Community Service Day - Food Banking

Our fellow PRHS students indulged in some good ole' Community Service recently and offered their help to a local food bank. 

All photos taken by Pam Rawson. 

Fanchtastic by Stephanie LaFreniere

In school we students come across moments that strike fear into our hearts and make our knees buckle. Perhaps we forgot about the sticky notes that were due today, or we “left our homework on the kitchen table.”

To celebrate Halloween, 2012, I took it upon myself to ask students who of our PRHS teachers struck them as scary from Day 1. The response was unanimous. She shouts at us down the hall, lurks behind us, casting a shadow during class, throws markers at us while we sleep. 

The Fanch. 

Mrs. Fancher has been teaching at PRHS since Miss Yindra was a student; she knows the twists and turns of our school, and has mastered the ups and downs of the students. She is known for her distaste towards freshmen--which was the first thing I ever heard about her, when I was a freshman, which can be terrifying.

"The Fanch"
Photo Taken by Sally Littlefield

Fortunately for me, I learned that her contempt for freshman is exceeded by her loathing for senior boys. 

“The only thing worse than Freshmen are Senior boys,” Fanch has said about 1,000 times; if she has an opinion, she isn’t afraid to share it.  

A pet peeve of Fancher is sneezing, and one student even described to me how she felt when she had hit her three-sneeze limit. A “heart stopping moment” was the phrase she used. I sure hope allergy season is over. 

Despite her tough disposition, and seemingly frightening aura, Fanch is also one of the most beloved teachers. She’s someone you have to “know to love” one student explains. “Fanch is tough, but she really wants her students to succeed.” In fact, it’s her frightening qualities that make her lovable, and attitude that keeps us going. 

After my brief, but undeniably accurate survey of frightening teachers, it was easy to conclude that Fanch is the Champion of Fear. Then I did a scary thing: I asked her how she felt about this title.“It makes my job easier,” she answered, nonchalantly. “I just have to look at someone and they’ll stop. They don’t know I’m going to do.”  

If I were a teacher, I’d aspire to be like Fanch. This year is her last year, and I’m glad I chose to overcome my fear and spend it with her, in stats.

CSL is Back! By Matthew Principe

Did you know our school has a club where you can go out and do community service for a sweet reward? Its called the Community Service Club (CSL). As a group we venture out into the surrounding communities and see what jobs there are to tackle. 

We meet once a month, usually on a Wednesday. The day can vary from scheduling purposes. In addition to the meetings, we schedule dates in the community to help people-- usually once or twice per month. Last year the club made numerous trips to the Norway Veterans Home which always welcomed us. We played games with the vets and listened to their war stories dating all the way back to World War II.

 Upcoming events this year will be the December toy drive and a possible trip to Poland Spring Campground to paint picnics tables. The campground trip could be rescheduled for next spring. We will be returning to the veterans home later in the winter. We are open for new ideas to help the communities we grew up in.

A Photo from the Boston Trip Last Year

The reward for doing at least 20 hours of community service is an all-expense paid trip to see the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park in the spring. From experience, I can tell you the trip is amazing. As a group we travel on a Greyhound bus into Boston with other community service clubs from other schools.  We go on a tour of Fenway and learn all the cool stories about the 100-year-old ballpark. We also get to watch the Red Sox take batting practice, and we get coupons for our dinner. The trip makes for a long day and night, but it also means a day off from school for jobs well done.

Our most recent project was at the Gray Wildlife Park in Gray Maine. Last week was their annual Halloween Night, where you could trick or treat while experiencing the animal night life. The place was covered in Halloween decor as well as many activities for kids to do. One of these was a small obstacle course for the kids to run through. Our job was to clear out the space again and rake all of the straw and hay away from the nearby cages. The design was set up so that  the kids could run next to the little creatures in their cages. Our group received  a surprise visit by Ricky Raccoon, a lone raccoon left in his cage who watched over us as we worked around him.

When our group was finished we raked and swept the walkways from the gate to the cages. There were seven of us and in less than an hour we had about 100 feet of trailway free of leaves and pine needles. l It was a beautiful site. As we finished up our handiwork the head park ranger came and relieved us from out duties. He let us let us roam around the park for the remainder of our time there. It was a nice reward after a long day of hard work. The moose were out and about and put on quite a show for us.

 If you are interested in learning more about the community service club, or if you want to join,  please contact Ms. Carrera at ncarrera@rsu16.org.

How We Voted and What it Means by Derek York

Referendum Question #1

Do you want to allow the State of Maine to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples? 

This would mean that gay couples  in Maine would be allowed to marry, with the same benefits that traditional marriages enjoy.

This means all assets would be shared through the bond of marriage including insurance for one another. 

Yes-192, No-86. PRHS students are in favor of legalizing same sex marriage.

Bond Issue #2

Do you favor an $11,300,00 bond issue to provide funds for capital to build a diagnostic facility for the University of Maine system; for capital improvements and equipment, including machine tool technology, for the Maine Community College system; and for capital improvements and equipment at the Maine Maritime Academy?

This bond is for some of the colleges in maine. It is to buy new things they need to keep the programs they have going. The schools are asking for a larger budget to afford repairs and new tools. 

Yes-133, No-158. PRHS students are not in favor of this bond.

Bond Issue #4

Do you favor a $51,500,000 bond issue for improvements to highways and bridges, local roads, airports and port facilities, as well as for funds for rail access, transit buses and the LifeFlight Foundation, which will make the State eligible for at least 105,600,000 in federal and other matching funds? 

This bond is to fix all the not so good roads around the U.S. and anything that involves traveling to be fixed. The LifeFlight Foundation will also be funded for people in need of medical care in hard to reach places. The federal government will also match us on this bond if it passed. 

Yes-159, No-114. PRHS students are in favor of the bond.