news opinion profiles focus sports a & e

Laura Seyferstaff writer

Erin Becker, ‘07, and Kristin Aerts, ‘08, are the drum majors for this year. They were chosen by their peers, Jim Miller and Steve Shanley, both of whom are band directors.

Aerts and Becker had to go through a very in depth process in determin-

ing who gets to be drum majors. They always select one senior and one junior. They had to prepare a speech to be delivered to the class, who then voted for the desired candidate. Then Miller and Shanley made the final decision based off those votes.

Becker said, “At first I didn’t want to do it , but then I got

t a l k ed in to i t and I am ve r y glad I tried it because it is such a great experience.”

As drum majors, Becker and Aerts lead the band during the halftime performance, set up the field with yard makers, help the bells set up, take attendance and take care of other minor problems. They both enjoy helping out others and being leaders.

“I love it. It is a great opportunity to get to know all the band members and take leadership,” said Aerts.

Both, Becker and Aerts were involved in band before they became drum majors. Becker played the flute in the march-ing band and the wind symphony and Aerts was apart of the drum line. Both were very dedicated and enjoyed playing instruments that they decided to take it to the next level.

Being drum major is a very time consuming activ-ity, but it pays off in the long run. Becker, Aerts and the band meet every day during second hour to practice and learn pieces of music. They also have practice every Monday after school for three hours which consists of going over pieces and practicing formations. In addition they have to be at all the football games with the band.

“Even as a drum major, there is a lot of responsibility. I don’t have any regrets with choosing to run for it. It’s a great ex-perience and I enjoy leading everyone very much,” said Aerts.

Auna McDowell staff writer

Sleep, band, school, repeat. This has been the beat of Washing-ton’s band members’ lives since the beginning of the school year.

Washington’s marching band practices every day during second hour, and members have at least one three-hour prac-tice after school every week. Rain or shine, early or late, the band marches and rehearses. However, the hard work is paying off. Marching band is in the midst of a very successful season.

“The band season has been going great , and we have really improved since band camp,” said Na-than Ki tner, ‘09 , who p lays in the druml ine .

The WHS marching band received a Division I rank-ing at the state contest, placed second at the Prairie In-vitational, won the Linn-Mar Invitational, and placed fifth at the West Des Moines Valley Invitational, where they competed against in-state and out-of-state bands.

Band members have been successful at these com-petitions, but according to Kitner the greatest suc-cess for a band comes not in winning but in putting forth the best possible effort after dedicated practicing.

“ E v e r y t i m e w e h a v e a c o m p e t i -t ion we jus t keep on improving,” sa id Kitner.

During home football games, the band has been performing “Fiddler on the Roof,” a performance put together by Steve Shanley, co-band director. The band has brought cheer to the stands and color to the field, performing an even greater show than last year.

“Every aspect of the marching band has improved since last year, especially the color guard,” said Shanley.

“ T h e ( b a n d ) s t u d e n t s h a v e w o r k e d v e r y hard, and we’re very proud of their accomplish-ments... We couldn’t be any happier,” said Shanley.

So what keeps members on the field hour after

Warrior marching band has the beat

DRUMMING ARE Carter Oswood, ‘09, Lizzie Sauter, ‘07, Molly Grafft, ‘07, and Andy Perez, ‘08.

hour? According to Shanley, it’s the Wash student body.“The bes t par t o f the season i s p lay ing for

an appreciative home football crowd,” said Shanley.On Oct. 14 the band competed at Ankeny, IA and was awarded

second place, losing to West Des Moines Valley High School by .6 points. Band members viewed this as a major accomplishment.

Marching band season can also be very stressful. Most of

the competions are hours away. For the past few weekends, the life of a band member has been non-stop: Friday night football games and Saturday competitions. With cold weather approaching, marching outside sometimes means frostbite.

The marching band performed last Saturday, Oct. 23 as part of the Indoor Marching Band Classic at the U.S. Cellular Center in downtown Cedar Rapids.

Becker, Aerts lead with skill

PLAYING A SONG ON HER FLUTE DURING A FOOTBALL HALF-TIME PERFORMANCE IS Tara Casey, ‘07.

Runde explores op-posing arguments between Iowa’s can-didates for governor.

Vege ta r ian l i f e -style benefits not o n l y h u m a n s , but animals too.

WHS students com-pete for the ti t le of best and worst b i r t h d a y s e v e r.

College: Student’s g u i d e t o f i n d -i ng t he pe r f ec t co l l ege cho i ce .

Washington’s vol-leyball team wraps up the season with st i ff compet i t ion.

Cedar Rapids Hal-loween attractions prove to scare all who da re v i s i t .

Photo compliments of Len Struttman

Becker

Aerts

Photo Compliments of Len Struttman

Erin Wahleco-news editor

Washington High School’s Student Senate ended the 2006 Homecoming week on a very successful note.

