‘Alice in Wonderland’ at Davis High School

By COLLEEN FONTANA
DAVIS HIGH SCHOOL

It’s 3:45 p.m.
Teenagers sit haphazardly around the Davis High School auditorium. Scattered about are splashes of color and slivers of pattern, glimpses of costumes forming slowly among the cast.
Attentive to director Shannon Ruiz, the players — recognizing the importance of these comments — listen as advice is given.
“Don’t ever drop character,” they hear as they move to their positions for Act 1.
One more thing: “And no cell phones during rehearsal!”
With opening night just around the corner, students in the cast and crew of the Davis High School production of “Alice in Wonderland” were steadily perfecting their characters and polishing scene changes in order to produce a quality production. And they are confident in their ability to do just that.
“Not only have we been working hard,” says 16-year-old junior Boston Peltier, “but we’ve been doing a fantastic job.”
Players have been rehearsing since early October. Earlier this month, sets still needed to be finished and lines needed to be perfected.
Their work culminated with opening night Thursday and continues through the two-week run of the production.
“‘Alice in Wonderland’ is a show that can and should be an experience for people of all ages,” Ruiz says.
Briana Tamaki plays the part of the Cheshire Cat. It’s the first time she’s been in such a prominent role, but she’s surrounded by a supportive cast and says she feels confident.
“It’s the most nonsensical play that there has ever been, and it is not the standard, normal plot, so it’s unique in that sense,” says the 17-year-old senior.
“There are a lot of goofy characters that will make you laugh because they don’t make sense, and characters that will make you laugh because they do make sense,” says 18-year-old senior Alex Cottle, who plays Alice.
Senior Whitney Ketcham, 17, plays the Queen of Hearts, whose slightly deranged character says — or attempts to say — “Off with their heads!” a total of 17 times throughout the play.
Ketcham was eager to play such a role.
“I like playing characters that are over the top because I like being dramatic,” she says.
Jenny Gonzalez, a 16-year-old junior, likes being dramatic, too. But her job isn’t on stage. In her third-year American Sign Language class, the students were presented with the opportunity to sign the play to earn extra points. It was an opportunity Gonzalez didn’t want to pass up.
“I volunteered to participate in the theatrical side of Davis,” she says, adding she thinks it’s important to expose audience members to American Sign Language.
Sixteen-year-old Nichole Lounsbury, assistant backstage manager, is in charge of making sure everyone is where they need to be with what they need when they need it. Although she is backstage during the show, she expects the view from the audience will be spectacular.
“When (the curtain) comes up and all the colors appear, people are going to love it,” she says.
“It is a classic. Everyone loves a classic.”

• Colleen Fontana is a senior at Davis High School and a member of Unleashed, the Yakima Herald-Republic’s journalism program for teenagers.

IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Alice in Wonderland.”
WHERE: Davis High School Auditorium, 212 S. Sixth Ave., Yakima.
WHEN: 7 p.m. today; 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Saturday; 7 p.m. Nov. 19-20; 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Nov. 21.
HOW MUCH: $5 for children and students; $8 for adults.

Off the field

Touchdowns, tackles, fumbles, punts, first-downs, time-outs.
A lot happens on the field.
Ticket-taking, gate-keeping, cheering, watching, marching, announcing, fundraising, setting-up, tearing-down, cleaning-up.
A lot goes on off the field, too.

Every Friday night during football season, as the players work hard to play their best, others — mainly volunteers — are working just as hard to make sure everything goes smoothly on and off the field.
At Yakima’s Davis High School, for example, athletic director Bob Stanley, 44, estimates at least a dozen people are needed to run the game — and that’s not including the people who help with setting and cleaning up or selling concessions for the hundreds of fans that typically attend games at Zaepfel Stadium.
Hosting a home football game is no small task. The players on the field are only a portion of the action. Lines must be painted and tickets sold. Popcorn must be made, cheers must be shouted, and fight songs must be played. And at the end of the evening, garbage must be picked up and gates locked.
The Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team recently tackled these aspects of Friday night football festivities, the activities that happen off the field, before, after and during the game. Here’s a look at the hubbub happening off the field.
— Colleen Fontana, Davis High School

Athletic trainers
Before the Rams take Clasen Field, Jeannie Martin and her team of West Valley High School students trainers are already working to prepare the players and carrying medical supplies, water and ice to the sidelines.
Martin usually arrives two hours before game time to assist injured athletes, supervise stretching, tape ankles and ice strained muscles. The 37-year-old has served as the school’s athletic trainer for 11 years.
She teaches courses in beginning and advanced sports therapy, and some of her students plan to pursue a career in this — or a related — field. During games, she works with seven to 10 student trainers, all of whom have taken her class and some of whom are members of the school’s sports medicine club.
What does she like most about her job? “That it’s different every week.”
What does she like least? “The long hours.”
— Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

