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

Jesuit Volunteer Corps: helpful people, to the corps

By LAURA AGUILERA-FLEMMING
UNLEASHED STAFF
Amy Nicola was a Regis University student who wanted to do something different. She wanted to step outside her regular life and see how others lived.
Through her school and professors who made it sound appealing, the 22-year-old learned about the Jesuit Volunteer Corps.
Now she lives with six other young women who have come together to live out the four values of JVC: simplicity, spirituality, social justice and community.
Each one receives about $70 a month for food and volunteers for community services. Once a week, the group has a spirituality night and a community meeting with everyone living in the house. Each volunteer serves at least one year and can add additional years.
“I’ve learned that a lot of people struggle much more than I do, and they’ve made my problems seem small,” says 24-year-old Laura Molina, one of the Yakima volunteers. “JVC has given me a new outlook on life.”
The JVC motto is “Ruined for Life.”
Nicola explains JVC “changes your way of thinking and teaches you how to live simply.”
Rosemary Rief, 69, who works as the communications coordinator at Northwest Harvest and part-time instructor at Yakima Valley Community College, has been involved with the JVC in Yakima for 15 years.
Each year, when new volunteers arrive in Yakima, Rief and her husband, Cy, give them a tour of Yakima, plan monthly potlucks and introduce them to people in the community.
“Over the years I’ve made some wonderful friendships,” she said. “I’ve really enjoyed getting to know the JV members.”
According to Rief, being a support person for the JVC has put purpose into her life.
“It feels so good to be a part of a group that helps the needy,” she says.
Patty Houts-Hussey, a 57-year-old social services worker for nonprofit organizations on Whidbey Island, was a JVC member in Cornelius, Ore., from 1973 to 1974. Ten years later, she worked with JVC area director Matt Fairbank to bring the first four volunteers to Yakima.
“Being a volunteer really expanded my understanding of life and enabled me to try different perspectives that I never dreamed of,” she says.
Houts-Hussey continues to be involved with the JVC in Yakima, Seattle and Portland. She says working with the volunteers has taught her to be idealistic and strong. She admires their creativity, enthusiasm and determination.
This week , JVC Northwest will celebrate its first 25 years in Yakima. Since 1984, there have been 201 JVC members who have served here.
In honor of the 25th anniversary, there will be a weekend-long celebration full of events.
“I hope that former JVs will come to the celebration and get back in touch with their roots in Yakima,” Rief says.
She’s also looking forward to seeing the faces of volunteers from years ago and reuniting with them.
The celebration starts with an informal gathering at Jack-Son’s Sports Bar on Tieton Drive from 8 to 10 p.m. Friday. It continues Saturday morning with coffee and doughnuts from 9 to 11 at the St. Joseph/Marquette School cafeteria, followed by an outing to Spring Barrel Tasting.
The 25th anniversary dinner starts at 5:30 p.m. at Holy Family Parish. After the 9 a.m. Mass on Sunday at St. Joseph Catholic Church, former and current volunteers will take part in a sandwich-making service project.
Jeanne Haster, the 54-year-old executive director of JVC Northwest in Portland, says, “I hope that everyone will come and learn about us and share in the excitement for the 25th anniversary.”

• For more information about the weekend celebration, visit www.jvcnorthwest.org. Tickets for the Saturday night dinner can be purchased from Rosemary Rief by calling 509-453-4107.

• Laura Aguilera-Flemming is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends La Salle High School.