The week’s preparations began at the start of the first trimester and continued several days past the dance. Such preparations in-cluded decorations for the hall-

ways, the assembly, Kingston Stadium, and the dance. Stu-dent senators missed several days of school in order to have the arrangements made for the activities. Both the assembly and dance decorations took one to two days to complete.

Over 1,000 Washington High School students attended the Homecoming dance. Music was pro-vided by Murphy Sound and cookies and punch were donated by members of Student Senate.

“ D e s p i t e t h e ov e r w h e l m i n g a m o u n t o f s t r e s s , t h e 2 0 0 6 H o m e c o m i n g w e n t e x -actly as we had hoped,” said Lizzie Glantz, ‘07.

Fatima Wagdyassistant opinions editor

Washington has a continued legacy of a great debate team, and this year is no different. With two returning state champs and a new batch of freshmen eager to join the team, Wash is hoping to be very com-petitive this year and make it to the national competition again.

Seniors Corey Stone, ’07, and Patrick Reynolds, ‘07, were un-defeated at the state tournament this past year and took 13th place in the National Tourna-ment. The topic for last year was civil liberties, and both displayed their talents while ar-guing for both the affirmative and negative position.

However, Wash debate does not end with the school year. Both Stone and Reynolds attended summer institutes to improve their debate skills. Stone attended a five-week camp at Northwestern University in Chicago, and Reynolds attended a

Megan Hartmenstaff writer

T h e n e w s c h o o l y e a r h a s brought many new clubs to Wash.

One new club is foosball club. Foosball club is lead by Shaun Mellor and Isaiah DenBeste, both ‘09. They like playing foos-ball and decided to start a club. The club has 30 members and continues to grow. At meetings they discuss where they will play and set dates for foosball tournaments.

They set up foosball tournaments, which take place at Mellor’s warehouse. At the warehouse there is an arcade room with ping-pong, pool, and foosball tables. At the first meeting the members chose teams of two to play together in the tournaments.

At the end of the year they have a huge tournament planned called Super Foos. They are going to have multiple foosball games going at once. The winning team will get a big trophy and prize money.

“We had a lot of fun at the first tournament and I can’t wait for Super Foos,” said Mellor.

Thespian Club is another new club at Wash. Thespian Club is a nationally rec-ognized organization designed for students involved in theater and speech. Students must meet certain criteria to become members. It’s based on a point system where students must

earn a certain amount of points to become a member. Students earn points by being on stage, backstage, or participating in the speech program. Once students earn enough points they get initiated at the annual formal.

Danny Yuska, Thespian sponsor, de-

cided to start the club to advertise the-atre and get students involved in the arts.

“I dec ided to get involved be-cause it is a rewarding experience for the kids and it sets a purpose for get-ting involved with theatre,” said Yuska.

Yuska’s goals for the club include going to the Iowa Thespian Conference. At the competition, there is acting, mimes, improv, technical theater, drawing, and costumes. If you win there you automatically place at the International Thespian Conference.

Yuska hopes to take a few students ev-ery year whether they qualified or not. All Thespian members are invited to stay in the University of Nebraska dorms. There, they get to watch guest performers and lec-tures. It is very pricey, but Yuska is hoping to have fundraisers to allow students to go.

“I hope everyone can get involved with Thespians,” said Yuska, “There are just so many opportunities with this new club.”

Also new to Wash this year is Film Club. Film club was started by Patrick Berry and Josh Poland, both ‘07. They wanted to start a club for people interested in film and thought this would be a way for stu-dents to learn more about the film industry.

“Many schools have film classes and large budget studios, but our district won’t allow that, so we decided to take it upon ourselves to start a club where people could learn about filming,” said Poland.

The first project the club has planned is a promotional video for crwash.org. At the end of the year they would like to have a film festival of films the club makes throughout the year.

Film, drama, fooseball find niche with clubs

Fatima Wagdyassistant opinions editor

Cultural Diversity has many new members excited to celebrate diversity at Wash. The first major event of the year for was the Cultural Diversity Workshop, held Sept. 19 at Camp Wapsie. Its purpose was to increase awareness of different cultures and build better friendships.

More than 140 students attended the workshop this year. It was a success according to Nji-Dawson, because the people in the workshop proved to be strong leaders and dedicated members. Several countries were presented during the retreat so that stu-dents could learn and understand different cultures. Alaa Elsheikh, ‘08, “The kids who went were great and it was fun hanging out with them and getting to know each other.”El she ikh was a l so a g roup l eader who he lped gu ide the pa r t i c ipant s th rough the ac t i v i t i e s . N j i - D a w s o n a l s o s a i d , “ My h o p e i s tha t the community that i s s t a r ted a t the re-treat continues at Wash when students come back.”

Lauren Glantzstaff writer

Q : W h a t a re t h e s p e c i f -ics on the new grading system?