Ticket-takers
In a small wooden shed at the gates of Zaepfel Stadium, Debra Reis and Julie Stephens are ready to take tickets.
Even though it feels freezing cold inside the little shed, they both seem enthusiastic and energetic, ready to welcome people to the game.
Their shift starts at 7 p.m. and lasts until half-time. The busiest part is the first hour, between 7 and 8, when lines stretch past the ticket booth and back toward Eisenhower High School.
Stephens has been a staff member at Ike for more than 20 years. Reis has worked at the school for four. Both are in their late 40s and work as registrars. When Ike has home games, they work the ticket booth.
High school students who are members of the Associated Student Body — and have ASB cards to prove it — can enter home games for free during the regular season.
Most of the people in line are students and their families wishing to show their school spirit and support their team.
However, parents of former players, family friends, community members and other school supporters who just enjoy football come to buy tickets and watch the game, too. Reis and Stephens get to know the regulars and share jokes with them as they go by.
— Sean Nagle-McNaughton, Davis High School

Safety and security
Ready to hold the line between high school rivals stand security guards and police officers.
Their presence serves as a deterrent to potential problems. Usually, there are no serious conflicts; most students are happy to wander across the field to talk with their friends that go to the rival school.
In fact, the worst offense Yakima police officer Jonathan Cordova, 39, says he has ever seen at a game was a drunken spectator.
In addition to officers and guards, there’s an ambulance ready to take care of any injured athletes or spectators at every football game at Zaepfel Stadium.
On cold nights, paramedics are in an enviable position compared to the officers and guards providing security. While security staffers have to walk around to make sure students and spectators are following the rules, paramedics can spend their time watching the game from inside the warm ambulance, ready to provide first aid and support if needed.
— Sean Nagle-McNaughton, Davis High School

Marching band
The host team’s marching band performs at every home football game.
These performances provide entertainment during the game and serve, according to 15-year-old Keelan Smith, a trombonist and sophomore at Eisenhower High School, as practice for competitions.
For band members, the appeal of performing at the game is the live audience. The student musicians take pride in the band and work hard to perform well. In fact, their preparation starts during summer when most students are enjoying vacation. In fall, the Ike band practices after school twice a week and numerous Saturdays.
Game days, the Ike band arrives at the high school at 5:30 p.m. and leaves after the game ends, typically after 10 p.m. The only time the band leaves early is when there’s a band competition the next day and members need to get a good night’s sleep before leaving as early as 5 a.m. the following morning.
Seventeen-year-old Ike senior Darion Roth, a saxophonist and the senior drum major, says he would like to see more people coming out to attend the games and support — not only the football players — but the marching band.
Before the start of a home game at West Valley High School, band director Ron Gerhardstein is as busy as the head football coach, overseeing his own players — the musicians — as they warm up.
Unbeknownst to many football fans, the band practices as often as the football team.
“Marching band takes a lot of time,” says the 44-year-old Gerhardstein, who’s served as West Valley’s band director for five years. “We rehearse during first period each morning, and we rehearse on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8:30.”
And on game nights, the West Valley band’s 111 members arrive an hour before game time to change into their uniforms, stretch and warm up.
About 45 minutes before the game starts, they line up and march over to the stadium. They perform the national anthem and school fight song for the pre-game show, give a half-time field show, and play at other times throughout the game itself.
“My least favorite part of game nights is trying to get 111 students to pay enough attention to the game so that we can play music when the time is appropriate,” Gerhardstein says. “If they don’t pay enough attention we (lose) our opportunities to play.”
— Sean Nagle-McNaughton, Davis High School, and Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

The announcer
High in the stadium, up in the announcer’s booth, Adam Eldridge isn’t visible to football fans. But he’s certainly heard by them.
The 34-year-old is the voice of the Rams.
He’s announced athletic events for 12 years altogether, including five at West Valley High School. In addition to football, he announces soccer and basketball games, too.
Eldridge arrives 45 minutes before game time to check in with coaches on the pronunciations of players’ names and touch base with other folks working the game.
He says he doesn’t do the job for the pay.
“I get great seats, and it’s a covered area,” he says. “I enjoy the spirit and just watching the student athletes perform.”
— Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

The photographer
Though a recent leg surgery keeps Jim Hauske at field level, shooting pictures, the 63-year-old spent more than 20 seasons as a spotter for the Rams.
As a spotter, Hauske reported the numbers of the players who made tackles and caught passes to the announcer in the booth. But the past few years, since retiring from teaching, Hauske has become the unofficial photographer for many West Valley High School teams.
He’s a mainstay at football and other games, wandering the sidelines taking action shots of players. These photographs are often given as gifts to student athletes at team banquets.
A true fan of football, Hauske enjoys watching the game, cheering for athletes, and seeing people he knows.
Hauske says, “My least favorite part about the job is when fans get knit-picky on games and times, and when they argue about mistakes.
“Everyone makes them.”
— Lindsay Burns, West Valley Junior High

Concessions
Popcorn and candy bars go out, and money comes in.
Surrounded by a variety of treats, and stepping around boxes of Lightning paraphernalia, volunteers in the concession stand work to keep fans fed and happy.
“The most popular item tonight was the caramel suckers,” says 52-year-old La Salle High School parent Mary Adkins, following the Oct. 2 home game against the White Swan High School Cougars.
She works the booth to help complete the 30 volunteer hours required of each family that has a kid or kids who attend the Catholic school. Plus, she says, it’s fun.
However, concession workers arrive at home games as early as 3 p.m. and often stay until 10:30 p.m. for clean-up.
“It was basically nonstop,” Adkins says of customer-flow during the game.
But the work reaps a worthy outcome. The thousand or so dollars that come in each home game from concession sales goes to help La Salle athletics.
The candy itself helps energize the crowd on cold football nights.
“They just want anything sugary,” Adkins says.
Same thing is true at White Swan High School, where junior Alex Craig, 16, serves as one of the two concession stand managers. Students from different grades get to work the booth during designated home games, earning money for their class.
Funds raised go toward activities such as each grade’s senior trip.
— Colleen Fontana, Davis High School, and Tedra Kay Spencer, White Swan High School