Working: fruit seller

By LIBBY YOUNG
UNLEASHED STAFF
At Yakima’s Washington Fruit and Produce Co., one of the largest produce companies in the state, apples, pears, cherries and other produce are sorted, cleaned and packed.
Across the street from the packing plant, fruit is loaded into trucks to be shipped all over the world.
Close by, employees coordinate sales of the fruit. They determine where the demand is, then try to sell to those areas.
Victor Ratia is one of these sellers.
He and seven others work in the sales department of Washington Fruit. Together, they “plan what to sell and how to sell it,” Ratia says.
With clients worldwide, each salesperson deals with a specific region, or group of accounts. Ratia, 37, is in charge of marketing and sales to Central and South America.
Originally from Sevilla, Spain, Ratia uses his Spanish-speaking ability on a daily basis. He has worked in the business for 12 years, the last five at Washington Fruit.
The salespeople have a big job. They have to anticipate market needs. They have to find the right product for each customer. And they have to anticipate, up to seven years out, what types of trees and varieties of fruit will be available for picking, and later for selling.
On top of all that, it’s a job that starts as early as 6 a.m. in order to accommodate clients on the East Coast and in different time zones.
Salespeople work to get the best return possible for their growers. While the company gets two-thirds of its fruit from company-owned orchards, the other third comes from outside growers.
“Not only do we have to market the fruit, but we have to market ourselves to the outside growers,” Ratia says.
Growers must have a reason to sell through Washington Fruit, namely the amount of profit they will receive after the fruit is packaged and sold, he says.
Once picked, the fruit is sorted by variety, grade, color and size. Different regions of the world have different market demands for different types of fruit. This is yet another aspect of the business that Ratia and his sales co-workers have to coordinate.
Roughly 70 percent of Washington Fruit’s sales are to the United States, Ratia said. The other 30 percent goes to foreign countries.
Mexico and Canada are the largest export markets. Salespeople like Ratia have to accommodate markets and organize the growing of fruit accordingly.
A couple of Ratia’s co-workers — Andrew Erickson, 46, and Bill Gilmore, 55 — work with all domestic sales in addition to those in Canada. They, like Ratia, deal with important and often long-term clients.
“We conduct a lot of business that has a lot of money involved,” Erickson says.
Deciding what to grow is a bit like gambling, where “any mistakes are costly,” Ratia says. Overall, it is “important that we produce a good finished product, so that the market will continue to grow.”

• Libby Young is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends La Salle High School.

Remembering Unleashed

By ANDY CARROLL
UNLEASHED STAFF
May 1, 2009. This date was going to offer one of the toughest “goodbye” moments of my senior year: The due date of my final Unleashed column.
But now, with the ending of the Unleashed program, which was in its tenth year, May 1 is now a day I will spend simply on a school service immersion trip in New Orleans, with columns and deadlines no longer on my mind.
As was the case with many of my fellow teenage staffers, the announcement that Unleashed had been terminated came as a sudden and heartbreaking surprise.
Sure, we no longer had our Tuesday section, but I had always thought that the end, if it was to come this year, would be upon completion of the school year, not on a seemingly random and insignificant Friday in February.
Granted, this year was always bound to be the last one for me, as I am headed for college in the fall. But now, what would have been my senior column is no longer just a reflection on my three years as a reporter and columnist; it’s also partly an obituary for Unleashed, something I didn’t expect I would write.
Lately, there has been a lot said about the legacy of Unleashed. From a broad perspective, there’s no denying that this legacy involves bringing the words and opinions of local teenagers to the public, and offering young writers a look into the world of journalism.
But Unleashed isn’t confined to just one legacy; there are many, each one relating to the individual writer.
For me, Unleashed was a life-changing experience. I have come a long way from the shy and awkward freshman I was when I first joined the team nearly three years ago, and much of that is due to how this program helped me to find my voice, both inside and outside the many features, reviews and columns I wrote.
The first article I wrote for Unleashed was a feature on teen volunteer work, which took me months to complete. Though a neutral take without opinions is necessary in newspaper feature writing, there was still such an incredible anonymity to it; anyone could have written it.
Today, anonymity isn’t something that figures into my writing. As a columnist for the past two years, I got the chance to voice my opinions and present part of myself to readers — and in doing so, learned a lot about myself.
I’m no longer that shy kid who hides himself in anonymity. Thanks largely to the confidence and revelation of ability I’ve gained through my writing, I have found my voice as both a writer and a human being. I can’t even begin to speculate on how different the past three years would have been without Unleashed.
When I attended the final team meeting last month, it was perfectly clear that I wasn’t alone in this way of thinking. Though tears weren’t shed and the spirit was mostly upbeat, there was no doubt that this program would be sorely missed, even for those of us seniors who would have been out the door in a matter of months anyway.
In the entire time I was part of Unleashed, I always worked with a group of peers that was dedicated and passionate, about as far from that stereotype of disrespectful and disinterested teenagers as people can get. For all the writers past and present, this wasn’t just another fun, little afterschool activity; it was a chance to break that stereotype and show the community just what a group of talented and driven teenagers could do.
For the past 10 years, I’ve participated in Unleashed as both a young reader who aspired to be like the older high school students whose work was in the paper and as a staffer seeing my own work in print as well as the work of people I know and talk to.
The one perspective that, at least for now, I will not get to take is that of an older reader, removed from the program, reading the work of younger writers. The section has had so many breathtaking articles over the years that I don’t doubt that I would have continued to be amazed by the work of future staffers.
But as it is, Unleashed has reached its end. And in this end, I realize just how incredible an opportunity was available. This wasn’t some little school paper; it was the Big Leagues, “The Show.”
Unleashed’s ending comes amidst the continuing downward spiral of print journalism. The idea that I may be describing newspapers to my children as a relic of the past is no longer some absurd fantasy.
But the power of words will never die, nor will their ability to deeply move us.
I call on readers to remember all the young people who have worked on this program for this past decade, and to never forget the ways that journalism can move and change all of us.
And I address my final words as a columnist for the Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team to any other young writers reading this: Don’t stop. Never stop.
I know that so long as there is but one more breath in my body, I never will.