A: Students will now receive grade reports more frequently. With the old system students received their grades at mid-term and then again six weeks later. With the new system students will receive their grades at four weeks and yet again at eight weeks.

Q : W h a t a r e t h e b e n -efits of the new grading system?

A: I th ink i t a l lows s tu -dent s to communica te w i th t e a c h e r s m o r e e f f i c i e n t l y.

Q: Do you think the new system is an improvement over the old one?

A: I have heard very positive comments so far from both teachers and students. The grading system really helped with conferences. After

WHS’s new grade distribution

seeing their student’s grade report at the four weeks’ time, parents were well aware of the classes their children were struggling in and it allowed them to better decide what teachers to meet with at conferences.

Q: Has there been any com-plications with the system so far?

A: The only problems we have experienced are technological prob-lems causing us not to be able to distribute grades to teachers on time.

Q : H a v e y o u h a d a good re spons e f rom facu l t y ?

A: The response has been fairly neutral. I have had no complaints

Q : H o w d o y o u t h i n k i t w i l l a f f e c t s t u d e n t s ?

A: I hope it will be useful to students who want to do well. By getting grade reports more frequently students will have a better idea how they are doing in each class.

summer institute at Dartmouth in New Hampshire. They both hope to be competitive this year and

have been doing loads of research, speaking drills, and practice rounds to prepare for upcoming tour-naments. The topic this year is whether the U.S. government should establish a policy increasing the number of people in the Armed services, and

other government-based groups.“Wash is always the best,

or at least it has been for the past six years, and being se-niors, we expect to do very well this year,” said Stone.

Wash has continually done very well in debate, and Reynolds agrees that Wash will be strong this year. However, the seniors are not

the only ones ready to debate and continue Wash’s legacy.Many new freshmen at Wash take beginning

debate, which is a prerequisite to the upper lev-els of debate, taught by Warren Sprouse. Peter Clancy teaches beginning debate. For many, it is an opportunity to do what they love.

Stone, Reynolds continue debate legacyDr. Plagman explains the extensive changes, goals Washington seniors look to expand past successes with hard work

“...being seniors, we expect to do very well this year.”-Corey Stone, ‘07

Homecoming CDO Workshop Wapsie Retreat Anne Sullivan

co-focus editor

The annual Leadership Retreat took place yesterday and today at Camp Wapsie. Students boarded buses after school yesterday and will return after school today.

The event was organized and sponsored by Wash’s Student Senate. Freshmen and sophomore s a t t end -

ed the retreat while a few selected juniors and se-niors led the underclassmen in leadership activities.

The cost of attending the retreat was 21 dollars which included all meals, a leadership t-shirt, and activities. This year, around 190 Wash students participated in the retreat.

Students at the retreat were divided up among small groups with two leaders to each group. Together they played ice-breakers and other small leadership affiliated games to bond.

“Hopefully it’l l be a good way to get ev-eryone involved and meet new people within the small groups,” said Kylie Noecker, 07’ and leader.

Miranda BernsteinDISCUSSING TEAM STRATEGY are members Hadley Kluber, ‘09, Justin Winkel, ‘09, Isiah DenBeste, ‘09, Shaun Mellor, ‘09, Eric Intlekofer, ‘09, Brittney Jo Welsh, ‘09.

Emily Kopecstaff writer

Three horrific school shootings have occured in one week this past month. Schools all over the country have been creating a safer environment and tough-ening up their security systems. Wash-ington High School is one of those schools that is taking action to become a safer place for students and faculty to be.

“After hearing about school shoot-ings around the country, the faculty and I discussed a lot of possible ideas to make the school a safer area. We feel that the students need to be in a safe environment so they can be comfort-able,” said Principal Ralph Plagman.

Security guards, employed by Per Mar Security, have been issued to protect WHS. They are here to look for suspi-cious people and to guard the hallways during classes. The school held a lock down on Oct. 4. This lockdown was to practice what it could be like if there were to be a shooting at Wash. Another security update was to make sure all our cameras around the school are work-ing. The video surveillance has 16 color cameras. Earlier this year, two of them weren’t working. Now all 16 are all work-ing efficiently and Plagman is hoping to add more cameras in future years.

The cost for the new security is be-ing split between the school budget and the District Educational Center. According to Rick Williams, Associate Principal, the cost is being covered.

“All these procedures are all working very well so far. It’s keeping our school safe. We hope all these security proce-dures will be effective,” said Plagman

Now, the question is how long is this going to last? According to Plagman and the faculty, this is only temporary. They are doing this for safety precau-tions so everyone knows what to do if a shooting were to actually happen.

“The best security here at school are the ears and eyes of the stu-dents and staff,” said Plagman.

Jenna Hackendahl co-news editor

Washington’s Student Against Desructive Decisions organization, most commonly called SADD, is fully loaded with larger membership than in years past and new ideas, via a recently attended conference, to make a stronger im-pact in the community.