Cheerleaders
As the final gun sounds, Grizzlies fans explode with cheers, relieved to pull out a 21-20 victory over the Davis Pirates. And these ecstatic cheers are led, of course, by the Sunnyside High School cheerleaders.
Throughout the entire Oct. 9 game, Sunnyside’s homecoming, the crowd was way into the game and cheering with excitement, just the sort of crowd cheerleaders hope for.
“It means a lot to us when you cheer along,” says Sunnyside cheerleader Sydney Wutzke, a 15-year-old junior. “It makes us feel like we’re doing our job, and it helps out with the guys a lot. It makes them feel better when there’s a spirited crowd.”
The Grizzlies were down the entire first half of the game, making a huge comeback in the second. Still, the score was touch-and-go for much of the fourth quarter.
Says Wutzke, “You just have to push through it and keep everyone positive … ”
On the football field at White Swan High School, when the Cougars are down, cheerleader Brigida Walker, a 16-year-old junior, says the same thing: You gotta stay positive.
“I just encourage my fellow cheermates to keep cheering because even if we don’t win we’re still winners at heart,” Walker says.
There are those times when the home team walks away without the victory. But after any game, 18-year-old Sunnyside cheerleader Taylor Daniel, a senior, says, “I feel tired and excited, and I usually have fun whether we win or lose.”
Wutzke agrees, saying she loves “everything” about cheer. “I have a lot of fun with everyone in the crowd, and dancing and stunting,” she says.
These aren’t the only reasons to cheer, however.
Wutzke is dating Sunnyside quarterback, Andrew Daley, a junior. She says she tries to cheer for the entire team equally. “I try to keep it even,” she says, “but of course I have that soft spot for him.”
— Hannah Besso, Davis High School, and Tedra Kay Spencer, White Swan High School

Fans
The deafening roar from the crowd is immediately followed by the equally as loud bang of a cannon, signifying a touchdown.
“Boom!” a fan calls loudly as the cheerleaders begin to lead the standing student fans in a cheer.
Bundled in blankets and letterman jackets, breathing warm air onto their numb hands and staying close together for warmth, they still yell with gusto.
Flashes of blue and silver collide as students bounce along, waving their hands chaotically in the air even after the echo of the cannon dies away.
For football fans at Marquette Stadium during Friday night home games, the cannon is essential. It’s La Salle High School tradition to fire it after each touchdown. Just ask Jeff Hayes.
“My soul purpose here is shooting the cannon,” says the 45-year-old, who’s watched his two children graduate from La Salle, but still faithfully returns for the cannon every football season.
What can he say? He likes “big bangs.” And he’s not the only one.
“My favorite part is when we score touchdowns, and the cannon goes boom!” says 17-year-old La Salle senior Chelsea Adkins.
Victoria Gonzalez, also a 17-year-old senior, agrees: “When I hear the cannon, I get all excited and scream!”
Along with the home team, the cannon keeps fans coming back.
“As long as we have the cannon,” says Hayes, “I’m gonna be here shooting it.”
Now, there’s no cannon on the football field at White Swan High School. But, walking up the stairs on the bleachers, the school colors — red, black and white — flash underneath the Friday night lights.
Chelsey Sheppard is usually up there, too. She hardly ever misses a home game.
The eighth-grader at Mount Adams Middle School goes to football games with her parents and older sister, a White Swan sophomore.
“I love the White Swan Cougars for so many reasons,” the 13-year-old says. “They are my life. When the team loses, I lose. They have been my team since I was 3. … I love the Cougars, and we are strong.”
— Colleen Fontana, Davis High School, and Tedra Kay Spencer, White Swan High School

Cleaning up, tearing down
At Marquette Stadium, where the La Salle Lightning play home games, clean-up relies mainly on volunteers — and Teresa Barry, the Catholic high school’s dean of students.
While many fans flood the field for post-game prayer and coach Jack McMillan’s “atta-ways,” or shout-outs, Barry makes herself responsible for tidying the seating area.
She has some help. Before the game ends, the announcer usually asks people to clean up the area around them. While parents usually manage to comply with this request, Barry says, oftentimes, “the students forget.”
The amount of time it takes — and size of the mess left behind — depend on how many people attend the game. And the more people that help, the faster clean-up goes.
“If I have some people who help out I can finish in 10 (minutes),” Barry says. “It takes longer when there are things like nachos that make a mess because there’s more to clean up.”
Other elements of post-game clean-up involve emptying trash bags, a job that parents typically take on, and storing the cheerleaders’ boxes behind the stadium. Family members and friends of cheerleaders help with this. And the job usually requires two people to carry one box.
Barry’s grateful for all the help she can get.

