For Spanish Fork High School’s Veteran’s Day, Iraqi veteran Scott Carson visited to talk about his experiences while serving in the War on Terrorism in 2003- 2004. Carson brought with him and honored three of SF’s local hero’s including, Richard Banks, Wallace Knutsen, and Spanish Fork’s last living Gold Star mother Fern Lindley. Carson then sang Hear it for the Woman of the Red White and Blue, a song he wrote and dedicated to Lindley, his wife and children, and all the other wives and mothers who stayed home while their sons or husbands were away fighting in the war.

By Karianne Nelson Danielle Kaiser is the intern highlight of the week. She interns at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center on the Oncology floor. Kaiser helps cancer patients and follows a PTC around to watch and help with his/her responsibilities. Some of her jobs are changing beds, helping patients bathe, and restock food. Kaiser enjoys her internship and has gained a lot of experience in the career she wants to pursue after high school. “It’s a lot of fun! I want to be a nurse so this will help me in the future.” This internship has been a good experience for her.

The SFHS Debate went on their debate tour to challenge debate teams from all across the U.S. They left November 5th and got back on November 10th. They went to U.S.C. (University of Southern California) to compete. The team won about half of their debates. Alex Argyle the president of debate this year said, “We did pretty good because our team is mostly novices. We won about half of the debates we competed in.” The debate team did a great job and really enjoyed going on tour. Eleven students participated in the The Lincoln Douglas Debates.

On Saturday, November 7, the Spanish Fork Band competed at a competition in St. George at Dixie State College. They competed in the 1A competition against seven other bands. Unfortunately, they didn’t place at the competition, but Drum Major Lori Swain felt that it was their best performance ever. “It was a really good opportunity to see how all of our hard work and dedication could make us come together as a band,” said Swain.

Spanish Fork High School’s Autobody classes are doing a service project for a fellow classmate, Travis Lindsey, who died in a car accident last summer. Classes are working hard to do body work on Travis’s mom’s car. They are working on sanding it and filling it, and are going to be ready to paint it soon. They expect to be finished in just a few weeks. “I feel like I can help Travis Lindsey’s mom” said Devin Cox, a junior. “He liked autobody so much , and I thought I could help.” Students are feeling good about their chance to serve one of their fellow classmates by doing what they do best.

Spanish Fork has recently started a Youth City Council for this year. The council is for students who are interested in government and learning more about it. There are about 32 students in the council ranging from 9th to 12th grade. The students help with the mayor and city councilmen to help problems in our community that teens are worried about.

This week’s intern highlight is Sami Meinhart, who interns at the Nursing Rehab Center in Spanish Fork. She helps take care of elderly people who are in rehab there. Meinhart helps feed the patients, do laundry, and care and provide for the patients. Meinhart has fun with her internship. “It’s hard work to care for old people! But I still enjoy it,” she said. Meinhart wants to go into a career in nursing or rehabilitation so the experience she is gaining now will help her in the future

Youth Court is a program in Spanish Fork where first time offenders of small crimes can go and find ways to make up their debt to society. When kids 14 to 18 commit a crime like stealing, vandalism, and other small offenses, they can attend Youth Court and work with the kids involved in the program to get their crime erased from their record. “Kids can do stuff like write essays, clean up the mess they made, do community service, and other simple things that help them realize what they did wrong,” says Karianne Nelson, who is in the group of students that help find solutions.

Spanish Fork High School’s Utah Community Based Transition students have had the opportunity to get on the job training with several community businesses and organizations, including Outer Beauty, Hollywood Video, Spanish Fork Ambulance, East Meadows Elementary, Brockbank Elementary, Larson Elementary, Magleby’s, One Man Band, Jaxies, and Joannes. They do things like bus tables, be teacher’s aides, and clean, wash towels, put videos back, and lots of other helpful jobs. Each of the students has two Job sites that they work at. “The kids are doing a great job.