Working: the school custodian

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF
His smile is what first catches people’s attention.
But if they somehow pass it by, students and teachers, faculty and staff are sure to notice the warm, round laugh that usually follows.
The way Vic Wood strides through the halls, sometimes with a ladder under his arm, sometimes a toolbox, it’s easy to forget he works in a crowded high school. After only two years as lead custodian, Wood already seems a fundamental part of Eisenhower High School.

“Vic is the one to go to,” says Lauri Anderson, a math teacher and leadership adviser at Ike. “He’ll drop everything to help you, whether you’re an administrator, teacher or student.”
Wood, a 59-year-old White Swan resident, has been in the business of maintenance and custodial work for about 22 years. Except for a few months at Roosevelt Elementary School five years ago, he has worked in high schools.
“I love it,” he says of his job. “I’m a teaser, always joking around with the high school kids. I can relate to them.”
While Wood is often seen cracking a joke in passing, his job generally doesn’t offer a lot of time to chat. From 6 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wood is responsible for the general upkeep of Ike’s 51-year-old building.
The school’s age sometimes generates complaints from members of the staff and students. But, Wood says, “I like this building because it’s old. I told the (other custodians) when I started working here, ‘Just because she’s old doesn’t mean she can’t be pretty.’”
Wood works hard to make Ike pretty. Mornings, it’s his job to unlock the building, go through it turning on lights and completing a general check of the school. Then he checks the work list for any problems that the afternoon or night custodians had noticed and didn’t have a chance to get to.
“Usually, I’ll go check it out myself first,” he says. “Then, if it doesn’t look like something I can fix, I’ll fill out a work request that gets sent to (Yakima School District) maintenance downtown. Then, they come in, and I usually watch them fix it, so hopefully I can just take care of it next time.”
The maintenance workers seem to like having Wood around, too.
“He’s a man’s man,” says Shell Shattuck, a school district maintenance worker. “Meaning, he is a man other men look up to and admire.”
All of that — with the exception of any necessary work orders — happens before 8 a.m.
Once school starts, “I’m a firefighter,” jokes Wood, who spends most of the day “putting out fires.”
These little emergencies can include fixing door closures and ornery radiators, even fishing the occasional cell phone out of a toilet. (Although, Wood has told a couple of students, “There’s no getting that one back.”)
Anderson has known and worked with Wood for eight years and says he is always “putting out fires” for her. She also says Wood has a special talent for not becoming flustered no matter how flustered she might be.
“Whether it’s pulling the bleachers down for an assembly at the last minute, or unplugging the sink in my room, Vic can make anything happen at a moment’s notice,” Anderson says.
As lead custodian, Wood supervises eight other custodians who have various shifts and duties. Essentially, the upkeep of the entire building is his responsibility.
Medical and retirement benefits are included in his job, as well as sick leave and a wage of about $21 per hour.
“Some people around here don’t realize how good they have it,” Wood says. “When I was in a carpenter’s union I had retirement, but I never had paid days off until I started working for the school district. You’ll never find anything as good as the school district other than working for the government.”
Wood sums up his job by simply saying, “I love it.”
And according to Jordan Lehrman, an 18-year-old Ike senior and leadership student, it shows.
“Vic always has a smile on his face,” he says. “And I have never heard him complain about anything.”

— Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.

Senior photos earn WV student a modeling stint in Las Vegas

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF

Danielle Ball decided to get her senior pictures taken at PhotoNuvo for no other reason than a suggestion from a friend.
How was the West Valley student to know that the owner of the  Ellensburg studio, Linda Hamilton, was a member of the Senior Portrait Artists?
She didn’t until a few months later, when she went from one of thousands participating in a end-of-high-school tradition to one in 15 working as a model at the SPA convention in Las Vegas.
The annual SPA convention focuses on training and techniques for up-and-coming photographers through the teachings of industry bigwigs.
“They want the professional photographers to use high school seniors as models, since they are different to work with than professional models,” Hamilton says.
SPA members can enter seniors in the organization’s modeling contest. And “ … after photographing (Danielle) I thought she’d have a good chance of getting in,” Hamilton says. “She was incredibly easy to get along with, had her own ideas, an obvious modeling background, and left an impression.”

