The Bluffer - Red Bluff, CA
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/462889
Singing for Valentine's Kourtney Sanders Staff Writer Nichole Valdez Staff Writer AVID collected books in a school wide drive Annual Pink Out inlcudes boy teams Hailie Willey Staff Writer Features Page 3 February 13, 2015 Sophie Cumpton Staff Writer Students donate jeans to help homeless teens RBHS students show their spirit and support for Boys Varsity basketball Pink Out game. Britney Miranda Staff Writer Outside the Box partan ound S off Sound Off/Hailie Willey Mrs. Jenne (Teacher) "I am pro Valentine's day because it is important that the people you love know that you love them." Michaela Black (11) "I am con because Cupid isn't Santa Claus! Plain and simple." Mr. Michael (Teacher) "Con because I feel like you should show how much you love someone every day." Wesley Clawson (10) "I am con because I don't deal with relationships." Joey Skaggs (12) "I am pro because you get to spoil your girlfriend or significant other." Logan Wheeler (9) "I am pro-Valentine's day. I like going to the stores the day after and buy candy because it's really cheap." Are you pro or con Valentine's Day and why? Singing Valentine's has been a tradition at Red Bluff High School for over twenty years. Approximately thirty choir students are involved by delivering and selling Singing Valentine's. The Valentine's cost five dollars if they are to be delivered on campus. The standard on-campus package includes a flower, card, and two songs delivered to the student and/or staff. Also, there are selective prices for off campus deliveries depending on what flowers are chosen and where they are to be delivered to. This year the choir students are able to deliver outside of town, where in past years, they did not. The money from the Singing Valentine's will go toward allowing the choir students to go to a singing competition. With the money they raised, they will not have to pay for it themselves, which allows more students the opportunity to go."We have been very successful in past years. We sold one hundred and nineteen in last year and one hundred and fourteen the year before," said Mrs. Hassey, the choir teacher. The students have been preparing for Singing Valentine's for over a month, and most of them practice on their own time such as during lunch or after school. They have to practice without instruments and they need to correct pitches in order to make the selected students' Valentine's Day spectacular. Not only is it a movie, but many believe Friday the 13th is the unluckiest day of the year and there are many superstitions and myths surrounding the day. Superstitions involving the number 13 date back to at least 1700 B.C. There's been a longstanding crazy myth that if 13 people dine together, one will die within a year. The myth comes from both the Last Supper, when Jesus dined with 12 apostles prior to his death, and a popular Norse myth, in which 11 close friends of the god Odin only to have the 12-person party crashed by a 13th person, Loki, the god of evil and turmoil. The number 13 has been considered cursed across the world for thousands of years. The number 12 is historically considered the number of completeness, while its older cousin, 13, has been seen as a bad luck charm. There are 12 months of the year, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 hours of the clock, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, among many incidents of the pattern historically. The number 13 continues to have an unlucky association today. Thirteen is so disliked that many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue, many high- rise buildings avoid having a 13th floor, some hospitals avoid labeling rooms with the number 13 and many airports will not have a gate 13. Friday has also long been considered an unlucky day. One theory hypothesizes that Friday has been considered u n l u c k y because Jesus was crucified on a Friday according to Christian Scripture and tradition. Friday the 13th was outlined as an unlucky day to take a trip, to begin a new project or to have a major life change. The annual Pink Out basketball game was February tenth for boys and twelfth for girls. Jade Godoy, senior, and member of student government, stated that Pink out is a "basketball game to support breast cancer awareness." Normally only girls play, but this year boys as well as girls play. Pink Out was started by the MacDonalds' family, mainly former student Jessica Mac Donald. To prepare for Pink Out, Red Bluff High School's student government made large pink ribbons with the girls baseball players' names on them. They also made signs and are promoting people to dress pink for the game. If a non-high school kid, someone twelve-years-old and under, wore pink to the game, he or she got in for free. When Godoy was asked about why she likes and supports Pink Out, she said "It's good [be]cause it's good to get people aware of breast cancer because not many people are aware of it if they aren't affected by it." Ryan Gamboa, another senior who is in student government and who helped publicize Pink Out said, "It's a great thing. It's great to get the school involved in something that's affected so many people and families… There isn't one person who hasn't been affected by cancer." While Gamboa is not in charge of Pink Out, he was still helpful and involved about raising awareness for cancer. He added to his last statement that he would "like to get as many people out there as possible." Aislynn Lair, senior, is in charge of publicity for Pink Out, as is Godoy. Lair commented on how she feels about Pink Out and its awareness for breast cancer, "I like it. I have personal experience with my mom on breast cancer." As Gamboa stated, most people or their families have been affected by cancer in some way. Red Bluff High is trying to do its part in raising awareness for the sufferers and survivors of breast cancer. Student Government decorates gym while both sexes prepare for the games "Thirty-nine percent of homeless people are teenagers and they would highly appreciate these jeans" explained Cindy Hasse, RBHS teacher. Aeropostale is running an organization titled "teens for jeans" their website explains that "Over one million young people experience homelessness in the United States every year. One item they request? A pair of jeans." Nicole Renfroe and Emilie Louiselle, juniors, involved our school in order to spread awareness. They are collecting used jeans or jeans in good shape. They started collecting jeans on the first week of January and will continue to collect them until February 13th. When Renfroe was asked why she wanted to join Aeropostale's organization she said, "We would like to start awareness of homeless teens." You can turn the jeans into Haase's room 408, the main office, or even to Renfroe or Louiselle. Louiselle explained that she found out about the jean drive on Twitter through one of Shawn Mendes, singer, tweets. She thought it was interesting and wanted to help out our community. Renfroe explained that each pair of jeans enters our school into a raffle of 5,000 dollars. "Anything helps whether its five pairs of jeans or fifty pairs of jeans anything helps and that's what matters" explained Renfroe. "In the tweet Mendes explained that the school with the most collected jeans would get a concert from The Vamps, which is a band. That's not why I got the school involved though. I thought it was cool, you always hear about people doing food drives and when I heard about a jean drive I thought it was neat" explained Louiselle. Mrs.Wagner's AVID 10 class was lacking community service for their college applications, so they decided to create the book drive. Mrs. Wagner was the one who came up with the idea of the book drive, and the competition that went along with it. Mrs.Wagner said, "It teaches the kids to make a difference and encourages the youth." The book drive was from Monday the twenty-seventh of January, until Friday the sixth of February. On the last day of the book drive all the books were counted. There were a total of 1,845 books! The winning English teacher was Mrs.White. All of Mrs.White's classes get cupcakes today as their reward for collecting a total of 695 books. Mrs. White said, "I reminded my Seniors that many of them would be leaving for college soon, and their books would just be sitting on the shelf." AVID 10 only expected to get about 600 books total, depending on how competitive the English classes were, but got over twice the amount planned. There had apparently been some dirty business going on behind the English teachers backs, which included stealing, alliances, and betrayals. The students and staff were so into the competition that they had been recruiting students to steal each others books. Mrs.White said, "All children deserve the opportunity to read books." Mrs. Wagner thought that Mrs. Pelanconi would win because of how competitive she is. Mrs. Pelanconi got second place with a total of 485 books, and Mr.Sheffield received third place. Mrs. Wagner's AVID 10 class is excited about the overall outcome of the book drive. "We have been very successful in past years." - Mrs. Hassay Courtesy Photo by Tanner Durfee