Lack of Interest Cancels Winter Formal

by: Sydney Allen

Winter formal “Trapped Inside a Snowglobe” should have been held on Friday, December 4 from seven to ten, but was cancelled because not enough students bought tickets in advance. Tickets went on sale Monday, November 29 during both lunches.

Roughly one hundred tickets were sold, according to the event’s organizers. Mr. Goto and the Student Council decided to can­cel the dance on Friday because of how low the fund was and the low ticket sales. Student Council would have lost too much money on the DJ and decorations spon­soring the dance for Saturday.

Junior class president Nick Butler cited the administration’s lack of optimism for why the dance was cancelled. Based on their predicitions and recent sales, it was considered a “financial burden.”

“We don’t like to be cancelling events, but things don’t always work out the way you want them to,” said Student Council adviser Mr. Goto.

Students were not thrilled when they heard about the can­cellation of the dance. Seniors such as Heather Pechyno were frustrated. Pechyno said, “Winter Formal is supposed to be the fund­raiser for our prom--and they an­nounced it was cancelled through Facebook before they announced it at school.”

The decision to cancel the dance was questioned by the stu­dents who decided to buy their tickets at the door.

“Like forty of my friends were going to buy tickets at the door,” said senior Karen Jeffers.

Math teacher and adviser for the class of 2012 Jeff Evans jus­tified Student Council’s decision. He explained that Student Council decided against taking a gamble on how many students would buy their tickets at the door. The number of students expected to attend the dance would not have been sufficient to raise the neces­sary funds required to put on the dance.

“It’s not something we can base our decision off of [students planning to buy their tickets at the door], we need to know for sure; that’s a lot of money we would’ve been out of if they didn’t show up,” said English teacher Janelle Pritts.

Lack of ticket sales and student interest cancels
winter formal.

Students and staff feel they have missed out on the opportunity to experience a fun social event in high school. “The winter formal being canceled was a shame, be­cause I remember my winter for­mal when I was in high school. I had a lot of fun. Although many students were disappointed, can­celling the dance may have been a good thing since many students decided they weren’t going in the first place,” said English Teacher Jeanie Duncan.

Some students planned well in advance for what they thought would be their chance to wear nice clothes or enjoy it with their friends.

“Winter Formal being can­celed really sucks, because I had plans on going with an amazing guy, and a bunch of my friends,” said freshman Amber Shepherd.

Although the Winter Formal was canceled, the winter assembly was still held Friday, December 3 during third hour.

Various clubs and sports par­ticipated in the assembly. Street theatre performed a sequence from the musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, and Twisted Legacy danced to Michael Jackson’s hit “Beat it”. Canyon Fusion Dance Company, the school band, the color guard, and Willow Canyon’s varsity cheer­leaders performed as well.

“The dance being cancelled was a bummer. But there’s al­ways next year’s Winter Formal, and the Black Out Dance coming up soon, so I guess it wasn’t the end of the world,” said sopho­more Saydee Black.

Trash Can Bomb

by: Marcus Dudas

A bomb, placed in a trash can next to the gate near the caf­eteria, exploded during fourth hour lunch on Friday, November 5. School policy dictates that the student’s name be withheld from publication, but there were wit­nesses who were willing to relate what had happened.

Seniors Mallory and Melanie Koch were not expecting to aid the criminal’s endeavor when they spoke to the student respon­sible for the incident minutes be­fore the bomb went off.

[Melanie] Koch said, “I was sitting there at lunch, and [this person] came up to me and asked me if [he/she] could have my al­most empty water bottle. I said ‘sure, don’t do anything rash’, and [he/she] came back later with my water bottle, and said [he/she] didn’t do anything to it.

Then we saw [him/her] throw a water bottle filled with a blue liquid into a trash can. About two minutes later there was a giant boom and blue smoke was com­ing out of it.” She thought her statement to the culprit was iron­ic, considering what took place shortly after.

Nobody was harmed, but the student was eventually caught.

However, another explo­sive was set off during lunch on Wednesday, December 8, during fifth hour.