Ball’s modeling experience started at the tender age of 10.
“I’ve been with different modeling agencies who have helped me build a portfolio, but I’ve never been tall enough to really get into the industry,” the 18-year-old  senior says.
“In September (Hamilton) called to ask if I’d be interested in the contest. I said yes, so she had me come back to the studio for some different pictures.”
The second shoot made Ball’s entry stand out against about 300 others, and landed her an all-expense-paid trip to the Red Rock Hotel in Las Vegas in January.

In addition to being one of 15 models selected, Ball was also asked to be one of six to attend the pre-event photo shoot.
“Photographers who wanted some individual time with the big photographers paid a little extra money to attend the pre-event,” she says.
The six models — decked out in clothing picked by a Seventeen magazine stylist — posed for some of the nation’s most renowned senior portrait photographers at the Neon Sign Museum and in Red Rock Canyon.
“The main photographer would take pictures and talk about the techniques he was using to the group of learning photographers surrounding him,” Ball says.
Hamilton says she loves this part of the conference; it’s the chance to watch and learn from big-time photographers who aren’t shooting trained professionals, just high school kids like the seniors she photographs for a living.
Workshops for photographers filled the second day. Hamilton attended presentations about business and marketing while Ball spent the day in fittings and meetings about what the next day’s shoot would look like.
“It was not what I thought it’d be,” Ball says. “I thought we’d take a few pictures and then my mom and I would go shopping, but I was going nonstop. I was blown out of the water, I was working hard and really felt needed. I’ve never felt like such a VIP.”
On the last day, there was an award ceremony and fashion show. One of the most prestigious photographers Ball worked with received an award with a picture he took of her.
As for the fashion show, it was Ball’s first one, and she loved it: “I modeled eight outfits, and each one was an example of an upcoming trend the photographers should expect to see in the next year. It was so fun.”
While this experience embraced Ball’s one-time dream of becoming a model, she says she’s on a different path.
“Modeling is not as realistic for me now,” she says. “I want to further my education, but this was still an amazing experience I’m glad I had the opportunity to take.”

• Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.

Please miss us

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF

I’ve spent my entire high school career as a teen journalist.
For the past four years, every opinion I’ve felt strongly about, every person who has intrigued me, every event I thought worthy of recognition, I was able to write about in a 38,000-circulation, daily newspaper.
This ability is so deeply woven into the fabric of my life that I forgot other people haven’t had that opportunity. Until now, I failed to see how hard informing the community of upcoming high school events will be without Unleashed.
And that was a crippling realization.
Just last month, I told Unleashed Coordinator Adriana Janovich that the program had probably changed me in ways I probably didn’t even realize. Losing the program all of a sudden made those hidden changes quite apparent. Since I was a freshman — a bottom-of-the-totem-pole, supposed-to-be-quaking-in-my-boots freshman — I’ve interviewed principals, teachers and upperclassmen and ventured into uncharted territory.
Now, I can speak to a cafeteria full of superiors without any flutter of nerves. I can enter a group of people I don’t know and be fascinated by their stories. I can ask questions that may seem a bit bold, but I know are needed.
None of those abilities result from your basic high school experiences; Unleashed meticulously formed each.
Another change, in addition to growing in confidence, is my ever-blossoming respect and appreciation for Yakima. Any complaints I may have made about this community became obsolete when a reporter’s notepad led me to a greater understanding of the people and passions that form my hometown.
During my freshman year, I met a man who barbecued for kids for free every Sunday at the skate park. Later, I learned how the community responded with food and drink donations after the story ran. At that time, I just thought I was sharing a story, but I came to find out that, in a small way, I was helping with a local good deed.
More recently, I had the opportunity to get to know the charismatic owner of Wild Lucy’s. Though it is a clothing store I would visit anyway, my job as an Unleashed reporter allowed me to see the community goals and inviting personalities that lay beneath the unique styles.
Those rewarding experiences don’t even take into account the student editor role I’ve held for the past two years. That in itself has been a growing experience. For five hours a week, I got to work in the newsroom alongside reporters and photographers who quickly became friends.
Besides enjoying witty banter with the always-laughing sports guys, my support of journalists and photojournalists developed into an admiration I will now always carry, regardless of what happens to the industry.
The people who work daily to create the Herald-Republic are truly commendable. Their jobs often make them subjects of criticism, but nonetheless they come back day after day to create a picture of our community in the most objective — and yet still personal — way possible.
Next to my community voice, I will miss them the most.
Unfortunately, no amount of realization now will save me from the inevitable goodbye. I am sorry for the future generations who will not get this unique opportunity, but am confident they will find their own life-molders.
In addition to that sympathy, I can’t forget the more important appreciation. No amount of words will ever equate my true gratitude, but they can make a dent.
First, to Jeff Garretson and Colleen Pohlig for dreaming up the program 10 years ago, to Sarah Jenkins for finally saying yes, and the Youth Editorial Alliance and Newspaper Association of America Foundation for recognizing our hard work countless times.
To the hundreds of teens that helped the program grow, and the community for not only listening to, but responding to our voices. To the teachers who shared our section with their classes and, most importantly, to Adriana Janovich, for heading up Unleashed for the past six years, for believing in us with such tremendous conviction, and for fighting so hard to keep the section alive. The longevity and success of Unleashed is largely a result of her undying support and enthusiasm.
Thank you, all of you, and I just have one last thing to ask: Please miss us.

— Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.

‘Unleashed’ staffers cope with finality

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF
Mia Walsh isn’t ready to attend her last Unleashed meeting.
She’s been on the team for three years and had considered following in the footsteps of her two older sisters and applying for next year’s student editor position.
She won’t have that opportunity. Unleashed — the award-winning youth program at the Yakima Herald-Republic — is ending.

“When I heard, my heart stopped, and even now I can’t fully accept it,” said the Davis High School junior who turns 17 today. (Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009)
The struggling economy and a newspaper industry in transition have caught up with the Herald-Republic and its 10-year-old teen program, according to newspaper editors.
“It was a hard decision, but when asked to look for areas to cut in the newsroom budget, the next biggest expense outside of staffing and wire services was Unleashed,” said Interim Editor Barbara Serrano.
The Herald-Republic isn’t alone. Newspapers across the country are re-evaluating their budgets.
“What we’re seeing across the industry is downsizing, and sometimes the (teen) section’s demise is a byproduct,” said Sandy Woodcock, director of the Newspaper Association of America Foundation in Arlington, Va.
Regionally, the Vox, the monthly teen publication at the Spokesman Review in Spokane, is slated to publish its last print edition in June.
“It’s a shame these programs are going away. Our communities need them,” said Erin Daniels, who runs The Vox program.
Adriana Janovich, who has been coordinating Unleashed for the last six years, will continue working as a reporter for the Herald-Republic once the teen program concludes at the end of this month.
“It’s a cutback like you’re seeing in larger area papers and is not reflective of the success or failure of Unleashed or its staff,” said Herald-Republic news editor Jeff Garretson, a co-founder of the program.
Downsizing in the newspaper industry is twofold, Serrano said. The first issue is the current economic recession. Another major factor is that more people are getting information from the Internet. Faced with declining advertising revenues, many newspapers are reassessing their budgets, and often teen sections are considered a luxury.
The expenses for Unleashed include a part-time student editor, correspondent pay for student reporters, photographers and illustrators, pizza and pop at monthly team meetings, and movie passes. The Herald-Republic also dedicated staff time from Janovich, a staff photographer and assignment and copy editors.
While Serrano assured the Herald-Republic isn’t in “crisis mode,” the newspaper still needs “to make cuts so we can stay healthy and nimble and expand our reach.”
When Unleashed staffers learned of the cutback earlier this month, students and their families expressed disappointment.