• Andy Carroll is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends La Salle High School.

Teen gains new perspective by going on immersion

By KATERI TOWN
UNLEASHED STAF

A lot of people miss out on great opportunities because of fear of failure or something different than the norm. I have always tried my hardest not to be one of those people.
That’s why I began applying for the service immersion trips offered by my school, La Salle High School.
Each year, students at La Salle are given the opportunity to apply for one of four service immersions: the Yakama Nation Immersion, the Seattle Urban Immersion, the Blackfeet Immersion, and — normally —the Tijuana Immersion. Due to safety concerns, this immersion has been changed; a New Orleans Immersion is currently being offered.
Immersions offer a chance for students to live in a community with their peers, learn about people unlike them, and be taken out of their comfort zone for a week.
While I don’t think I have too much in common with the youths of the Blackfeet reservation, I do think I have a better understanding of them because of my background.

I am an enrolled Choctaw Indian, and I am also of Yakama descent. I have relatives all over the Yakama reservation and even relatives who live on the Blackfeet reservation. I am also Irish and Scottish.
There’s no doubt I am a proud Native American young woman. I have suffered the insults and the hurt from derogatory remarks. I have also felt the joy of my heritage, especially when I think about my family and the closeness we share.

I have never lived on a reservation, and though I considered myself aware of the situations and problems — high drop-out rates, alcoholism, issues of self-worth and destruction of culture, language and tradition — I had never experienced them firsthand or lived them out. Sometimes, I’d even tell myself that maybe I wasn’t “Indian enough” to claim the heritage.
That’s why I was excited about the opportunity to go to Browning, Mont., the capital of the Blackfeet Reservation. My experience would be different from the nine others on the journey because I could finally make that connection I’d wanted for so long.
But, by the end of the week, I felt like the Tin Man and figured out that it was something I already had.
The 10 students who were chosen to go on this year’s Blackfeet Immersion trip applied in early September.

We attended lunch and after-school meetings and did plenty of fundraising.
The cost of the trip for the 10 students was $2,100, including a $500 donation to the De La Salle Blackfeet School.
After raising $1,054.61, each student paid $104.54.
The Blackfeet Immersion has been taking place since 2001.

This year’s trip began on a Saturday night at the end of January. The first three days were a quick blur: our train ride, cold weather, lack of sleep, and meeting several new people in a seemingly short span of time.
The 12 of us — 10 students and two moderators — took the Amtrak out of Pasco and were on the train for about 13 hours (gaining one due to the time zone change).
We arrived in Browning suddenly Sunday morning. Though many of us expected an actual station, the stop was just a place on the tracks where the train stopped and we got off.
Ray Bonderer, a De La Salle Christian brother, was there to meet us with the school van.
He drove us to the De La Salle Blackfeet School, our new home for the next five days. After a short tour of the school’s five classrooms, we set up our sleeping bags in the gym. The next day, we were assigned to classrooms.
My partner and I were assigned to the eighth grade. We were asked to encourage the students to think about their future. And we ate lunch with them every day. It was a completely new experience, but we tried to remain open-minded.

After the first day, a majority of us were feeling frustrated with our roles. It was a hard thing, arriving in these kids’ lives and not feeling completely welcomed.
During our journaling session that night, we discovered we were all questioning whether we were making a difference.
The feeling was tough to deal with, and it was kind of discouraging. But we didn’t give up.
There was a time set aside for prayer each night.
Throughout the week, each pair of students was responsible for organizing a short prayer service, which generally consisted of readings and reflections. Ours also included a song: “Do You Realize?” by The Flaming Lips.

