November 2009

The horticulture students at Spanish Fork High School have been learning how to arrange flowers by creating centerpieces for Thanksgiving. These centerpieces include button daisies, two-toned daisies, carnations, and seeded eucalyptus. “We were trying to make sure it looks good from every view,” said Kylee DeGraw, one of the horticulture students. Through their flower arrangements, the horticulture students have been able to serve others and feel the joy that comes from this.

Recently held was the Creative Communications writing contest; this year’s theme was What is Important to you? When talking to Michael Cope, a contestant in the essay portion of the contest, he said, “I had to think for a bit on what was most important to me in my life, and I decided on my family. I wrote about how my family influences me and makes me a better person by helping me set my standards high.

Reflections is a contest that has several different categories that aim to inspire creativity in students. Some of these categories include Photography, Dance, Literature, Art, and Music. The topic was “Beauty is…”. Topics of the entries ranged from essays about inner beauty to photographs of beautiful scenes. “This year’s topic was really good. It was inspiring. It made you think and inspired you to be a better person,” said Tyson Sperry, a contest winner in the category of Literature. Winners received money, coupons, and candy bars.

On Friday November 20th, 2009, Spanish Fork High School hosted the Stomp Out Hunger Dance in the D Gym. The student council was in charge of putting it on. Students from all the high schools in Nebo School district were invited, as well as some 9th graders from the schools in Spanish Fork. The price to get in was 5 dollars or 3 cans of food. The main purpose of the stomp was to raise food for Community Action in Provo. Ms. Youd, the advisor for student council at SFHS, feels the stomp was a huge success. They collected 1173 pounds of food for this good cause.

Spanish Fork High School’s Key Club just finished up a food drive that they did last week. They raised many different kinds of non-perishable food items that will be taken to different food banks in Utah. The main food bank the food will go to is in Salt Lake for those who may live in cars, are homeless, and other less fortunate families. Spencer Pugh, the Key Club president, said, “Doing this food drive with the Key Club is a wonderful opportunity to help out the community and others.” This is only one of many service projects the Key Club will be doing this school year.

The Spanish Fork High School National Honor Society is doing their annual Thanksgiving service project. The NHS asks for names of families that are struggling and wouldn’t be able to have a thanksgiving meal. Then NHS goes and buys food for them so that they can have a nice Thanksgiving meal. This year NHS was able to go to 42 homes and provide a thanksgiving dinner for them. This project is a great way to have the students of NHS realize that service benefits everyone.

On Tuesday, November 17th, the Spanish Fork High School Jazz Band had a performance during lunch in the SFHS commons. Students eating in the commons were serenaded as they enjoyed their lunches and some even started dancing along with the music. The members of Jazz band are Jonny Broomhead, Nathan Kimball, Adam Swasey, Taylor Allred, Kyle Hutchings, David Andrews, and Justin Brimhall, with Mr. Bryant Smith as their director.

On Wednesday, November 18th, the dance classes at Spanish Fork High School went to Salt Lake City to watch the world class modern dance group Pilobolus perform. Pilobolus is named after a type of fungi because of the unique shapes they create. Lawson Bendall, one of the students who went to this, greatly enjoyed the performance. “My favorite part was the closing number which started out with fireflies. It just looked really cool. We had a great time up there in Salt Lake!” This field trip gave all of the students who went a chance to understand a unique style of dance and to just have fun!

Christmas Choral Gala tickets are now on sale at Spanish Fork High School. Anyone who had the opportunity to go to this wonderful event last year knows that it was an amazing way to bring in the Christmas Spirit. Along with the wonderful music, guests will also enjoy a delicious desert reception and elegant decorations. Tickets are $10 dollars until November 30th, and $12 dollars December 1st and later. The gala is on December 10th and 11th at 7:00 p.m., and the desert reception starts at 6:30.

Close Up is a club that explores the government and how it works. Members of this club recently had the chance to go to Washington D.C. to see our government “Close Up”. On their trip, they got to go to the Lincoln Memorial, the Holocaust museum, Arlington Cemetery, Capitol Hill, and they even had the opportunity to meet both Utah senators! “We got to meet a bunch of kids from other states, so we got to learn more about different cultures from other states. It made me want to be involved more with our government after learning everything they do,” said Stefanie Muhlestein.