“My heart just sank,” said Andy Carroll, an 18-year-old senior at La Salle High School and a three-year Unleashed reporter and columnist. “I had just turned in a column the day before, and it crushed me that (Unleashed) could just be done.”
Yvana Iovino’s three daughters — Elizabeth, Diana and Mia Walsh — have all worked on Unleashed.
“I realize the economic problem for journalism and newspapers, but I still think you need to raise a future generation to do that work, to cover stories, because we will always need the exchanging of ideas,” Iovino said.
Unleashed, started in 1999, was published as its own section on Tuesdays until last September, when teens’ work was integrated into the main pages of the newspaper.
Unleashed’s roughly 30 team members were selected in May and were two months shy of finishing their yearlong commitment.
“The sooner you make these difficult and often disappointing decisions the more quickly you can move forward to implement those savings to meet today’s economic reality,” said Herald-Republic Publisher Michael Shepard.
The last team meeting takes place Wednesday night and the program is slated to wrap up by March 1. Students will have a couple of weeks to complete stories and other assignments.

• Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She is a senior at Eisenhower High School.

‘Happy inauguration’

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF
The word “inauguration” floated around everywhere, bouncing from the front page of the newspaper to the “Reesha in the Morning” show on 107.3 KFFM to a “happy inauguration” greeting from my father.
Today, it seemed the air was more alive with the buzz of this word than ever before. I don’t remember an inauguration ever being this exciting.
Then again, George W. Bush had been president since I was 9.
His last two elections left vague smudges on my memory, but I know nothing will compare to the election of Barack Obama.
Just like thousands of other 17- and 18-year-olds across the country, I feel that I own a bit of this presidency and this monumentous moment in American history.
How lucky am I that the first presidential campaign I was able to follow with complete understanding resulted in the election — and now inauguration — of a man such as Barack Obama?
Tremendously is the answer. Tremendously.
So carrying a sense of pride and ownership to school this morning, I must admit I did consider skipping class to witness his inaugural address live on television.
Of course, I didn’t, and that choice paid off.
Eisenhower High School principal Stacey Locke told teachers to keep their first-period students a few minutes longer to allow everyone the chance to watch President-elect Obama become President Obama.
I was in a Current World Problems, where lesson plans were already set aside so we could watch the events leading up to the actual oath of office and inaugural address.
It was significantly rewarding to watch former president after former president walk to their seats and fully understand the commentary news correspondents about each one. And, even further, to understand the magnitude of the crowd that was spilling into streets and stretching to the Washington Monument in a striking resemblance to the masses that gathered before Martin Luther King Jr. some 45 years ago.
The most striking moment, besides the inaugural address itself, was watching Obama make his way through the doors to the platform and see his expression, more heavy than gleeful. He looked exactly the way I would expect him to on a day like today, in a year like this year.
There was a man who ran a campaign that riled up Americans like we haven’t been riled since John F. Kennedy. Talk about setting up expectations.
There was a man who made huge promises that, if carried out, will make him an American saint. But, if they fail, they could make him more hated than even George W. Bush. Talk about pressure.
There was a man who was about to be handed the reins to a country whose horses become more wounded and off-track every day. Talk about a heavy task.
If Obama had been ecstatic and carefree, I would have been worried.
But he didn’t give me, or any American, a need to worry. His inaugural address was one of a president with a head on his shoulders. He addressed the state of our country and the difficulties ahead realistically, but stressed that there is always room for hope.
The point that stood out the most to me was his comment to those who thought some things were too big for America to take on.
“Their memories are short,” he said, and I couldn’t agree more.
The United States of America was founded on one big ideal that the monarchies of the world then laughed at: freedom.
So now all I have to say is  good luck, Obama. You have the heart, you have the logic, may America and the rest of the world help you to take us where we need to go.

— Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.