“It’s our responsibility to clean the stadium,” she says. “And I kind of miss being able to go down for the prayer time.”
— Kateri Town, La Salle High School

We all need to fight global warming

By SEAN NAGLE-MCNAUGHTON
DAVIS HIGH SCHOOL

I’ve been interested in the environment as long as I can remember. I’ve written papers on pollution, put on skits in classes, and worked to reduce my own contribution by recycling, carpooling and reusing anything I can.
Last year, when I was in eighth grade at Discovery Lab School, I wanted to do something big for my final project. Learning about and working to address global warming seemed like a good fit.
Global warming is a human-powered threat. It’s also a complex problem. Global warming is the process by which greenhouse gases warm the Earth, trapping increasing amounts of heat around our planet that otherwise would have been released into space.
Here’s how it works: Sunlight passes though the Earth’s atmosphere, the thin layer of gases that surround our planet. The Earth absorbs the sun’s rays, and this energy is changed into heat, then released back into the atmosphere.
Some of this energy escapes into space. Plants, animals and surface water also absorb some of the energy. But more and more of the heat is becoming trapped in the atmosphere, remaining there like the heat inside a greenhouse.
Greenhouse gases include methane, water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbons. Without these gases, the average temperature on the surface of the Earth would be 0 degrees F.
However, the balance of these gases is changing. Carbon dioxide levels are 30 percent higher than in 1860, according to “Global Warming: A Threat to Our Future” by Paul Stein. This is primarily blamed on humans burning fossil fuels.
And it is a threat to — and the responsibility of — the entire Earth.
“The most efficient use of energy is now an obligation upon humanity,” Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said at the World Economic Forum in January. “The whole world must make efforts to maximize the improvement of energy efficiency.”

I’ve always loved places such as Mount Rainier National Park, where I’ve spend entire days wandering the woods, and White Pass or elsewhere in the Cascades, where I go on long hikes to hidden meadows.
If humans destroy pristine environments like these, there will be none left to enjoy. This is the main reason fighting global warming appeals to me. There is something each of us can do to reverse this dangerous trend.
For me, the most shameful fact about trying to halt global warming is that our country — the largest, most industrialized, and therefore polluting, country — has not formally pledged to reduce greenhouse gases by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol.
Global warming may have some limited positive effects, such as a longer growing season in some places. And some controversy still exists over the potential long-term impacts of global warming. But there is increasing agreement in the scientific community that global warming is real and that its causes are man-made.
According to Stuart D. Jordan, a senior staff scientist at the NASA Goddard Space Center in Greenbelt, Md., global warming could stress Earth’s ecosystems, “especially if the changes are rapid.”
In 2006, he wrote, “From the point of view of the ecosystem health, rapid change is extremely unlikely to be beneficial.”
Rising sea levels are among the scariest potential effects of global warming. If polar and glacial ice continue to melt at current rates, oceans could rise anywhere from 20 to 50 feet, according to the book “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore. Even at the low end of the range, millions of people could be forced from their homes.
Some of the smaller Pacific Islands, such as Tuvalu, which has implemented an evacuation plan, are already being covered by the rising sea. Highly populated areas such as cities located near sea level are particularly at risk.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts Glacier National Park will have no more glaciers by 2030, when I am 37 years old. If the melting of the polar arctic ice continues, there will be serious problems for species that live in this habitat, such as polar bears.
Already, there have been reports of polar bears drowning. This is particularly alarming given the fact that polar bears can swim 30 to 40 miles at a time.
Polar bears hunt on ice. Polar ice reductions place them at risk of starvation. This loss of habitat as a consequence of global warming has resulted in listing polar bears as a “threatened species” by the United States on May 14, 2008.
Polar bears aren’t the only animals affected. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, if global temperatures rise by a mere 6.3 degrees, between 40 percent and 70 percent of all species could disappear.
Our present lifestyles and locations of our cities are a result of existing weather patterns. If the world’s climate changes as scientists have predicted, there could be serious alterations to those weather patterns, affecting the way we live and where we live.

The term “carbon footprint” refers to the estimated amount of carbon dioxide that an individual or organization creates in a year. A number of tools have been developed to calculate carbon footprints. The hope is that by raising awareness of how our daily choices impact carbon emissions, individuals, organizations and communities will take steps to minimize their production of carbon dioxide.
This brings us back to my final project. I estimated Discovery Lab School’s carbon footprint by searching the Internet for a calculator that worked especially for schools. I eventually found “The School Neutral” carbon calculator that you can download for free onto Excel. It can be found at www.earthteam.net.
The spreadsheet required that I enter certain information about the school. So I contacted Deb Lavis, the principal, and asked for her help. She provided me with info on school enrollment, the number of students who ride the bus, bus routes, the size of our garbage bins and the number of times garbage is picked up.
She also gave me a summary of the school’s electricity and natural gas usage for one year. There were no exact measurements of the bus routes, so I plotted them on a map of Yakima and calculated how far each bus travels each day.
To estimate the miles traveled in cars to transport students to and from school, I conducted an e-mail survey using the Discovery Family Connection e-mail list. From the 15 responses I received, I was able to calculate an average number of trips per week, the average distance traveled and the average number of students per car to come up with the estimated total miles driven by cars each year.
The weight of the landfill waste generated each year by the school was calculated using a “Volume-to-Weight Conversion Factors” table from the National Recycling Coalition Measurement Standards and Reporting Guidelines. I estimated the amount of recycling based on my experience doing school recycling each Friday. Removing potential waste from the landfill by recycling gives you a credit to reduce your total carbon emissions.
According to my calculations, Discovery Lab School creates approximately 143,536 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per year. This comes out to about 699 pounds of carbon dioxide per student.