“… You realize that life goes fast
It’s hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn’t go down
It’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round … ”

I prayed for my own understanding of the situation on the reservation and that maybe one day it would become better. I also prayed for the people who didn’t take the journey, that I would be able to relate my experience in Browning to my friends and family back home in Yakima.

The rest of the week, we continued our work in the classrooms, creating bonds with the students in our grades. We also helped deliver gift baskets and food to the people of Medicine Bear Shelter, working alongside teenage alumni of De La Salle Blackfeet.
Though I was baptized Catholic, I really only considered myself spiritual, not religious. But through my service work at La Salle — particularly this immersion on the Blackfeet reservation — I found myself closer to God and the answers I’ve been searching for. I feel like I found God in those eighth-graders.
There are eighth-graders at De La Salle Blackfeet that I will never forget — and hopefully won’t be forgotten by — despite the numerous immersion groups that pass through their halls.
Day by day, it grew increasingly difficult to leave. On the last day, the school hosted a smudging or purifying ceremony for us in the seventh-grade classroom.
We all sat in a circle, passing around a shell containing smoldering sweetgrass and breathing in the smoke. I had never done anything like that before, and it was a really cool way to learn more about my heritage and the spirituality of the Blackfeet.

Soon after the ceremony ended, it was time to leave. We hugged students goodbye, then were whisked away on a nature hike and to dinner before catching our train.
Though we had been preparing ourselves to give to the Blackfeet community, we quickly realized they were the ones who were giving to us. It was an experience I’ll never forget as I gained new perspective about myself, my culture and my faith.

• Kateri Town is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends La Salle High School.

Winter Ball 2009

LIBBY YOUNG
UNLEASHED STAFF
I love school dances.
There’s nothing like being out on a dance floor with your friends, absorbed by the pounding music, screaming along with the lyrics.
But I never thought about how much work went into putting one on — until recently. Decorations, the deejay, food and photos all have to be coordinated and planned.
It’s also expensive.
I’m a sophomore class representative at La Salle High School, and every year each class has to plan a dance. This year, the sophomores planned Winter Ball, a semi-formal dance held Jan. 24.
It was tough from the very start. At the beginning of the school year, we asked our class to vote on a theme. We went through two over the next few months before finally deciding on “Winter Wonderland.”

One of the biggest problems of the entire event was deciding on the date. The dance was originally scheduled for Jan. 12, but a basketball game in Brewster would keep half the school from attending. After much deliberation and discussion with our teachers, chaperones and principal, we got the date moved — a month before the dance.
After that, we had to hire a deejay, which brought us to our next road block: money. Being sophomores, we didn’t have very much in our class account, and deejays are expensive. After spending hundreds of dollars to hire one, we didn’t have much left for decorations and food.
I’ve never done any big projects on such a tight budget before, and buying decorations for Lightning Hall, one of La Salle’s buildings, was quite a challenge. I found myself picking through the after-Christmas clearance section at ShopKo, looking for the cheapest decorations that still looked relatively nice. Even so, I wound up spending around $60 in that one trip.
The day before the dance finally rolled around I was so ready for it to be over. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the huge task of decorating that lay before us.
A group of about seven students worked for three hours after school on Friday, and the same group returned in the morning, working an additional three hours.

So much had to be done in that short amount of time. We had to blow up countless balloons for the dance floor. We had to string borrowed Christmas lights along the lockers. We had to set up and decorate the tables. We had to create a giant sign reading “Winter Ball ’09.”
In the end, I thought it turned out pretty well. Many people complemented us on the decorations, and I think we outdid what people expected of us.
And as stressful as planning a dance is, I wouldn’t mind doing it again. I was so proud of our group for putting on a successful dance.
If I stay on the class council, I probably will have to do it again. Next year, juniors have to put on prom — with the money left over from Winter Ball.

• Libby Young is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. She attends La Salle High School.

