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.

PRHS Track Stars Shine In Boston Competition By Grahm Kwasnick

Competition is something that we all face on a daily basis, whether it be something related to school like challenging yourself to write the best essay in the class, or something at home like becoming the best in the family at Wii Tennis. But the most common place we see competition is in sports. 

Cameron Woodford and Eli Murphy, two very talented athletes in the senior class, took competition to another level with  “the most intense experience we’ve faced,” a regional track meet in Boston, Massachusetts.

Being an ex-athlete myself, I have a pretty good idea of what competition is like. The atmosphere changes completely from your daily life; your mind set is completely different and you are more focussed than you ever have been. This makes change at Poland Regional High School interesting. If you haven’t noticed, indoor and outdoor track have become quite popular here at PRHS. More and more students join the team every year. This means more people competing, and it means more opportunities for us to see our peers become athletic stars.

Cameron Woodford and Eli Murphy are both are decorated athletes who have competed at very high levels of competition for their specific events in track. Cam specializes in shot-put and Eli in hurdles. Hearing of their recent experience at regionals, I interviewed them both to ask how this competition was different from all the rest they’ve faced before.

I first asked Eli what the experience was like.

“Very competitive” Murphy said. “So much more lively than the Maine meets.” Being in such a big competition, Eli told me that, “Everyone wanted to do their absolute best. It was very … intense. Everyone was better, everyone knew what they were doing. It was all very controlled.”

Being around hundreds of other extraordinary athletes who have trained months for this competition, you can imagine that a lot of pressure was on Eli and Cam. But before the competition began, there was some fun on the road. Our boys were able to relax with some quality bonding time in Massachusetts rush-hour traffic. Cam told me that the traffic wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t for an accident. “We were stuck in a traffic jam for three of four hours,” he said. “We moved so slow. At one point we stopped at a Mexican restaurant and talked with some of the locals.” 

The big question I had for them was how they performed. Eli admitted that he did not do his best. “It wasn’t the best I had, but the atmosphere that I experienced on that level was a really good thing to have. A really good experience for college.” 

Cam’s experience of the competition was very similar to Eli’s.

“There was a very historic feel to it,” Woodford said.  “There were professionals all around us, a real eye opener. Way more intense than regular meets for sure.”

Cam also told me that when he was throwing in his event, he was surrounded by a big cage. On the outside of the cage fans would cheer the thrower on. 

“In no way was it like normal meets, normal meets are so much more relaxed,” he said. “This was just … intense.” Cam ended up doing very well in his competition.

Both Murphy and Woodford want to recruit you, reader, for the track team so that you can be part of a very successful, award-winning team that they have spent years on. Be sure to congratulate Cam and Eli if you see them for their incredible athleticism. 

 
In the end it is never really about who ran the fastest, who threw the farthest or who succeeded the most. It’s about being part of the competitive atmosphere and enjoying yourself. Because if you finish dead last in a competition like the one Eli and Cam participated in, and still manage walk away with a smile on your face, you’ve won the big challenge. Not only for your team, but for yourself as an athlete and a person.