To slow global warming, each of us must take steps to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions and reduce our “carbon footprint.” Individual actions, however, are not enough to influence global warming. Governments must also play a lead role.
With President Barrack Obama in office, people like me can hope for increased actions to address global warming. In mid-December, Obama announced the members of his climate change and energy team, including Steven Chu, a physicist, Nobel laureate, expert in biofuels and advocate for comprehensive scientific solutions to global warming.
Hopefully, environmental issues and climate change will be given a higher priority in the new administration and the United States can emerge as a world leader in fighting against the potential negative impacts of global warming.

• Sean Nagle-McNaughton is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends Davis High School.

Working: firefighters

By HANNAH NAUGHTON
UNLEASHED STAFF
Your heart beats like a drum, growing louder and louder.
Sweat cascades down your face. Chapstick can’t save the Sahara Desert you call your lips, and it feels like nothing can quench your thirst. Your tongue feels swollen and your sandpapered throat stings. Your eyes burn like the building in front of you.
Orange flames entangle every corner, twisting, curling, screaming. They lick the sides of the windows and walls, devouring everything in sight.

You’re about to walk into this monster, right into its jaws. David vs. Goliath just doesn’t seem right; it’s more like man vs. big, huge, scary, hot, burning building that could collapse any second and eat you in one bite.
The David of this story is a firefighter.
The job title pretty much describes the work: fighting fires.
But it entails much more than that. Lifesaver, for example. First responder. Educator.
Whether it’s rescuing a woman from a two-story burning apartment, or teaching second-graders to stop, drop and roll, firefighters save lives.
These men and women respond to many different kinds of emergencies, including car accidents and injuries at home. In fact, most of the calls firefighters respond to are EMS, or Emergency Medical Service, calls. There are also nonemergency calls, such as having a child’s foot stuck in a toilet.
Ron Melcher, 54, has been on the job for 32 years.
“That shows how much I love my job,” he says. “Rarely do firemen get out of the service, because it’s just so rewarding.”
Melcher has served as the deputy fire marshal for the Yakima Fire Department for about three years. He oversees the department’s investigation division, public education, the reserve division, safety groups, programs within schools, media relations and more.
Of the other 29 years that he was a firefighter, he says he had many close calls where his “intuition and guardian angel” helped keep him alive.

Ryan Croffut has been on the job nine years.
“The most fun I have on the job is when I get to show up and make a difference and positively affect someone’s life,” says the 32-year-old firefighter with the Union Gap Fire Department.
Firefighting is a competitive field. Prospective firefighters attend a two-month academy, then go through a 10-month probation period.
Tony Anserello, 26, is a probationary firefighter, or “freshman,” in the Yakima Fire Department. He says he feels like he’s “under the microscope 24/7.”
“I have to prove myself, and I am evaluated,” says Anserello. “I have a notebook full of things to do, but every day is better than the last.”
From doing drills and working out to completing assignments and responding to emergency calls, beginning firefighters have a lot to do. They also have plenty of time to bond with fellow firefighters.
“Living in a firehouse is like a fraternity,” says Yakima Fire Lt. Alex Langbell. “You live with them like your family, and they’re the first guys you call up.”
Langbell, 40, has been a firefighter for 12 years. He says it doesn’t take a bookworm to become a firefighter. Instead, he says, it takes common sense and a good head on your shoulders.
For him, the most fun on the job is “riding in a firetruck going Code Three through traffic.”
“It’s something new every day,” he says. “You always get a huge adrenaline rush, like jumping from an airplane.”
Firefighters work 48-hour shifts and get paid anywhere from $4,000 to $5,500 a month.
“Unfortunately, we see death every day,” Langbell says. “But we get callused to this fact.”

—Hannah Naughton is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis High School.

Larry Bird, 39, left, and Tyler Quantrille, 27, practice setting up a ladder outside of Union Gap Fire Station on January 19, 2009.

Working: choir teacher

By HANNAH BESSO
UNLEASHED STAFF
Four years, four choirs and one African drumming class.
That could sum up choir teacher Nichola Blink’s career so far at Toppenish High School. And yet, she’s done so much more in her short time there. Many say it’s easy to see the difference she has made.
“You should have heard what it was like before she came. It was a little embarrassing,” says Arlee Volz, 65, the piano accompanist for Blink’s school choirs. “But now, she directs kids, she talks to kids, she says she’ll do anything to help them get into college and do whatever they want to do.”
It’s been that way since her first day on the job, according to superintendent Steve Myers.