The conference was held on Tuesday Oct. 3 at Kirkwood Com-munity College. Events spanned the entre day and Wash was just one of the many area schools represented. Students who attended the confer-ence include: Cassandra Albert, ‘07; Brianna Cleary and Jennifer Talcott, both ‘08; and Kennon Meyer and Shama Elsheikh, both ‘10.

“I’m really glad that Wash participated in the conference; it helped us to outline our goals for the year and brainstrom ways to accom-plish them,” said Albert, president of SADD.

The students attended sessions covering a variety of destructive decisions, including ‘Tobacco 101,’ ‘Alcohol 101,’ ‘Marijuana

SADD works to gain prestigeWith increased membership, conference attendence participants have high hopes

101,’ and ‘Secondhand Smoke.’ The top-ics covered the effects of using drugs and alcohol and the contents of particular drugs.

“Most students know that smoking and drinking are bad, they just need a little remind-

er; that is where SADD comes in,’ said Albert.

Additionally, the participants attended sessions focused on prevention and adver-tisement, called ‘Street Marketing’ and ‘Take Action.’ Advocacy and lobbying were discussed, as well as what teen-agers can do to help.

Sad plans on doing some street marketing events to advertise the dangers of destructive

behaviors. For example, ‘cupping the fence’ is an activity in which SADD members are planning to complete. This would utilize plastic cups to write a statistics on the ten-nis courts for all WHS students to see.

“This year SADD has more students than it has had in a long time. that will help them to do more activities, like the black X’s last spring, because there will be more stu-dents to help share the work,” said Mooney.

School shootings prompt WHS to take safety precautions

“This year SADD has more students than it has had in a long time, that will let us do more activites...” — Traci Mooney, SADD advisor

John Rundestaff writer

After months of campaigning, numerous speeches, and many debates, Democrat Chet Culver and Republican Jim Nussle are set to compete for Iowa Governor on Nov. 7.

Culver, a former teacher and coach, has mapped out what he believes will be a suc-cessful plan for Iowa’s future. Character development is one aspect emphasized by his campaign. If elected governor, he will provide local schools with grants to cre-ate programs such as “Character Counts” and “Iowa Character Outreach Network.”

“When we promote character develop-ment for students, our kids learn more, our teachers can focus on teachng, and our schools are safer and more successfu,” said Culver to the Des Moines Register this past month.

Culver also intends to make Iowa a lead-er in renewable energy, while increasing teacher salary, and making quality health care available to all citizens. His agenda also includes promoting small businesses, securing the future for Iowan seniors, and advocating the value of stem cell research.

A political veteran, Jim Nussle first joined the House of Represenatives in 1991. Over

the years he has focused on creating sensible taxes and more jobs for Iowans, support-ing troops in Iraq, and enforcing stronger immigration laws. He has also maintained a strong standing in his support to the No Child Left Behind legislation. Just like his opponent Culver, his campaign em-phasizes health care and financial security.

Iowa, a notorious swing state in the past two presidential elections, gives advantage to neither Democrats or Republicans. It is expected to be an extremely close race. Since summer months, numerous polls have been conducted, none of which clearly indicate a favorite for the 2006 Governor Elections.

Both candidates have participated in their faire share of political mud-slinging. Culver has leveled charges against Nussle for being a pawn of the Bush adminstration, while Nussle has targeted Culver for his big spending budgets.

“When my opponent says he’s going to give them the money, hold on to your wallets be-cause it’s coming from you,” said Nussle dur-ing the October 2 debate, sponsored by KCRG TV News and the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Recent advertisements have toned down the harsh critisisms and negative tone of the cam-pagn. When asked about the issue, both candi-date pointed to the other as the initial aggitator.

Culver, Nussle square off in governor’s race

Republican Democrat Jim Nussle Chet Culver

Abortion: Abortion:

Stem Cell Research:

Stem Cell Research:

Education: Education:Culver supports making pre-school uni-versal to emphasis early education. He plans to keep good teachers in Iowa by increasing salary to national average.

Culver plans on overturning Iowa’s restrictive ban on embryonic stem cell research, and making state funds at the public universities available to new research into cures and treatment.

Culver would protect a women’s right to make her own health care decisions, and vetoing any at-tempt to infringe upon that night.

As a congessman, Nussle vot-ed to restrict interstate transport of minors to get abortions and to band pa r t i a l - b i r t h abo r t i ons .

Nussle has an ‘ABC’ plan to achieve world class education in Iowa: Ac-countability, Better Investments, and College Acess and Affordability.

Within the House of Representa-t ive, Congressman Nussle has voted to prohibit embryonic stem cell research. Also, Nussle has voted to prohibit cloning research.