Pageant coordinator helps highlight local talent

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF

It had been close to a decade since a Miss Yakima County  was  crowned. And Carol Milliron  wanted to do something about it.
So she created — and become the executive director of — the new Miss Yakima County Organization.
“The only way a girl can run for Miss America is by first winning a local pageant, but Yakima did not even offer that, and I wanted girls here to have that opportunity,” says Milliron, a registered nurse.
Last year, Marcie Anglen won the title, the first winner in almost 10 years. And now is the time to apply to compete in the 2009 pageant.
The deadline is Jan. 31, and the pageant will be held March 8 at Yakima’s Capitol Theatre.
Along with Miss Yakima County — for teens and young women ages 17 to 24 — there’s also the Yakima County’s Outstanding Teen  title  for girls ages 11 to 13.
Both competitions include interview, talent, and evening wear portions. The only difference — besides age — comes in swimwear. While Miss Yakima County contestants don swimsuits, the younger girls sport aerobic wear.
When applying for either pageant, contestants must specify a platform.
“Your platform can be something you are already passionate about and involved in,” Milliron says. “Throughout the pageant, the judges will ask you questions about your platform, so you need to be knowledgeable about your subject.”
“All You Need is Love; Encouraging Volunteerism in Our Youth” is the platform for Reina Almon, a 17-year-old West Valley High School junior and the reigning Yakima County’s Outstanding Teen.
“My platform stems from the belief that youth should be more active in their communities and the world,” she says. “It’s often said that the best way to promote something is through your own example, so to promote my platform I was very active in several volunteer activities.”
Some of those activities include being part of the Yakima Valley Community Foundation’s youth council, acting as a director for the Mr. West Valley pageant, and being a member of Holy Family Parish’s<FEFF>  Council.
Almon has competed in pageants since she was 13. Last year, when she heard Yakima was holding a pageant associated with Miss America, she couldn’t resist.
“I was not a very confident person until I started doing pageants,” she says. “Now I have no problem getting on a stage. Job interviews don’t scare me in the least, and I am just very comfortable with myself.”
Almon went on to win third runner-up in the Miss Washington’s Outstanding Teen pageant last May.
Milliron is looking for more contestants like her to compete in this year’s pageant.
“There are many young women with high moral caliber and great personalities in the Valley, and this pageant is a great way to promote them,” she says.
For more information, visit www.missyakimacounty.org.

• Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.

Wanted: Style Agents for Wild Lucy’s

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF
“Who knows more about fashion and what girls are wearing right now than girls?” asks Dawn Garland, the owner of Wild Lucy’s.
The answer, of course, is no one. And Garland has found a way to use that fact to her advantage.
This month, Wild Lucy’s is beginning its search for “style agents,” or high school and college-age girls and fashion-forward boys who will assist the Yakima boutique in the stocking and representation of the store.