“On the first day that she began teaching choir she had an unbelievable connection with the students,” he says. “In just a short period of time, the quality of the musical performance has really improved.”
Blink’s path to get here included many stops. Between kindergarten and her senior year of high school, she moved 18 times.
“Sometimes that was schools, houses or countries,” says Blink, who was born in England but has been to the Middle East, Canada and, of course, the U.S.
She graduated from high school in Oregon, went to Oberlin College in Ohio, and got a postgraduate degree at the Cincinnati Conservatory.
Prior to teaching in Toppenish, Blink, who lives in Yakima, taught at a charter school in Toledo, Ohio, while also singing opera.
At the charter school, geared to students who had been kicked out of the public school system, “I saw how the arts program really made an impact on them,” Blink says. “So I decided to go to (the University of Washington) to get a more international program. I wanted to start a program from the bottom up … somewhere they would let me do it my way, and Toppenish was open to it.”
Blink says that although she likes singing opera, she finds teaching more rewarding.
“When I sang opera, it was very fulfilling and I loved it, but it was all about me,” Blink says. “Whereas when I taught, I could see how music could change young people’s lives, and it was a way to give back that was much more fulfilling.”
What do her students have to say?
“She would help me on a lot of things, like technicality and the proper way to sing, and she’s also taught me how you can command the stage and how you have to go out there and have confidence,” says Emmanuel Rodriguez, a 15-year-old sophomore in Blink’s elite choir.
“She really has a huge passion for the students and to be able to teach them. She polishes the students until they shine,” says Adrianna Garza, a 17-year-old senior in Blink’s elite and treble choirs.
“I think what I like most about Mrs. Blink is that in her choir classes she makes sure that you understand that she means business. You have to follow her rules, and yet you’re having fun,” says 18-year old senior Sarah Story, who is a peer tutor for the beginners’ choir and is in Blink’s elite, treble and audition choirs.
“She’s one of the people I want to be like when I get older,” Story says. “She lets you know that she cares about you and not just her program. She cares about you and if you succeed.”
During her tenure, Blink has transformed the Toppenish High School choir from a group of about a dozen students to a program with more than 200 students in five different music classes, including an African drumming class.

To encourage more students to join choir, she worked out with the advanced weight-lifting team and ran with the football and cross-country teams, talking up her program.
“I did that because I wanted them to see that you should try new things even if you’re not sure that you’ll be good at them,” Blink says. “So they saw me struggle and keep trying, and I got better. And then I brought my choir to sing at the football games and I had (the football team) come join choir. So my first year I had 15 students, and by my third year I had 243. And I’ll have more this year.”
Blink likes to listen to jazz, Latin, folk and world music.
“I love music that has lyrics,” she says. “It doesn’t have to be English. Being a singer, I definitely love the human voice.”
Her husband is a teacher, too. David Blink is the director of Instrumental Music and Jazz Studies at Yakima Valley Community College.
“It is our lives,” he says of music. “Our students, in a way, are like our children.”
Says Volz, “She really believes in those kids. She doesn’t let them get by with anything but the best.”
Blink likes to keep the focus on her students.
“I love teaching because it’s constantly challenging me to be a better musician, be compassionate, and think outside the box,” she says.
“My students are probably my biggest inspiration, seeing them strive to overcome obstacles and achieve dreams.”
Her work has impressed the superintendent.
“She has been magnificent,” Myers says. “What it does show is that if you have the talent and skills as a teacher, and you can relate to students, the sky is the limit. Our students are reaching for the stars.”

—  Hannah Besso is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis High School.

Working: the piano teacher

By COLLEEN FONTANA
UNLEASHED STAFF

Carole Franklin can’t remember a time when she couldn’t read music.
Having played piano since age 5, she feels like it’s something she’s always known.
“When I was 5, my brothers were taking lessons and I would tag along,” she says. “I wanted to be just like them.”
Now, more than four decades later, Franklin is sharing her love of music with children and adults in the Yakima Valley by teaching them the instrument she loves.
Teaching piano is a job she truly enjoys.
“I like that I can set my own schedule,” she says of teaching. With a series of half-hour lessons once a week, her schedule is flexible and can be adjusted easily.
Most importantly, though, she enjoys working closely with her students.
“It’s wonderful to see the kids progress,” she says. “Beginning step by step, they can eventually do things on their own, and it’s great to see that.”

Ali Sellsted has taken piano lessons from Franklin for about six years, starting in third grade. Now, at age 15, she remains Franklin’s student — and still enjoys it.
“I’ve always taken from her, and I have fun at her lessons,” Sellsted says.
Ali’s father, 51-year-old Tom Sellsted, regards music as something that should not be forced and admires Franklin’s style of teaching.
“Music is supposed to be fun, and Franklin knows that,” he says.
Franklin, 50, says her hope is that her students will fall in love with piano. She also says it’s rewarding when students come in because they want to and not just because their parents make them.
“The only thing I don’t like,” she says, “is when it’s obvious that the student is only taking (lessons) because mom and dad say so.”
Franklin’s teaching career began in college when another piano teacher was leaving town and wanted her to take over the studio. So far, Franklin has taught in Yakima for nearly 20 years.
She charges a monthly tuition of $60. And she says she would like to take on more students.
While Ali’s dad says he thinks piano “will be more a hobby than a career” for his daughter, he also says “she will always have the fundamentals that will stick with her.”

— Colleen Fontana is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis High School.