School Cents •School Cents is a program that awards $25,000 to 15 area high schools based on how many Lindale shopping/dining receipt dollars are accumulated per school. •The program begins Oct. 1 and runs through Dec. 31. •With the help of Washington’s 1,700 students, our school could earn a lot of money.

How can WHS students help?

•Shop or eat at Lindale Mall and drop all receipts in the CR Washington slot in the food court.

•Food court dollars are worth 100 points per $1 spent.

•Regular shopping receipts are worth 10 points per $1 spent.

November• Nov. 2- Academic Letter Assembly

• Nov. 3- Teacher Inservice

• Nov. 9-11- “Grease”

• Nov. 13- Winter sports begin

• Nov. 16-17- FINALS (B & N time!)

• Nov. 20-24- Thanksgiving Break

• Nov. 27- Winter term begins

• Nov. 28- Winter Sports Assembly

PARTICIPATING IN AN ACTIV-ITY AT A RECENT SADD CON-FERENCE ARE members Jenni-fer Talcott, ‘08, and Cassandra Albert, ‘07. The conference was held at Kirkwood on Oct. 3.

Veggin’ out is good for you

Curse words: what’s the big f%#@ing deal?Stephanie Steimel

staff writer

T h e r e a r e c e r t a i n w o r d s th a t , a s a s o c i e t y, we shun .

For longer than any of us can remem-ber, they have been a taboo, but without much reason other than a social tradition.

You know the ones I’m talking about; those several general words that have been labeled as swear words.

Take some time and think about it; why are these words considered inappropriate and improper to use in everyday speech? There is nothing that makes their nature so offensive other than the connotation behind them.

From a very young age, I was taught that they are sim-ply wrong, and that repeating one after hearing them from the older kids on the bus can lead to a very stern scolding.

However, I was never told precisely why these words were wrong to say, and I just grew up simply knowing that they were.

These words are not like racial slurs, which carry with them hate and prejudice. They have no history like the racial slanders do; they are not particularly contemptuous

to any single group of people, nor are they meant to be. Why then, will parents change the channel anytime a movie

with “offensive language” comes on the screen to keep their children from hearing it? They are just regular words that once served as normal functions in a language before they were tak-en out of context, and slapped with a label and deemed indecent and rude.

There is nothing behind these words in particular that allows them to be what they are; they simply evolved out of a need to express frustration, or be able to rebel or insult someone.

So wh i l e I wou ld l i k e t o sugge s t the t e r -mina t ion o f the i r l e s s - than- f l a t t e r ing conno-tations, I know that would never happen. And if it did, new swear words would simply rise in their place.

Every society has its own set of taboo words, even if the language is the same. Take for example, the British and their use of “bloody.”

It’s an inescapable necessity of human nature.

The most common time to start using swear words is as a teenager (I’m not counting the few times in el-ementary school you said it just to look cool.) They become a tool to express the growth and independence.

It is a way to show the contempt felt against society and its standards; it provides a way to rebel.

The reason behind it is simple. Not swearing was the thing of a child, when the words were used just to provoke a giggle. Upon becoming a teenager, however, one can use swear words in the manner they were meant to be used.

Once an adult, swearing becomes a communal thing. Even though the use of them is nothing new, being able to

watch racy movies with unbelievably foul language without even a second thought is a sign of the maturity attained.

Even though there is no real reason why the particular swear words are considered obscene, it is certain that they will always exist; even if they’re not the same ones as they are today. They are a tradition in every society, and ones that cannot be escaped.

There a lways has been, and a lways wi l l be , the des i re to use words known to be a taboo.

Sam Moormanstaff writer

Beef: it’s what’s for dinner. Right? Maybe you should give it a second thought and think about what you’re putting into your body.

Beef tends to have a high calo-rie count and also a high fat con-tent. For someone who eats it on

a regular basis, it could mean increasing the chance of dying from certain types of cancers and heart problems.

O t h e r t y p e s o f m e a t m a y h a v e a l o w -e r c a lo r i e count , bu t a ren’t much hea l th i e r.

Cutting meat out and replacing it with leafy greens, tofu and other non-meat related forms of pro-tein is a better choice: aka, becoming a vegetarian.

The Journal of the Ameri-can Medical As-sociat ion said that “ninety to n i n e t y - s e v e n percent of heart disease, the cause o f more than half the deaths in the United States, could be prevented by a vegetarian diet.”

On top of that benefit, studies have shown that vegetarians have a lower chance of getting coro-nary artery dis-ease, gallstones, s o m e f o r m s of cancer, di-

abetes, high blood pressure, and becoming obese. There is some risk involved, but it can be prevented

if you go about it with a smart approach. One risk is anemia. This is a problem for most vegetarians, especially very strict ones (like vegans, vegetarians who don’t eat meat, egg, or dairy-products.) Anemia is a deficiency of red blood cells that can take its toll on the body.