Diabetes and Cancer Walk

by: Lacee Lindsey

The Juvenile Diabetes and Breast Cancer walk held within the last two months did not draw a crowd as big as the orga­nizers had expected.

Health Occupation Students of America, otherwise known as HOSA, held a new event to benefit another humanitarian organiza­tion; the walk was for Juvenile Diabetes. HOSA’s goal is to help inform and raise money for a dif­ferent disease every month.

HOSA president senior Oregon McDiarmid has been in HOSA for three years and hosted this year’s Juvenile Diabetes walk on Friday, December 3.

“It was an inspirational move­ment in which I [could] help the community,” said junior Ashton Leo. “It was a lot of fun raising money for these unfortunate chil­dren,” said McDiarmid. “As part of HOSA we find it really im­portant to raise awareness about diabetes.

Willow’s Walk for Breast Cancer was held on Saturday, November 20. Counselor Alicia Vitacco hosted the annual breast cancer walk.

Twisted Legacy performed for the attendees. English teacher Maren Wenz, who brought her daughter Cady and her dog Lilly, was disappointed by the lack of support. She went around the track thirteen times. “I love that our school is taking such altru­istic action to help others in so many different routes,” said Mrs. Wenz.

Teenage Epidemic: Clinical Depression

by: Alexis Oakman

In the United States today, an estimated ten percent of the teenage population suffers from what experts are calling a new epidemic: depression.

In a recent study done by the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), statistics show that at any one time, ten to fifteen percent of teens suffer from de­pression, while five percent suffer from major depression. They also found that as many as twenty per­cent will experience some type of depression before they reach adulthood.

Sophomore Danielle Padilla, said, “Depression is where you get so sad or upset with yourself that you just stop caring about other things; you lose interest for things you once enjoyed or peo­ple you used to go out and have fun with.”

Depression goes beyond feel­ings of sadness. Freshman Nicole Rady said, “I have a friend who has depression, but instead of get­ting all sad and lonesome he just gets angry a lot more than neces­sary and excludes himself from the world all the time.”

“It’s a very serious issue; can come from problems at home, drama, bullying,” said WCHS counselor Flora Collett.

The NIMH states that depres­sion can come in many forms: from feeling sadness, hopeless­ness, worthlessness, or pessi­mism, to developing bad eating and sleeping habits.

Teen depression affects more than grades and classes, though. For some, substance abuse, risky sexual behaviors, and, in worse cases, suicidal tendencies begin to manifest. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among teenagers.

Ninety percent of teenagers who have committed suicide suf­fered from a mental illness, and untreated depression is one of those illnesses. Having depres­sion as a teenager makes a person twelve times more likely to at­tempt suicide.

Depression can ruin friend­ships and relationships, and push people who care away.

This disease can affect every facet of life, and that is consid­ered one of the scariest aspects of depression.

Junior Eryn Messenger said, “Last year one of my good friends who went here passed away af­ter an attempted suicide. Losing someone to this kind of tragedy is a hard thing for teens to grasp. I can’t even imagine the pain this girl’s family feels.” The Dysart community has coped with nu­merous tragedies among its stu­dent this year.

While all of this might seem shocking and untreatable, there is hope. Depression can be helped with medicine, therapy and exer­cise. Family and friends lending their support can be of help as well.

If anyone believes themselves, a friend or a family member to be suffering from depression, they can look for signs of agitation, restlessness, irritability, a dra­matic change in appetite often ac­companied by weight gain or loss, extreme difficulty concentrating, fatigue, lack of energy, feelings of hopelessness or helplessness or worthlessness, self-hate, inappro­priate guilt, inactivity and with­drawal from usual activities, loss of interest or pleasure in activities that were once enjoyed, thoughts of death or suicide, trouble sleep­ing and excessive sleeping.

If anything out-of-the-or­dinary is noticed, experts urge teens to speak with an adult who is trustworthy and can be of help such as the school counselor or a friend whose parent might be of assistance.

Counselors urge students to seek help if they are suffer­ing from depression or suicidal thoughts. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255.