Working: lifeguard

By HANNAH BESSO
unleashed staff
Splashes echo around the pool as members of the West Valley swim team jump in on a Tuesday afternoon in January.
As they begin warming up, they are closely observed by 16-year-old Taylor Healy, a West Valley High School junior and lifeguard at Lions Pool.

At the end of January, she had only been on the job for about a month. But that was long enough to know that she wants to do this for a while, probably until she goes off to college.
For Healy, her high school job isn’t just about the money. She likes it that she’s doing something meaningful.
“I have an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life, like if they need help,” she says.
To prepare for the job, Healy had to complete a seven-week lifeguarding class, which met twice a week for three hours. She learned how to jump into the pool to save someone from drowning and how to remove a person with a suspected spinal injury. Knowledge of first aid and proficiency in CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) are mandatory.
Although she doesn’t get any health benefits and is paid about minimum wage — $8.55 an hour — Healy says, “I love the staff a lot and the people I see every day. It’s pretty relaxed, and I love the water.”
Not everyone is cut out to be a lifeguard, according to Nathan Vanderhoof, 20, the aquatic supervisor at the Yakima Family YMCA.
“It takes someone who is reliable, responsible, someone who’s passionate about the job and who likes people,” he says. Also, “It’s really important that they can handle high-stress situations.”
It’s critical to have a lifeguard on duty at all times, Vanderhoof says: “You really need someone supervising outside of the pool, with no distractions.”
Lifeguards aren’t always fully appreciated, he adds. Although they are responsible for people’s lives, they make about as much as fast-food workers.
“We get a lot of new lifeguards who think it’s going to be easy, but it’s difficult to keep your attention on the pool for such long periods of time,” he says.
Jeri Berube, a 17-year old senior at Selah High School, says some things come with on-the-job experience.
For example, “I know how to deal with certain situations, how to cope with co-workers and how to properly take care of a pool,” she says.
Berube has been working at Lions Pool for more than four months. Like Healy, she went through the lifeguarding course.
“You have to be a strong swimmer but you don’t necessarily have to have good technique,” Vanderhoof says. “You have to be able to get where you’re going and tread water for extended periods of time and, of course, know the proper technique for saving people.”
Healy hasn’t had to jump in after anybody yet. She says a good day on the job is just “being able to guard” without any kids running around breaking the rules.
“I really haven’t had a bad day yet,” says Healy, who ultimately wants to become an assistant physical therapist or a dietitian.
Meantime, if there’s a downside to her current job, it might be the humidity and temperature in the pool area.
“It’s just so hot all the time,” she says.

• Hannah Besso is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis High School.

Working: air traffic control

By SEAN NAGLE-MCNAUGHTON
UNLEASHED STAFF
This job comes with a 360-degree view.
From the top of the control tower at the Yakima Air Terminal, sweeping scenes of the Yakima Valley are visible — at least during the day.
That’s just one of the things Robert J. Blahut enjoys about working as an air traffic control specialist. Blahut, who lives in Prosser, has worked in the Yakima tower about six months but has done this type of work most of his career. So has Selah’s Ron Schwartz, the air traffic control manager.
Although they have worked together only since October, they have known each other for about 15 years and share the kind of camaraderie that comes from working together in a small space. They often banter back and forth in the control room, surrounded by a dozen windows.
“My best day is any day off,” Blahut jokes.
Schwartz is quick to answer: “That’s my best day, too — your day off.”
These guys like a good laugh. Both retired from the Federal Aviation Administration, then began working at the tower, which is run by a private company that contracts with the FAA. They typically work a 40-hour week.
Schwartz started his air traffic control career in the Air Force. As the tower manager, he does scheduling and evaluations, among other duties.
Schwartz and Blahut both say they enjoy the job because it allows them to think on their feet. In some jobs, employees have days, weeks, even months to make a decision. But up in the tower, with planes coming in for landings, these two have a few seconds or maybe one minute at most, Blahut says.
Schwartz says he likes the work because it “keeps changing. Nothing is the same every day.”
Both men say they are proud of what they do and are happy to talk about it and the tools they use. The tower stands nearly 90 feet tall and has a “well-equipped, sophisticated air traffic system,” Blahut says.
Visible from the tower is the radar, a large, rotating dish that is rare for smaller airports, Blahut says. It shows everything from planes flying though the surrounding airspace to heavy weather patterns and Interstate 82, even the occasional flock of birds.
Sometimes, the Yakima Training Center gives the tower men some interference. Occasionally, a mortar test keeps planes at a certain elevation or military planes come through and the controllers must separate them from other incoming flights.
A person who can make quick decisions and has a reliable memory would make a good air control worker, Blahut says. Workers also must pass a background check.
The main responsibility of those working in the tower is to serve pilots, giving them all the help and information they need, such as weather and runway conditions and wind speed.
Recently, a home-built airplane was coming in for a landing at the Yakima airport. There was some light wind and snow on the runway. Blahut instructed the pilot to land on runway 9.
After a smooth landing, the plane taxied to Yakima AeroSport at 2004 W. Washington Ave. The business, based at the airfield, repairs and modifies small planes. After about 20 minutes or so, the home-built plane took off for Moses Lake without a hitch.