The short-term effects are: headache, drowsiness and loss of breath. Long-term effects are: sore tongue, brittle nails, spoon-shaped nails, difficulty swallowing, pale skin, and weight loss.

So, cutting out all forms of animal products may not be the wisest choice. Some vitamins and nutrients are only found in animal products. So, keeping egg and dairy products in your diet would be a safer move to make, unless you’re up for taking all the supplements for the vitamins you wouldn’t be getting.

When you sit down for dinner and someone brings out a 16 ounce sirloin, think about this: are you still going to dig in and increase your chances of acquiring all sorts of different medical problems, or are you going to pass and go for the salad?

The Journal of the American Medical Association said that “ninety to ninety-seven per-cent of heart dis-ease, the cause of more than half the deaths in the Unit-ed States, could be prevented by a vegetarian diet.”

I was never told precisely why these words were wrong to say, and I just grew up simply knowing they were.

artwork by Alex Pearson

Wash students sound off about meatless lifestyle

“Vegetarianism? Hot dog!” -Patrick Berry, ‘07

“I don’t have a problem with the killing of animals. It’s the way they’re treated in captivity... I’m not putting

my money toward supporting that.” -Dani Engmark, ‘07

“I don’t worry about animal rights; being a vegetarian is just something that makes me feel good.” -Kate Baustian, ‘08

“Eating meat is part of being an American, like apple pie. You go to a ball game and eat a hot dog.” -Michael Caves, ‘07

Fight for your right to...turn 18

Trick or treat... or college tuition voucher?Kalese Henry

staff writer

L e t ’s f a c e i t : w e are not as grown up as we th ink we are .

My senior classmates might protest, but I saw them diving for candy dur-ing the homecoming pa-rade, sending little kids fly-ing, strewing elementary size

bodies along the length of the parade route. This ensured munchies for the bonfire, but got me thinking about Halloween.

Remember when we used to dress up at the end of Octo-ber, offer free candy to strangers, and pretend to be someone we weren’t? Politicians still do this, but we’re too cool. We are too old to dress up, too self conscious to go door to door looking for a handout, too nutrition conscious to gobble down sweets until we’re sick. I think we have lost something.

In place of candy bags, we carry book bags. Instead of masks we wear makeup. Instead of worrying about how to get the biggest haul of candy, we worry about ACT scores.

We are too busy to cut jack-o’-lanterns, too proud to act childish and get scared, not by things that go bump in the night, but by rejection letters from the Ivy League.

The spirit of Halloween has left us like a ghost in the night.Perhaps we could change the rituals to be more focused

on us, a holiday for big kids where high school students went trick-or-treating for completed homework and free time.

Imagine the mass of senior bodies crushing toward the corner house where the little old lady answered the door, “My, what lovely costumes! Help yourself to a college tuition voucher. No, take two, they’re small.”

Or imagine the line at the house that gave out a cure for acne.With AP courses, jobs, and college applications, we

are different now from when we donned Power Rang-er costumes, and marched expectantly into the dark.

The musical, the Friday night pilgrimage to Kingston, and time spent with friends is our candy now – fulfilling, perhaps, but not sweet in the same way.

Ma y b e I ’m c o n f u s e d a b o u t Ha l l ow -een because society seems to be confused.

The elementary school costume parade is a thing of the past, its diversity and creativity squelched by politi-cal correctness. Even though Halloween has become the country’s second most popular holiday, it has also be-come a time of worry with kooks and poisoned apples.

We buy motion activated hang-up witches, but we threaten to ban Harry Potter because it promotes witchcraft.

I’m on the verge of being all grown up, excited for the fu-ture and ready to join the adult world, yet part of me grieves for the time when I could hop merrily from door to door, worried about nothing. With a silly costume draped over my shoulders, a bag of candy in one hand, and my father’s warm fingers in my other, I was comletely carefree. Even with goblins and ghosties, there was safety and fun in the ritual at the end of October, and a predictability far less scary than the future beyond high school. I, for one, will miss Halloween.

Fatima Wagdyassistant opinions editor

As seniors carefully count the days until their 18th birthday, there is one thing I would like to remind them.

A l o n g w i t h t h e m a n y f r e e d o m s o f the new journey in to adu l thood comes many respons ib i l i t i e s , inc luding vot ing .

Now, you have the chance to partake in the demo-cratic system, so please use the opportunity wisely.

Many students are very politically active and religiously attend Young Republicans or Young

Democrats meetings, and some students simply don’t know which party they favor. This message is to both groups: Think for yourself when vot-ing this upcoming election; don’t simply follow a certain party blindly.

Although the process of researching and understanding the issues takes more time, it is a more informed way to vote. When voting for candidates, we should be voting for the individual characteristics and stances of a particular candidate. Whether they are Republican or Democrat, simply vote for the candidate you think will truly do a better job, not because of party association.