Dancing for a Good Cause

by: Nicole Sloggett

Willow Canyon IB seniors Brianna Mancuso and Chelsey Brigham will throw a benefit dance concert in the Willow Canyon auditorium on November 19 at 7 p.m. This con­cert will be a part of their IB ser­vice project and will raise money for a program called “Build a School in Africa.” Tickets are $5, and donations will be accepted as well. They will also sell cookies from Paradise Bakery, and all of the proceeds made at the concert will go towards this program.

Mancuso and Brigham join forces to
help build schools.

“Build a School in Africa” is a volunteer-run, non-profit organi­zation that helps to build schools for children in Mali, West Africa. This organization was founded in 2005 and has successfully built one school every year since then. They are helping to make peo­ple aware of the strong need for schools and education for chil­dren in Africa. More information on this charitable organization can be found at buildaschoolina­frica.org.

“Chelsey and I are so excited to help this cause. We really want to get the entire school involved and really make it an event. It is nice knowing that with this con­cert we are making an impact in education in another country,” said Mancuso.

Canyon Fusion Dance Team, Prestige Dance Academy, Ms. Wilson’s sixth hour advanced dance class, Twisted Legacy, and Dance Doctors are all taking part in this event as well. Audience members can expect to see many different types of dances, of var­ied taste: jazz, contemporary, cul­tural dances, ballroom dancing and hip hop.

Sophomore Lindsey Moore said, “I’m most excited for our ‘Waka Waka’ dance that we’ll be trying out for.”

“I’m excited to be able to per­form at the concert, because I re­ally love performing in front of an audience,” said junior Lacey Carlson, who will be dancing for Ms. Wilson’s sixth hour advanced dance class.

Mancuso and Brigham expect a great turnout for the concert and hope everyone will mark their calendars for the charity event, to come out for a night of performance and dance.

Bracelets be Gone

by: Amanda Oder

The popular “I <3 BOOBIES” bracelets promoting breast cancer awareness are being banned from certain schools/school districts. So far, California, Colorado, Idaho, Florida are among some of the states that have banned these bracelets. The ban is not an intended attack against breast cancer awareness, rather a censorship of possibly “offensive” wording on the mer­chandise itself.

Officials are wary of an alternative motive for wearing the bracelets. “They are not yet a problem with the dress code here,” said Principal Anthony Capuano. However, the terminol­ogy used on the bracelets could be viewed as sexist by some, and others wear the message for the sake of pushing the boundaries of dress code rather than for raising breast cancer awareness.

Juniors Mylia Firivin and Danielle Sutherland support free use of the message. “They should find new ways to support breast cancer, and this is one of them,” said Firivin. “This is not offensive to anyone; they are just trying to help people with cancer.”

Although she acknowledg­es that some students wear the bracelets solely for the wording, Sutherland felt banning the brace­lets would be wrong and said, “It would be dumb if they punish the people who are wearing them for the right reason.”

Clash of the Wildcats

By: Sydney Allen and Evelyn Marquecz

Student Council brought Spirit Week to Willow Canyon over the past week wtih the theme “Clash of the Wildcats”. Since August 2, Student Council put many hours into preparing this event to make it memorable for the entire campus.

“This year’s Spirit Week and Homecoming will be the best of them all!” said senior Student Council President Danica Mellinger. “Show your spirit and try not to care about what anyone thinks.”

Spirit Week concludes today after a full week of school activi­ties and participation.

Monday’s theme was hero vs. villain. During lunch, there was a football throwing contest. That evening, the junior and se­nior girls faced off in their annual powderpuff football game at 6:30. The seniors won 32-18.

On Tuesday, students dressed for either peace or war, and the lunch activity consisted of mili­tary physical activities such as a pull up contest and arm wres­tling. After school, students were invited to the cafeteria to watch Remember the Titans.

On Wednesday, the theme was jock vs. nerd. The lunch activity that day featured a Jeopardy-style game with sports and academic questions. Wednesday night, the freshmen football team played against Sandra Day O’Connor.

