and foreign exchange student of last years’ team, and went without their top senior, Nolan Knudson, for part of the season. So you may be wondering what made this season so successful.

“I made it my goal to run varsity this season,” sophomore and first-time varsity member Matt Volkens said. “I tried to run up front with the varsity during practice and give it my all.”

They were always pushing each other to a higher level with the goal of better times

Pace to the finish. With a nice, steady speed, Nolan Knudson keeps opponents in view as he nears the three-mile mark. Knudson was the first Saber to finish at districts, bringing home a second place. Photo by Wes Demmon.

and places pushing them to work harder. “As soon as Matt (Volkens) got on varsity, I started to pick it up,” Jordan Murray said. “I didn’t want to be the only sophomore not on varsity.”

A little luck, the right mix of runners, and most of all, a lot of hard work and motivation went into the triumph of the team, and earned them a coveted spot in the state meet for the third year in a row.

Only three teams out of the district advanced to state, and the Sabers blew everyone out of the water earning a team score of 53 points, while second place, Marion, earned 79 points.

The Saber boys also came out of districts with all five of its scored runners placing in the top 20, an incredible feat. Two runners finished the race in the top 10: Nolan Knudson finished second with

Show off the banner. Proudly displaying their brand new state qualifier flag, Nick Jewell, Ryan Hamby, Matt Zimmer, Ben Niemann, Matt Volkens, Jordan Murray and Nolan Knudson are all smiles as they officially become district champions. The team ended up fifth at state. Photo by Wes Demmon.

Bookin’ it to statea time of 18:35, and Ryan Hamby placed fifth with a time of 18:45.

At state, the team had five returning members with state experience, but it was a whole new ordeal for two of them.

“The worst part of state was the anticipation before the race, like hearing how competitive it is,” Volkens said.

But nerves didn’t play a part in the race results, because for the first time since the 2001 state champion team, the boys came out with a top ten finish, finishing 5th out of 15 teams in the 3A race. All seven of the runners ran their best race of the season, and some, like Ben Niemann, cut as much as two minutes off their district race time.

“They did as well as I expected,” Coach Jim Hetrick said. “I didn’t see all the runners come in at the finish, so it was a nice surprise when results were posted.”

Chris CarberGuest Columnist

If you can take a step back and think, do it right now and remember a time. Not just any time, but one that should stay forever locked in our hearts with wonder and in-trigue: the first Thanksgiving. Who cares about that, you might ask. The truth, though, is that the first Thanks-giving did more than bring relatives to-gether. It brought more than just pies and stuffing that no one really knew was food. Thanksgiving, more than now, for our pil-grims was a matter of life or death. Liter-ally, without those weird looking cranber-ries, the first to stand and think of America as a new life and frontier would have lost to the long winter ahead. What the pilgrims went through, and the events that took place, aren’t an everyday occurrence. Pastor Curt Girod of DeWitt’s own Cornerstone Church understands this. He might not be able to take the place the Native Americans did for the pilgrims for the community, but he is willing to try. “Sometimes prayer needs a push from a guiding hand,” says Pastor Curt when I asked him why he tries for DeWitt’s proud people, “and time comes when I’m certain-ly willing to be that hand.” November church activities include the locally organized Royal Rangers group. Thanksgiving dinner, sermon, and dona-tions to supporting missionaries. Big deal, one could say. They’d be absolutely right to say it. Some of us wouldn’t lift a fin-ger to help another, even as far as opening the door for a stranger. Pastor Curt never pointed this out, but I honestly wondered if the thought had even crossed his mind. “I was never told to help out,” Pastor Curt added. “I was never given a list of things needing to be done. I knew I could, and I knew I wanted to.”

Lending a hand

Cannon ball. Clinton swimmers stand and watch fellow teammates finish races Fri-day, Nov. 20, during meet-the-team night. Four members of the team are swimmers from Central. Photo by Nate Cypher.