Not all Democrats or Republicans think the same way, and opinions even with-in the party can be vastly different.

If one looks at the issues, one should vote for the candidate that better supports the issues important to them. Also, by voting with our minds and not simply for a party, we are not voting blindly, or simply think-ing someone is credible because they are from a certain party.

We as a people have the responsibility not to follow blindly and to understand what is going on and vote for the candidates who support what r e a l l y m a t t e r s i n o u r l i v e s a n d i n t h e l i v e s o f o t h e r s .

Although many people who just turned 18 care about elections, many also do not care. However, by not caring, you are throwing away the rights that many people fought for in our history. This is the reason our country formed a democracy, so the people could have a say in what is going on. I know this idea has been repeated so many times it is almost cliché, but it truly is important.

If no one cared about influencing the government, it could simply do what it wanted whenever it wanted. If we continue to be passive about the rights we worked so hard to get, it might soon be lost, as some have already been lost due to our silence.

If every American truly and critically thought about the issues with every candidate, we could be in a better position in the world than we are today. Because ultimately, the people have the say in the elections

That is why they have commercials on TV to try to persuade you or make you think a certain way. The people control their fate, but if they can control the way we think and vote it is much easier to win in the election. The ads inevitably affect the way we think, whether or not we think it does. Their purpose is not to allow us to think for ourselves, but to think and see the elections the way a particular candidate might think.

So this election, even if you are not 18 yet, think about who you really think would do a better job, regardless of their party. Think about the is-sues, and vote accordingly so that we may hopefully get back on track to real democracy. And as George Washington commented in his famous farewell speech on the parties, “…(Parties) kindles the animosity of one... against another... it opens the door to foreign influence and corruption... .”

The musical, the Friday night pilgrim-age to Kingston, and time spent with friends is our candy now-- fulfilling per-haps, but not sweet in the same way.

Not all Democrats and Republicans think the same way, and even opinions within the party can be vastly different.

ROSESRoses and Thorns: The monthly column where Surveyor

let’s you know what’s IN and what’s OUT at WHS

Thorns

-Justin Timberlake, for bring-ing sexy back... seriously, it was about time.

-Stewart-Colbert, Surveyor’s choice for the presidential ticket. Move over, Hillary Clinton and McCain.

-Taco John’s for bringing Wash upperclassmen together for lunch every Tuesday.

-Special thanks to Camp Wap-sie, for loaning their land to the Wash Leadership Retreat every fall.

-Sports injuries. Nothing can bring an athlete down like a bad report from the trainer. (Shout out to Benjamin Sines and Mary Crumley!)

-Snow in October. Guess we’ll be switching to Eskimo costumes for Halloween.

-Seniors taking ITEDs. Wait... didn’t we answer these questions last year? (Clandestine means “secretive” in case you haven’t picked up on that yet.)

-North Korea. Platform shoes and nuclear weapons are both so out of style.

artwork by Alex Pearson

SURVEYOR EDITORIAL POLICY

Surveyor is established as a school-sponsored open forum dedicated to informing and en-tertaining its readers. It is published nine times each school year by students enrolled in the Journalism Laboratory class at Washing-ton High School, 2205 Forest Drive SE, Cedar Rapids, IA, 52403. The staff will report as fairly and objectively as possible. All activities and news will be covered to the staff’s best abili-ties. Surveyor accepts the Society of Profes-sional Journalists’ Code of Ethics and Criteria of a Gold Newspaper of the Associated Press Managing Editors Association as the basis for good journalistic ethics.Editorials and reviews that appear under a by-line are the opinion of the writer, not neces-sarily the staff. Unsigned editorials represent the majority of the Editorial Board. The Opin-ions section is designed to provide a forum for the opinion of the Surveyor staff and the Washington High School community.Readers are encouraged to express their view-points through guest editorials. Surveyor also welcomes any letter to the editor, provided that:1. It is not libelous or obscene2. It explains the material clearly3. It is not longer that 300 words4. It is signed.

Staff Molly Briggie, Back Page Ed.Emily Penningroth, Asst. Ed.Fatima Wagdy, Asst. Ed.Brent GaswayLaura HartKalese HenryLauren GlantzBarney O’DonnellStephanie SteimelKristina McLaughlinMolly ParkerAunna McDowellMaddy HalyardMegan HartmanLauren GlantzAunna McDowellSam MoormanEmily KopecLaura SeyferEleanor VernonAlex Pearson (Art)Megan Barnes (Photo)Taylor Davis (Photo)John Runde (Web)

AdviserSteve Riley

Jenna Hackendahl, Co-News Editor

James McMenimen,Editor-in-Chief

Cassandra Albert, Profiles Editor

Erin Becker, Opinions Editor

Katrina Houmes,Business Mgr.