Thursday was class vs. class. Each grade had its individual col­or to represent in order to boost class spirit. Freshmen wore yel­low, sophomores wore red, ju­niors wore green and the seniors wore pink. During lunch, classes faced off against each other in class vs. class Tug-O-War com­petitions. Later on that evening, Willow Canyon hosted the Jam the Gym for the girls volleyball game against Boulder Creek which started at 7.

Friday is Wildcat Spirit Day where the entire school is encour­aged to wear “blue and silver for all to see” according to the school’s fight song. At lunch there will be spirit items and light face painting for students.

An assembly will be held Friday afternoon during seventh period to conclude the week’s festivities and to pump up the en­tire campus for the Homecoming game this evening.

During the assembly there will be performances by the varsity cheerleaders, Willow Canyon’s marching band, Evolution Show Choir, WCHS street theater, Canyon Fusion Dance Company, the hip hop dance club, and the powderpuff male cheerleaders.

Student Council will also an­nounce the homecoming royalty for the dance: duke and duch­ess (for freshmen), lord and lady (for sophomores) and prince and princess (for juniors). The senior Homecoming King and Queen will be announced during the Homecoming game Friday night.

Friday night’s activities will start with a pre-game party. Willow Canyon’s varsity foot­ball team kicks off against the Sandra Day O’ Connor Eagles at 7 p.m. Regular admission is $5 per person, but if former students bring their IDs, they will only be charged $4. There will also be fireworks during the halftime show when the Homecoming King and Queen are announced.

Mr. Goto encourages students to “have fun, be creative and don’t be afraid to let another side of you show, but keep in mind that there’s an approprite time and place for everything. You’re still at school, but make the most out of it, and have a great time.”

The Homecoming dance takes place Saturday, October 2 from 7 to 10 p.m. Semi-formal at­tire and student ID cards are re­quired. Students must also pres­ent tickets or purchase one at the door. Ticket prices are $25 for a couple and $15 for a single if pur­chased beforehand. They will be $15 per person at the door.

WCHS Support Earns Gold

by: Amanda Oder

Key Club sponsored its first blood drive of the year on Wednesday, September 8. Thirty percent of the senior class donat­ed their blood.

As a result of Willow Canyon students’ motivation, four mem­bers from Key Club and Nurse Ginger Nesbitt attended a small convention at Chase Field on September 15.

Nurse Nesbitt and the four stu­dents from Key Club were invited to speak at the Blood Drive award ceremony at Chase Field. There were about 500 people there, ac­cording to senior and Key Club president Minh Doan.

Valley Vista, Dysart and other schools from the metro-Phoenix area attended, but, according to Doan, “did not do as good as we did.”

The four members from Key Club who went to the conven­tion to accept the award were seniors Minh Doan and Melissa Spindler and juniors Ashton Leo and Krisha Pathak. They won a plaque and banner for the front office.

Willow Canyon will share this championship with Millennium High School in Goodyear. The platinum award was the first place prize, so WCHS came in second with gold.

The next few blood drives will be held on January 12 and May 5 in 2011. There is also one planned in June at Chick-Fil-A. Donors get coupons for more sandwiches at Chick-Fil-A if they donate their blood there.

To prepare for donating blood, students were required to have their blood iron at 12.5 percent. Their height and their weight determined whether or not they were capable of handling losing a pint of blood.

Donors were given water and fruit snacks, Chex Mix or cook­ies immediately after to ward off complications. Some students ex­perienced nausea, blurred vision, and fatigue. Despite the risk, stu­dents still donated 102 units of blood.

Nurse Nesbitt said, “One pint saves three lives!” The amount of student participation per school is measured by the percentage of senior donations, because all stu­dents over the age of sixteen are capable of donating as well.

Junior Alecsa Gipson was grateful for the opportunity to do­nate. “I donated blood because I wanted to help people in need,” said Gipson.

Hoops for Hope

by: Briana Briggs

The Hoops for Hope project to collect money for orphans in Africa suffering with AIDS was held Saturday, September 25, from 10 a.m to 1 p.m.