Bryan ConnellSports Editor

Nichole HaackOn Campus Editor

These cats aren’t afraid of the water

Four swimmers brave water to compete for Clinton River Kings

Strrrrrrike! Allen Mumm winds up to throw the ball down the lane at the DeWitt Lanes where the participants tried out and will practice. Many students who joined the bowling team are already on a team at the lanes in DeWitt, but the school spon-sored team adds new opportunities for them. Photo by Nichole Haack.

When it comes to sports at Central High

School, thoughts go straight to football,

volleyball, basketball, track and cross

country.

Central has begun to expand its horizons

in the last few years with a soccer team,

swimming and now school bowling.

Starting this year, there will be a boys’

and girls’ bowling team, something stu-

dents at CHS have been trying to get for

years.

Many kids who already bowl have been

waiting for an opportunity like this.

“I am planning on going out for school

bowling because I like to bowl, and I am

already in a league,” Cassie Frahm said,

“It’s also a good way to make new friends

and improve your skills.”

Austin Daniels also plans on going out

for bowling. “I’m going out because it’s a

sport that I enjoy, and it’s my senior year.

I’m very excited for the season to start,”

he said.

“Bowling is a good opportunity to earn

scholarships, and it’s something new to

try,” Frahm added.

Lucas Blondell is also planning on at-

tending signups.

Everywhere pools are being drained and

swimsuits put away. To most, the cold air

has pushed away any thoughts of an after-

noon swim. For high school swimmers all

over the state, however, swimming has just

begun.

Although the only indoor swimming

pool in DeWitt is barely big enough to fit an

afternoon class of adults, Central has four

competitive swimmers. Every day at 2:30

p.m., the four get out of class and drive 20

minutes to Clinton High School.

Cory Cypher is swimming his second

year, but Ben Niemann, Garrett Delaney

and Matt Zimmer are starting their first-

ever season.

“This is the hardest thing ever,” Zim-

mer said. “Wrestling is nothing compared

to what we do.”

All the swimmers agree on the diffi-

culty of swimming. To start practice, they

must swim a 1000-yard warm-up. For an

average day, they must do a 10,000-yard

workout.

“Even coaches agree that this is the

hardest sport,” Cypher said.

Clinton High School’s track coach, cross

country coach and swim coach, Albert

Hayton, told the swimmers that running is

nothing compared to swimming. Practice is

so hard; Niemann hopes he doesn’t drown

during one. Luckily for Niemann, Delaney

is a lifeguard.

With the season starting soon, all the

swimmers are excited to get going. Cypher

is especially ready to get back in the water.

After starting last season on the JV squad,

he swam his way to the top. By season’s

end he was either starting or anchoring his

relays.

“I can’t wait,” Cypher said. “I think we

have a chance for state this year.”

Cypher has his goals in sight, but for the

three new swimmers, everything is new.

“I think you should go out for school

bowling even if you haven’t bowled be-

fore,” Blondell said. “It’s a more relaxing

and stress-free sport, and it’s still competi-

tive, but not on the same level as contact

sports.”

Allen Mumm, a freshman at Central,

agrees with Blondell. “Bowling is a really

fun and intense sport at the same time,”

said Mumm. “If you haven’t bowled be-

fore, you might as well give it a try. You

might be really good at it.

“I don’t know what I am going to do this

year,” Zimmer said. “I plan on swimming

freestyle.” Niemann and Delaney are also

unsure where they will end up.

Another new experience for the swim-

mers is swimming for another school. For

the most part, everyone is fine with the

Central swimmers.

“They are cool and funny,” Zimmer

said. “But some of them are really cocky.”

For the four, nothing is really different

in swimming for another school. However

when they look down, they see red and

black, not purple and gold.

Central bowlers are ready to roll outCentral adds bowling team to abundant list of winter sports

Sign ups were held Friday, Nov. 13, at

DeWitt Lanes.

Among other students signing up for

bowling were Caleb Beer, Matt Walker,

Derek Fox, Sam Biggart, Chelsie Macum-

ber, Preston Frick, Lucas Perdieu.

Strong ’til the end. Cory Cypher reaches out for the wall while finishing his race. He is one of Central’s swimmers partici-pating for Clinton High School this win-ter. Photo by Nate Cypher.

The Purple Onion

November 28, 2009

Vol. 23, No. 212 SPORTS