Kids can ‘make a wish’ after a successful Walk-A-Thon

Spanish Club travels to Olvera Street to experience a different culture and heritageBY MICHELLE JENSpecial Feature Editor

BY ALLISON MUNDERStaff Writer

N e w s F e at u r e 2 C e r r i t o s H i g h S c h o o l

M ay 3 , 2 0 1 2

Photo Courtesy of Eun Sol Kim

Photo Courtesy of Albert Ngo

POSING ON OLVERA STREET: The Spanish Club members are posing in front of a decorated stage after having toured Olvera Street.

THIRD ANNUAL WALKATHON: Cross Country athletes are lining up to participate in the Make-a-Wish Walka-thon. All running participants ran around the track field for approximately 30 minutes at their own respective pace.

All of the color guard’s hard work was shown on April 21 at Marina High School where the girls’ placed top five at the WGASC Winter Guard Championships.

The Lady Dons’ have had an amazing season this year, placing first, second, or third at every competition, improvement was shown at every performance. There were surely several moments through out the season that stood out to the guard members, especially winning first place at the first competition. But of course, it wasn’t the easiest thing to do; the girls practiced late nights and tried hard to perform such an emotional show.

“When we first heard our song ‘Tightrope’ we im-mediately that this season was going to be difficult,” said Senior Monica Patel.

The Winter guard show this year is based on how relationships can be difficult and on how sometimes a person has no idea where its going, either down or mov-ing forward, like on a tightrope.

Performing was its own emotional rollercoaster, with solos performed by Juniors Paula Yoon, Bianca Hull, Chanya Techasurungkul, and senior Erica Fos-ter. The new members of the team also had a difficult time performing to a sad show but did an amazing job at catching up.

“I think our skill level has improved as well as

weapon line. Alexia Barba and Stephanie Hamamoto have grown much for being new members,” said co-captain Paula Yoon. All the guardies have noticed im-provement in their fellow members.

“Stephanie has picked up the skill with amazing speed because this was her first season and she didn’t have the fall season to learn everything,” said Captain Erica Foster.

The show consisted of two flag features, the flag line, riffle line, a riffle feature, and a saber line.

“My favorite parts of the show were learning riffle tosses, and watching them in the air,” said Patel.

Great talent came in this year and freshman Wendy Gonzalez was on the riffle and saber line, which mostly consists of older members of the team.

The seniors had a great year this season and will miss performing and spending time with the girls; they’ve created a close bond with each other.

“I’m going to miss my girls and I wish them the best for next year,” said Foster.

With the season at the end, it means its time to say bye to the seniors and start recruiting new members for the upcoming marching season. Tryouts will be held in May, so be sure to come out and you might discover you have a hidden talent and you’re good with a flag.

I think it’s safe to say that the Color guard didn’t know how far it was going to go with the show but it shows that the girls didn’t fall and made it to the end of their “tightrope”.

On April 28, Spanish Club made its annual trip to Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles to get a taste of the Latin American culture. Towards the end of the four-hour trip, the club also visited Little Tokyo as it was nearby.

Senior Co-Presidents Shruthi Maganti and Albert Ngo organized the trip to give club members the closest cultural experience of Latin America.

“This was Spanish Club’s last event of the year so we also allowed students not in the club to attend,” said Ngo. “Our event was very culturally enriched because it not only showed Hispanic, but also showed Japanese heritage as well. We go on this trip each year because students get to experience Hispanic culture through food, shopping, and other cultural outlets.”

More than fifty students from all grades experi-enced the sights and sounds of Mexico and Japan with-out having to travel to the countries. Students also got to eat different ethnic cuisines such as elotes, sushi, and traditional sweets.

Olvera Street provided a very urban setting where upbeat music was playing from loud speakers along the street. In the center was a circular plaza where sing-ers and dancers performed Spanish dancing, such as the Flamenco.

In addition, the trip allowed students to observe historical monuments such as the Avila Adobe, Pelan-coni House, Sepulveda House, as well as other muse-ums that contained artifacts.

“I learned so many new things about the Spanish heritage from this,” said Junior Nikitha Mohan. “I also enjoyed looking at the colorful monuments and just having fun on a Saturday afternoon.”

Students were welcomed to explore the little shops and purchase goods and items that are usually sold in Mexico.

“The trip was a very fun and cultural-learning experience. I got to have a great time eating delicious foods and shopping with my friends,” said Junior Rosie Kaur.

Overall, the trip to Olvera Street made people feel as if they were traveling in Mexico. For those who did not attend, there is always an opportunity next year to get an insight to experience the different cultures.

Cerritos High School’s Make-A-Wish recently held its annual Walk-A-Thon on April 21 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. on the Cerritos High School track field. The goal of the Walk-A-Thon was to gain money to help a founda-tion that grants wishes to children with an illness.

The Make-A-Wish foundation has been holding its annual Walk-A-Thon for years now. It generally takes two or three years of Walk-A-Thon proceeds to gain enough money to grant a wish. Last year, the Make-A-Wish club was able to collect enough money to allow a young girl with a disability to live out her dream, going on a shopping spree with Hannah Montana.

Granting a child’s wish generally costs around $2,500. In order to be eligible to receive a wish from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a child must be from 2-18 of age and have some type of a serious illness or dis-ability.

This year, Make-A-Wish was able to gain a total of $500 from the Walk-A-Thon, with tickets being five dollars per person. All proceeds went to the PCC Long Beach Beach Walk, an organization that has a similar mandate as that of the Make-A-Wish organization.

Approximately 60 people participated in the Make-A-Wish Walk-A-Thon, though more than that paid for the event. Out of the 60 participators, 11 people decided to run rather than simply walk the Walk-A-Thon.

Many of the runners were from the track and field team at CHS, and used the time they had in the duration of the event to practice their running skills. The fastest runner was able to complete about 22 laps in a total of only half an hour. The runners who were walking ran eight to nine laps, though the pace of the walkers de-pended on each individual person.

In order to make the event even more exciting and interesting, the runners were entertained with games

during their walks. They firstly participated in a trivia game, in which posters related to the Make-A-Wish foundation and Walk-A-Thon in general were posted all around the tracks. After the walkers completed their laps, they were then asked questions in a trivia game about the posters.

Another fun game offered at the event was a bat-ter balloon toss. Walkers were asked to toss balloons to their partners, stepping farther and farther away from each other as the competition became fiercer.

Winners of the games received Starbucks gift cards. Raffle tickets were also given out during the event. Win-ners of the raffle received coupons to Rubios.

The largest prices, however, did not go to the par-ticipants who merely played the games; they went to the fastest runners. The top two prices were offered for boys and girls. The competition increased after every lap, and the Walk-A-Thon runners almost ended in a tie.

Organizing and planning the whole Walk-A-Thon event was certainly not an easy thing to do. It took months of planning, coordination and commitment. The overall result of the Walk-A-Thon turned successful, as a lot of money was raised in order to go to a good cause. Those who participated in the Walk-A-Thon enjoyed themselves and helped a child receive were wish at the same time.

“Coordinating the Walk-A-Thon event was defi-nitely a challenge, because it was my first year as pres-ident and I did not really have a lot of experience in planning suck events. But everything ran smoothly and was a great success. I am extremely happy that people came to participate in the event, because it is going to such a good cause. It means a lot to me that people did not just go for extra credit, but they actually went to help children who are less fortunate than us. Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of the event. Even though it was really hot, I think everyone who showed up had a very good time participating in the games and raffles,” said Make-A-Wish President Eun Sol Kim.

BY ROSIE KAURStaff Writer

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