• Sean Nagle-McNaughton is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends Davis High School

Barbershop quartet is a family affair

By HANNAH NAUGHTON
UNLEASHED STAFF

A melodious tune streams through the air. Cheeks flush a rosy pink.
Four men in black tuxedo jackets, red bow ties and glittering arm bands sing some of their favorite love songs: “Let Me Call You Sweetheart,” “I Love You Truly,” “Heart of My Heart.”
It’s the barbershop quartet that calls itself My Three Sons.
Kelly McCay, 51, Michael McCay, 57, and Bill Jr. McCay, 59, sing in the chorus together with their father, Bill Sr. McCay, 80.
Kelly is the lead singer. Michael sings tenor. Bill Jr. sings bass. And Bill Sr. sings baritone.
“This group is so unique because we are all part of the same family, which is not common. Because of that, our voices harmonize really well,” Michael says.
The group hires itself out to serenade people at businesses — such as restaurants or banks — and even schools.
Valentine’s Day is one of their busiest days.
They’ve gone to as many as 35 places in one day, with each visit lasting about 10 minutes. Calls start coming in two or three weeks in advance. But many appointments are booked at the last minute.
The quartet will travel to the destination, sing, give a gift, take a picture, and deliver a card, all for $40.
They’ve been doing this for eight years. And all of the money they earn on Valentine’s Day goes to the Valley of the Sun Chorus, a local chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society.
The price gets higher — $50 — if the group has to be somewhere else within a two-hour span. It jumps to $60 if the group has to perform at a specific time.
“About 40 percent of the time, tears start coming,” says Michael.
On one occasion, the group sang to a 93-year-old lady. As tears flowed down her face, she said she never had men sing to her before.
No need to wait until next Valentine’s Day, though. The group performs on other special occasions, such as birthdays and anniversaries.
“When we start singing, people line up and heads pop up out of cubicles,” Michael says. “It’s great, we love that.”

• Hannah Naughton is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends Davis School.

Remembering Randall Marquis

By GEORGIA GEMPLER and SEAN NAGLE-MCNAUGHTON
UNLEASHED STAFF
In every hero story, there is a person who has done everything and is willing to teach you what they have learned.
For nine years at Discovery Lab School, the hero was Randall Marquis.
The former district judge taught young actors all he knew about acting and theater. He volunteered his time from 2000 until his death on Dec. 16, 2008. He was 82.
Marquis was a man of many talents.
And we were surprised when we saw his obituary. We had seen him as this energetic old man who would not stop for anything. During our time under his direction, he showed us how do a myriad of things: how to act blind drunk, how to be scared by invisible monsters, how to be in love, act regal, and above all, to keep the show moving.
If he did not like our interpretations, he would leap up and go through the motions himself amazing us as well as our fellow actors with his skill and articulation.
A Discovery Lab School player, 14-year-old Ben Hohman, agrees: “He was a natural. He put himself in your place. He could do it exactly as he wanted.”
Other young thespians say Marquis taught them how to stage laugh realistically, or do the stage kiss, which is very difficult for middle school students.
Under his guidance — with help from 46-year-old Discovery Lab teacher Irene Smith — the Discovery Lab School Players have put on many plays, starting with “Cyrano de Bergerac” by Edmond Rostand and ending with “Comedy of Errors,” “Twelfth Night,” “The Taming of the Shrew,” “Merchant of Venice,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Julius Caesar” and “The Tempest” — all by William Shakespeare.
DLSP cannot pay for costumes; all are donated. And the entrance fee to a DLSP play, performed at the A.C. Davis High School auditorium, is a canned food donation to Northwest Harvest.
The entire DLSP acting program is volunteer-based; actor and director alike complete the plays on their own time. In all, Marquis put in more than 1,000 hours of community service.
In the aftermath of the director’s death, DLSP plays have gone on. Now, Smith and her daughter, 17-year-old Elizabeth Smith, a senior at Davis, direct them. But Marquis is missed.
“I miss floating ideas past him, counting on his ability to make the right choices in casting, laughing with him at the humor, and turning the direction over to his vast expertise,” Irene Smith says.
Her daughter says Marquis had been “grooming” her for the part of director. She participated in six productions that Marquis directed and was part of the stage crew after she left for high school.
Hohman says Marquis had a sort of air of calm about him. Another actor, Kathryn Moore, says, “The play this year is lonely. Somehow, there’s always something missing in a scene.”
It seems that everyone Marquis directed misses him. It also seems like every time we saw him near the end he became more frail and shaky. And still, every day there was play practice, he would turn up, ready to go.
Marquis truly enjoyed being there, directing the play and making us all better actors. He taught us the “QFC” concept: quiet on the set, focus, and cues.
Quiet on the set was extremely important with middle school students, and Marquis would shout it every time a new scene started. Focus meant you had to remember your lines, pay attention to what you were doing, and stay in character.
But cues were probably his favorite part of the saying. Marquis was adamant about actors remembering their cues. He got very irritable if anyone missed a cue. And, of course, it happened to us numerous times.
Marquis is — and will continue to be — sorely missed by all who knew him. As he himself used to say, “The play must go on.” And so must our lives, without his exceptional leadership.

• Georgia Gempler and Sean Nagle-McNaughton are members of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. They attend Davis High School.

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