‘Slumdog’ stands as a marvel of storytelling

By ANDY CARROLL
LA SALLE HIGH SCHOOL
Every once in a while, a new movie arrives bearing an experience so refreshing and rewarding that it’s hard to describe its power in words.
“Slumdog Millionaire” is the latest of that type of movie.
Set in contemporary India, the film is the story of Jamal Malik (Dev Patel), an 18-year-old who grew up in the slums of Mumbai. When we first see Jamal, he is being tortured by police inspectors. The reason? That night, Jamal appeared on the Indian version of the game show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and won 10 million rupees, with only one question remaining for the grand prize of 20 million rupees, an unprecedented event.
As we find out later — thanks to the nonlinear fashion in which the story is told — the host of the show believes there’s no way this “slumdog” could have made it so far without cheating.
But as Jamal assures the inspectors he didn’t cheat. He didn’t need a formal education to know the answers; he knew them because of life experiences. He also assures the detectives that his reason for appearing on the show had nothing to do with money.
The reasons he knew the answers — as well as his intention for being on the show — are revealed through his life story. After being orphaned, he and his brother Salim shared a close relationship with each other as well with an orphan girl named Latika.
Throughout the years, the brothers go from working for exploitative businessmen as children to scamming tourists at the Taj Mahal as teenagers to the brothers’ separation when Salim (Madhur Mittal) decides to work for one of Mumbai’s top gangsters.
Throughout this time, Latika (Freida Pinto) remains constantly on Jamal’s mind. Over the years, he loses her and gets her back time and time again. It becomes clear that she is the motivation for his actions because, as he says, she is his destiny.
Jamal (Ayush Mohammed Ismail and Tanay Chheda as the character in his younger years) portrays one of the easiest protagonists to pull for in quite some time. He’s such an earnest and endlessly determined character in spite of the adversity that he faces that sympathy comes all too easily. The combination of the tribulations he faces and his likeability make it tough not to root for him to fulfill what he believes to be his destiny.
“Slumdog” stands as a marvel of storytelling. The events of Jamal’s life — as well as revelations made during his interrogation — are paralleled with the questions on the show. This approach, though a little hokey on paper, works extraordinarily well.
As the tension increases on the show, so does the drama in the flashbacks. Though you know Jamal will make it all the way to the final question, you remain on the edge of your seat thanks to the compelling story being told in flashback.
But as a rags-to-riches tale, “Slumdog” has its share of dark and grueling moments to go along with any smiles and laughter. After all, the opening scene of the movie depicts Jamal being violently interrogated, and that’s only an appetizer for darker material to come. Like protagonists of Charles Dickens’ novels, Jamal comes to find happiness only by beating all the odds stacked against him, and it’s these moments of darkness that make his successes all the more rewarding to watch.
As I was watching “Slumdog Millionaire,” I couldn’t help but think of what a fresh and energetic experience was unfolding on the screen. Director Danny Boyle, the man responsible for “Trainspotting” and “28 Days Later,” has always been among the most intriguing men working in the industry, and all of his talent is on display here.
The movie moves along with boundless energy, and the enthusiasm that Boyle and his creative team have for their craft is evident in every frame. Not once does it feel like they’re going through the motions. Their hearts are wholly invested in the material; that’s something not seen often in any movie.
But no amount of words can truly do this movie justice. It’s not just a movie; it’s an experience. And this is an experience that should be had by all, in spite of the R-rating hypocritically doled out by the Motion Picture Association of America Even at its most grueling, it’s no worse than the typical PG-13 action flick).
Even though it carries a much smaller production cost than most big studio efforts and has a lack of big names in front of the camera, it stands taller than every other movie currently playing at a theatre near you.
And though it starts dark, it ultimately has you leaving the theatre feeling like 20 million rupees.

Fresh Faces: Simone Widhalm

Name: Simone Widhalm
School/year in school/age: La Salle High School, sophomore, 15.
Activities/Hobbies/Clubs: Boating, skiing, and school.
Favorite food: Chocolate.
Favorite movies: “Pirates of the Caribbean”
Favorite book: “Twilight” by Stephanie Meyer.
Favorite music, musicians, or bands: Country, hip hop, Taylor Swift.
What is your most treasured possession? My life and everyone in it.
What’s your favorite place to go in your hometown? My friends’ houses.
Which person do you most admire and why? My cousin Amy because she is everything I want to be; she has an amazing family and a great job.
What would you do with $1 million? Give some to charity, save some for college, give some to my sister for college.
Three words to describe yourself: Shy, trustworthy, honest.
What is your greatest achievement? Being myself and being happy with my life.
Worst fear: Losing my friends and family.
Greatest wish: For my friends and family to be happy.
When and where were you the happiest? During the summer when my family is together and we are all happy.
Where and how do you see yourself in 10 years? Finishing college and getting a job I will love.