Garland, 39, is hoping to select two agents from each high school in the Yakima Valley by the end of the month. Each agent will be required to hold the position for a year, and there is also the chance to be hired on as Wild Lucy’s paid staff at the end of the term.
“Before each season, the agents will come in, sit with us, have popcorn, and look over the items we have picked out for the store,” Garland says.
The agents will essentially be professional opinion-givers. They’ll say what they like and what they don’t like, and even add their own ideas to the mix.
“We want forward-thinking girls with a sense of business and communication who are going to bring something to the table,” Garland says.
Tara Trudeau, the store manager, added that the agents should be a bit aggressive and willing to put their ideas out there instead of just sitting back quietly.
Starting a style agent program is an idea that Garland and Trudeau have tossed around for a while.
And the opportunity sounds fun to Salam Awad, an 18-year-old senior at Eisenhower High School.
“I think this is a great idea for Yakima, and a lot of people will be interested in it,” she says. “If you really look around, teens here have many different styles. The more and more people that put their heads together to share their fashion ideas, the better the store will become because they could provide merchandise that fits everyone’s taste.”
Bettering the store and upping sales are possible perks of the program. But Wild Lucy has other goals for 2009, too.
“As of Feb. 1, Wild Lucy’s will be in its third year. We’ve spent that time getting up and running, and now that we’re pretty stable in the community, we can focus on our original purpose: to be a store with a cause,” Garland says.
That cause is Women for Women International, a nonprofit that — according to its Web site — offers women survivors of war and other conflicts the tools and resources to progress from crisis and poverty to stability and self-sufficiency.
Ten percent of all profits at Wild Lucy’s will go to the organization to aid women in war-torn countries.
While promoting Wild Lucy’s is their first priority, it will also be important for style agents to be aware of this cause. They will be representing the store at community events.
“The girls will wear our shirts and help to represent us at these events,” Garland says. “It will be an opportunity for them to have community experience, and to get an idea of what retail is.”
Being a style agent, Awad says, “would be a good preview into the fashion industry. It would also help you to work with other people, and teach you to incorporate their ideas into your own.”
Lindsey Sires, a 17-year-old Eisenower senior, says the program will help teens help the community through something they are passionate about: fashion.
“This is a good opportunity even if you are not necessarily in going into the fashion industry since it gets you out into the community,” she says.
“It will also help teens to build some business skills,” says Jacquelyn Radford, a 15-year-old ninth-grader at West Valley Junior High. “It would be nice to see more trendy stores like Wild Lucy’s in Yakima. A lot of people like that kind of fashion.”
Another learning experience will come from helping build clientele. According to Garland, style agents will all have business cards to hand out to peers. After a certain amount of Wild Lucy’s shoppers show an agent’s card he or she will receive a 10 percent discount. After another amount, agents will earn a 15 percent discount, and so on, up to a 25 percent discount.
“The harder they work, the more benefits they’ll get,” Garland says.
Another benefit of being a style agent is getting a sneak preview of merchandise that comes into the store. Wild Lucy’s only orders three to six of any one item at a time, and the agents will have the opportunity to buy that new merchandise before the rest of the community sees it.

Wild Lucy’s
Where: 418 B. South 48th Ave.
Applications: Available on Wild Lucy’s MySpace and Facebook.
Call: 509-965-LUCY

— Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.

Invisible Children Book Drive

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF
Eisenhower High School is collecting books to help Invisible Children.
The campaign started in November when three representatives from the nonprofit organization visited the school to show their latest documentary, “GO!”
The film focuses on a new program called “Schools for Schools.” This program, part of the Invisible Children organization, aims to rebuild and add resources to crumbling schools in Uganda.
Invisible Children started five years ago when three Americans took a trip to Uganda and made a documentary. They came home with a story about children who, until then, were “invisible” to many in the United States. Their film focused on kids who were orphaned because of, or abducted into, the civil war that was taking place in their country.
Now, Nicole Frymier, an 18-year-old senior at Ike, is coordinating the local book drive for her senior project. The campaign supports the Anaka Secondary School in Uganda.
Along with other Invisible Children advocates across the country, Frymier is collecting new and used books through January. While a small number of them will go to schools in Uganda, most of the books will be given to a company called Better World Books. The company will sell the books online and give half of the profits to Invisible Children.
Several of Ike’s seventh-period, homeroom-type classes are participating as a community service project.
But Frymier would like the community to have a chance to participate as well.
“Originally, I knew that Invisible Children was a good cause, so when my friend asked if I wanted to head up the book drive as my senior project, I was happy to,” she said. “But after seeing the video ‘GO!’ I got way more excited about the drive because I saw all that it could do to help deserving kids in Uganda.”
The book drive isn’t only a fundraiser; it’s also a competition. Schools around the country are trying to collect the most books. The school that wins will get to select one student to go to Uganda and help out at a school.
Community members are asked to drop off books at Eisenhower High School’s main office, at 702 S. 40th Ave.
The book drive continues through Jan. 30.
For more information, email icbookdrive@gmail.com or visit www.invisiblechildren.com.

Guidelines
• Books must have an ISBN. The ISBN may be printed in barcode format on the book’s back cover or inside a mass-market paperback’s front cover. The ISBN may also be printed in 10-digit or 13-digit format on the book’s copyright page.
• Do not send books that are dirty, moldy, damaged, or missing covers or pages.

— Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.

Remembering Shayla

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF

Time passed strangely today. I saw a lot of people cry.

The atmosphere at school changed from room to room, person to person. Sometimes it was heavy and somber, other times humbly accepting, and quite often a bit uneasy.

We all found out at different times and in different ways, but by 10 a.m. every senior at Eisenhower High School knew we lost a member of our class Thursday.

Shayla Holwegner, No. 11 on the girls’ varsity volleyball team, was 17.

Friday morning, my first period teacher had a hard time getting through the memo that was sent out about Shayla. The administration wanted us all to know what had happened, and informed us that grief counselors would be in the library for anyone who just couldn’t handle class today.

While not all of us knew Shayla well, just being Ike students involved us in the movement to help her fight the rare bone cancer which claimed her life Thursday.

Friday, classes went on normally, except for the considerable amount of empty seats usually occupied by volleyball players, basketball players, and other friends of Shayla. The pep assembly was canceled. Instead, the senior class was called to the Little Theater.

Principal Stacey Locke talked to us about Shayla, about her goal of earning a diploma — not just being handed one — about how hard she fought her cancer, and about the grief we were all allowed to feel. I didn’t know Shayla particularly well, but I felt affected by this huge loss.

Still, I felt a bit uneasy in the theater, sitting behind crying members of the volleyball team, not sure whether I should offer condolences or give space. At first, it didn’t really feel like I had the right to be there with them, but I then I thought about it more.

I thought about my school and what it was doing today. We were acting as a family, especially the senior class. Everyone was quiet in that room, listening, hugging, crying, connecting. The teachers were equal with the students, the students were equal with the teachers.

We all lost someone.

No matter how well we knew her, Shayla Holwegner was, and always will be, a part of Ike.
— Alyssa Patrick is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.

All I want for Christmas is a bracelet from Invisible Children

By ALYSSA PATRICK
UNLEASHED STAFF

You know you’re busy when your mom is hassling you to make a Christmas wish list and you keep telling her, “I’ll get to it, I don’t have time right now.”
I’ve been saying this to my mother for a few weeks now, and though I’ve given her a few ideas, she still could use a more extensive list, or so she tells me.
So, I’ve decided to combine one of the things that makes me busy — Unleashed, my favorite newspaper feature ever — with the Christmas list I’ve been putting off.
This is for you, Mom.
One of the first things I would like is another bracelet from Invisible Children. In fact, I would like all of them.
Invisible Children is an organization that helps kids and families in Uganda who have been affected by the country’s most recent civil war. The bracelets are made by children in Uganda, and modeled after the elephant hair bracelets that were made by their ancestors.
Five different colored bracelets are made, and each one comes with a DVD about the life of the Ugandan child it represents. I already have the white one, which tells the remarkable story of a boy named Innocence. I wear it everyday as a reminder of not only this program, but of all people who suffer like Innocence has.
No, it’s more than that. It’s a reminder of people who have suffered like Innocence, but fight even harder for their future, like Innocence is.
When his video was made a few years ago, he was a 12 or 13-year-old boy who made nightly commutes from his home to a camp where he was less likely to be abducted by rebel soldiers. This journey took hours.
Innocence stayed up late into the night, not because of goofing around with the other boys, but because of homework. He wanted to go to a university in America and be president of Uganda, and he knew every factor that was working to oppress him.
But he didn’t falter. He was milking the few resources he had with a vigor I do not see in people who have all the resources in the world.
The more I think about this, the more those bracelets become the perfect Christmas present.
Sure I’d like a new pair of jeans, an iHome, a camera.
But I don’t need those things. These bracelets, however, send money to kids who need it and support a program I whole-heartedly believe in.
So perhaps my list should start and end here, and my self-proclaimed busyness should be toned down a bit so I can wear someone else’s shoes for a moment, or their lack of shoes.

— Alyssa Patrick is the student editor of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Eisenhower High School.

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