Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Seniors continue to change the world

Seniors Marina Patrick and Staci Foster sit at their table in the commons
handing out and selling treats.
Smoky Valley seniors are just touching the tip of their “Change the World” projects. Some are walking for the benefit of others while other seniors, such Marina Patrick and Staci Foster, are baking for a cause.

Patrick and Foster chose Invisible Children, which is a relief effort for child soldiers fighting in Uganda.
“We picked the Invisible Children because we believe that their story is not well known,” Patrick said. “Many people picked issues such as breast cancer, but the Invisible Childrens' story has not been told and we were hoping to spread their story.”

The two seniors raised $108.80 between the two lunch periods on March 9th by selling several baked goods, puppy chow, and dirt ‘n worms.

“I wish that we could have provided more dirt n' worms. We knew that it would be popular, but if we would’ve known we would have made that much [money] we definitely would have prepared better,” Patrick said. “It was just the lack of knowing how much we needed on our part.”
However, their efforts were definitely a success. The pair baked for 12 hours in order to prepare for the sale.

“We would most definitely do it again,” Patrick said. “We would do it again because we believe that spending a few hours of our time baking goods and selling them makes it worth it to possibly help save thousands of lives over in Uganda.”
A group from the Invisible Children organization will be visiting Smoky Valley to spread their story on March 16th in the auditorium at 2:30.

- Carleigh Albers, Viking Mirror Editor

SVHS "dies" for drunk driving awareness

Senior Cody Bowers, junior Desiree Harrison, sophomore Jessica VanRanken, teacher Ryan Biegert, freshman Jenell Hulse, sophomore Dylan Pruitt, and senior Kari Bingham.
Imagine walking through the hallways between classes and seeing your best friend wearing a black victim shirt. Your best friend has now been victimized by a drunk driving accident.
Six students and one teacher floated the SVHS hallways on Thursday, March 10, as victims of "drunk driving accidents." The FCCLA group raised awareness for distracted driving during the last three days of the school week, focusing on wearing seat belts, texting and driving, and driving under the influence.
Using the statistic "every 50 minutes someone dies from a drunk driving accident," FCCLA reminded students how tragic drunk driving can be. Almost every hour, a student was chosen at random to sport the black shirts with a victim number on it. The students wore the shirts the rest of the day to show students how many people are affected by driving under the influence. On Wednesday, posters with facts and statistics were hung on the school walls. On Friday, FCCLA shared a short documentary by AT&T called "The Last Text." Seminar classes watched and discussed the video.

    - Megan Roberts, Senior blog editor