— Libby Young, La Salle High School

Andy’s top 10 movies of 2008

By ANDY CARROLL

UNLEASHED STAFF

It was a year marked by economic crisis and promises of change. But as times began to look gloomy, Hollywood once again stepped in with movies that provided entertaining escapism and blistering power.
Of course, for all of us in Yakima, the cinematic riches of 2008 will continue to give in 2009, as numerous widely acclaimed pictures have yet to reach the area. Among these are “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Wrestler,” “Gran Torino,” “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk” and “Revolutionary Road.”
But even without those films, I have seen some excellent and highly memorable movies in the past year. All but one are either already available on DVD or currently playing locally at Yakima Cinema. And all are worth checking out, as they are among the cream of this year’s cinematic crop.

10. “TROPIC THUNDER” — Part action comedy and part showbiz satire, Ben Stiller’s latest comedy is as smart and scathing as it is funny. But as funny as Stiller is as the action star, he is upstaged by Robert Downey, Jr. as “five-time Oscar winner” Kirk Lazarus, a man who takes his craft too seriously — and caused a pre-release uproar as a white man playing a black man.

9. “AUSTRALIA” — One of the year’s most underrated pictures, “Australia” is a beautiful, old-fashioned epic that combines the romance of Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman with the coming-of-age story of an Aboriginal boy amidst World War II and the stolen generations. Do yourself a favor: Catch it while it’s still playing on the big screen.

8. “IRON MAN” — It was a great comeback year for Robert Downey, Jr., and it was this high-flying superhero flick that kicked it all off. Downey is perfectly cast as weapons manufacturer-turned-superhero Tony Stark in one of this year’s most entertaining performances. With plenty of action and comedy to go around, this is a crowd-pleaser that delivers.
7. “IN BRUGES” — One of 2008’s best-kept secrets, this buddy action-comedy provides dark comedy, bloody shootouts, and a reflection on the value of life all in one big package. Colin Farrell is at his best as the conflicted hitman Ray, who must wait with his partner (the hilarious Brendan Gleeson) in the medieval town of Bruges, Belgium, which he comes to despise with every fiber of his being.

6. “CHANGELING” — The most frightening movie of the year wasn’t a horror movie; it was “Changeling,” the drama that featured Angelina Jolie as a woman whose sanity is questioned when she claims that the missing boy returned to her is not actually her son. It also deals with the gruesome Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, in which children were brutally murdered. The fact that the movie is based on actual events (and real people) makes it all the more terrifying.

5. “FORGETTING SARAH MARSHALL” — Can a raunchy comedy really be this high on the list? In this case, the answer is a resounding yes. This is an uproarious and strangely sweet comedy about a man (the hilarious writer and star Jason Segel) recovering from a break-up and finding love again. It has everything from the standard R-rated gags to a “Dracula” musical. No movie in 2008 made me laugh harder.

4. “DOUBT” — This is a spellbinding adaptation of the award-winning play. Meryl Streep is excellent as the nun who accuses a priest (Philip Seymour Hoffman) of misconduct with an altar boy in the 1960s. Fellow stars Amy Adams and Viola Davis are also excellent as a nun stuck in the middle and the mother of the boy. It asks tough questions and will have you thinking and talking about it long after it ends.

3. “THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON” — The latest from director David Fincher (“Fight Club,” “Zodiac”) is a stunningly beautiful movie about a man who ages backward. Brad Pitt is in fine form as the title character, and Cate Blanchett is great as the woman he loves. Visually stunning, entertaining, heartbreaking, and moving all at once, it is an excellent movie not to be missed.

2. “WALL-E” — Pixar has always been ambitious, but its latest is their boldest and best work to date. Though it tackles numerous contemporary messages, it never loses sight of the odd but effective romantic pairing of robots WALL-E and EVE. It works with strange concepts, but when the year’s most effective movie relationship is between two robots whose dialogue is limited to beeping noises, “brilliant” and “unforgettable” are just two of the superlatives that apply.
1. “THE DARK KNIGHT” — No 2008 movie stands taller than this Bat-sequel. It goes beyond just being a superhero movie with its powerful ensemble acting and story that dares to ask questions about choice and whether Batman is truly a hero or just a vigilante with blood on his hands. Entertaining, powerful, and thoughtful all at once, “The Dark Knight” is not just a superb blockbuster, but a masterful film. It is the crowning achievement of 2008, and its final twist has me waiting in breathless anticipation for the next installment.