Key Club members created the project after going to a Key Club convention for their club and hearing a nine-year-old speak about the organization that was helping in Africa.

Key Club then decided to get involved. Willow Canyon’s Assistant Principal Mr. Greenway also made the event possible by talking to the school board and making sure there was a place for the event to be held.

Senior and Key Club pres­ident Minh Doan said, “I was happy for being a part of such an important event.”

While the kids were shooting hoops, donations were made, and there was a little snack bar for those who attended and donated to the cause.

Key Club worked very hard and was very happy with the outcome and how many people showed up.

It was a major success in the eyes of Doan, who, along with the help of other Key Club members, had planned the event since the beginning of the year.

 

Back to School Bash: a Huge Success

By: Briana Briggs and Patricia Guebara

Student Council, along with adviser Mr. Goto, hosted the second annual Back to School Assembly and Bash on Friday, August 20, to welcome the Wildcats back for another school year.

This year Student Council brought a 40 foot game
trailer.

Senior managers Mackenzie Bince and Kayli Warner both said, “The Student Council mem­bers have dedicated numerous lunches and countless hours after school in order to prepare for the Back to School Bash and make it as fun as possible for WCHS stu­dents; the bash is really going to be a blast.”

An assembly was held during third period on Friday to pump the student body up for the evening’s activities. Evolution Show Choir opened the assembly with the na­tional anthem. Later, led by two student conductors, the Marching Band played “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” and the school fight song.

All fall sports teams were also announced. The Theatre Club performed “Keep ‘Em Guessin’” from their upcoming show, Mulan Jr., Canyon Fusion Dance Company performed to a Black Eyed Peas mix and the varsity cheerleaders performed their ex­treme routine.

Mr. Goto said, “The hardest part of it all is the planning and to get the district’s approval. The student council as well as the teachers have put so much effort into this event for the school so that the students can have a great time.”

Senior and Student Body President Danica Mellinger said, “Student Council has been plan­ning the Back to School Bash since the beginning of June, and we were still working on it to make sure things went along smoothly for Friday’s Bash. It’s hard to work together at times, but we end up connecting in the end.”

At the Bash, Student Council raffled off two Jonas brothers tickets. The Marching Band, Canyon Fusion Dance Company, varsity cheerleaders, Evolution Show Choir and senior David Kleinebreil all performed during the Back to School Bash.

Some other features included: human foosball, a variety of food stands, a rock climbing wall, a forty-foot game trailer, and a dance with a live disc jockey.

“Putting together the Back to School Bash was hard work from day one, but we all shared a com­mon goal; we wanted to have something for every grade and age,” said Mellinger.

Class of 2014 Enters Willow

by: Nicole Sloggett

The new school year began on Monday, August 9, and new faces are everywhere. The class of 2014 arrived at Willow Canyon. Of the over 2,100 stu­dents enrolled this year, there are just over 600 freshmen making the transition from elementary/middle school to high school.

Although there are many things to look forward to in high school, how to get to class, where to sit at lunch, and many other questions go through the minds of the new­est arrivals on campus.

Freshman Bianca Pasillas said, “I’m most nervous about things I’ve heard about Freshmen Friday.”

Some things, however, can make this experience a little easier.

Freshmen Kaitlin Byrnes said, “Having friends that are upper­classmen helps a lot.”

Getting advice and help from upperclassmen can also, take away some of the nervousness that these new students feel with­in the first few days of school.

Making changes when it comes to a new school can take some getting used to. Freshmen now have six classes worth of work to focus on, new teachers to get fa­miliar with, and a new campus to find their way around.

English teacher Ms. Tofan said, “Students seem ambi­tious, and curious of their new surroundings.”

The pressure sets in as the stu­dents focus not only on their class work, but their social lives as well. Once the nervous, confused feelings pass, most freshmen be­gin to get comfortable with the new situation, new rules, and new campus.

Football games, clubs and dances are just some of the social events that the newest Wildcats can experience. Students are en­couraged to join these activities to take full advantage of their high school experience. “I’m look­ing forward to going to football games with friends, and dancing at homecoming,” Byrnes said.