— Andy Carroll is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends La Salle High School.

Don’t miss “Benjamin Button”

By ANDY CARROLL
UNLEASHED STAFF
Each of us fears getting older and the changes that come with age. But would that attitude be different if our bodies got younger instead of older as the years pass by?
That idea is at the center of “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a fantasy drama about a man whose body ages backward rather than forward. With huge star talent, a $150 million production budget, and some of the heaviest Oscar buzz of any picture this year, high expectations have been placed on the film.
And what is delivered is a film both grand in scope and intimate in the ways it displays and develops its characters. Most importantly, it serves not only as a crowd pleaser, but as an emotional reflection upon life and the experiences that ultimately define us.
Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is a man who has a most unusual condition. When he was born in 1918, he had the physical condition of a man on his way to the grave. Abandoned at the doorstep of a retirement home by his scared father (his mother died in childbirth), he is taken in by a young woman named Queenie (Taraji P. Henson), one a worker at the home who’s believed to be incapable of giving birth to a child of her own.
As the years go on, Benjamin’s physical condition continues to improve and he continues to look younger and younger.
Before and during his teenage years, two crucial things happen to Benjamin. The first, in 1930, is his introduction to Daisy Fuller, a girl several years younger than him who will go on to become the love of his life. The second, which occurs in 1936, is the beginning of a time aboard a boat as a seaman, which takes him to an affair with a married woman (Tilda Swinton) in Russia and eventually into a night naval battle during World War II.
When Benjamin returns home in 1945, he finds that many of the residents of the retirement home have since died and Daisy is now a fully grown woman (Cate Blanchett). Over the next few years, as he becomes younger and she becomes older, Benjamin falls in love with Daisy, a relationship that comes to have its ups and downs throughout the next few decades. Benjamin knows that he will continue to love Daisy when she is old and gray, but will she still love him when he is a child?
The complications of age are dealt with often in the film, through Benjamin’s condition as well as traditional aging patterns. Most of the time, it is done so with poignancy, though there are numerous occasions where it is intended for laughter.
From the beginning, death is an issue in Benjamin’s life. It is brought up that he must suffer the burden of watching people not only die, but lose their physical prowess with age. While it would seem that Benjamin would have the opposite, going into his prime late in life rather than early, he instead fears getting younger because it means he will not be able to experience it with the people he cares about.
The aging contrast between Benjamin and Daisy is an added element that makes their relationship all the more intriguing, but also heartbreaking.
Visually, the film is a sumptuous feast for the eyes. Visual effects and makeup are used to change the ages of both Pitt and Blanchett. Thanks to this remarkable work, the physically younger Benjamin bears a stunningly realistic resemblance to a younger Pitt, while the techniques used to age Blanchett as an 80-year-old on her deathbed make her look unrecognizable. The cinematography is also stunningly beautiful, while the sets and costumes change appropriately with each new decade covered within the film.
The most surprising performance comes from Pitt. His turn here is surprisingly restrained and free of the expected emotions. Despite all the death around him, he is never once shown crying onscreen. Some will feel that his work is a little too cold, but it is a solid move that fits in well with the nature in which the story is told. (We come to know Benjamin better through his story than through his actions.)
Blanchett shares excellent chemistry with Pitt, and holds her ground with a performance that is emotionally affecting in its own right. Because of the bond they share, every bit of joy and heartbreak feels so real. Henson’s role as Benjamin’s adoptive mother, though small and mostly finished after the first third of the film, is an adorable one that will give viewers plenty of reason to smile.
Oddly enough, “Benjamin Button” is directed by none other than David Fincher, a man whose directing credits include hard-edged films like “Seven” and “Fight Club.” “Sentimental” isn’t a word that one would expect to associate with Fincher’s work, but he never backs away from the sentimentality of this film, and the effect is a moving experience rather than a schmaltzy one.
Its message about appreciating the beauty of life and the opportunities we take (and those we don’t) is a powerful one that can connect with viewers young and old. This is a beautiful and moving film not to be missed.

— Andy Carroll is a member of the Yakima Herald-Republic’s Unleashed team. He attends La Salle High School.

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