Anne Sullivan,Co-Focus Editor

Rebecca Dennis,Co-Focus Editor

Mary Crumley, Photo Editor

Erin Wahle,Co-News Editor

SURVEYOR STAFF

Meredith Bell, Sports Editor

Jackie Albrecht, A&E Editor

Miranda Bernstein, Photo Editor

Molly Briggie, Back Page Editor

Violence so not the answerstaff editorial

Washington has been a dream to most high school stu-dents. We wander the halls freely, joke with friends, and live our daily lives without a care in the world. Wash is a place where students feel safe learning and, for most, the thought of safety at school has never even crossed their mind. Recent events, however, have changed this perception.

The dramatic in-creases in school shoot-ings that have been hap-pening nationwide are a concern for students, teachers and all who are involved in the running of a school. The differ-ence between now and the Columbine shootings in 1999 is the increased copycat activity. The most recent wave of shootings began in Colorado and quickly spread across the country, even popping up in the most unlikely places (such as an Amish school.) Harmless eastern Iowa has felt the repercussions as well. Recently students in North English, Iowa have been arrested for making shooting threats. Closer to home, our cross-town cousin Kennedy has had death threats. These events are constant reminders

Champion <3?Erin Becker

opinions editor

Grab your stopwatch and get ready. Let’s see how long it takes you to read this article. We’ll give special plaques to any-one in the top 10 percent of speediness. And, of course, T-shirts for everyone!

Okay, so I’m just kidding. Surveyor won’t be turning newspaper reading

into a competitive sport anytime soon. However, it seems like we’re a little behind the times. These days, any worthy activity comes with a ranking system, rivalries, and a nice set of shiny medals. Remember the good ol’ days when the cheerleaders pepped up the sidelines as the football players went head-to-head? Well, the cheerleaders will still make it to the game, but they’ll have to squeeze it in between rehearsals for their own competition. The marching band may show up at halftime and play some tunes, but they’re really preparing for their big showdown against crosstown bands the next morning.

The literary press enters contests. Wash musicians-- vocal-ists, horn players and orchestra members-- spend countless hours preparing to vie for a spot in the uber-elite All-State music groups. We have a speech team, a mock trial team, a dance team, and a debate team. Even your own Surveyor en-ters a few journalism contests. What next? Perhaps a Spanish Club Ultimate Challenge against all the MVC schools, with a giant golden sombrero awarded to the fastest conjugaters.

I concede, this competitive atmosphere gives students a goal to strive for, a reason to work so hard. But the implica-tions of such an intense emphasis on winning in subjective activities are cause for some concern. These new competitions aren’t clear-cut: there’s no finish line or end zone. You’d bet-ter wear the right clothes and smile at the judge, and may God strike you down if your don’t wear the exact shade of matching lipstick on the day of the show choir finals. The arbitrary ranking system aside, I shudder at what the future holds for a generation raised to believe that winning is all. Comparing salaries and square footage seems fairly banal; perhaps vicarious lives through our children will fit the bill.

These kids will be concerto-composing, novella-penning, Shakespeare-quoting, robotic models of poise and intellect. Their baby slippers will be tap shoes, and they’ll know the ins and outs of courtroom objections long before they know who Spot is, and exactly where it is that he’s running to. And if they don’t have that drive to dominate the competition? Time for family therapy-- either the parents are failures or the kid’s a defect.

Gosh darn it, I know I should write a great conclusion for this column or Surveyor might lose points in the Quill and Scroll press competition... but I’m running out of time before my three-hour band rehearsal and we can’t jeopardize our last chance to out-march the other Iowa bands... oh well, I guess I just don’t have that inner champion, ‘cause I’m stopping right now.

Respect the right to chooseMolly McPartland

letter to the editor

The decision to have an abortion is affected by a per-sons beliefs, morals, and personal circumstances. None of these fac-tors involve anyone but the per-son who is having the abortion.

The fact of the matter is that the government simply cannot make a personal decision for an indi-vidual. It is not our government’s job to decide our morals and beliefs, and that is the root of this issue.

Wikipedia’s definition of life is not anywhere close to reliable. Wikipedia is, in fact, a dictionary composed of personal definitions that can be changed by any individual at any moment.

Despite what Wikipedia may say, a personal response web site has no weight in this issue. The government and the constitution recognize the elderly and the handicapped under

such bills as the Americans with Disabilities Act and numerous Supreme Court decisions. There is no such act for a zygote.

Every day, abortions are saving the lives of women that would, if abortion was illegal, be getting abortions unsafely and

dangerously, or even worse tak-ing matters into their own hands.

There’s a reason that abor-tions were legalized, and now is no time for the United States to step backwards socially.

No one is encouraging abor-tion. No one is saying abortion is a great choice. Pro-choice does not advocate abortion as birth control; it advocates choice.

H a v i n g a n a b o r -tion is not a frivolous decision in any circumstance.

Rape, broken condom, or life threatening situ-ation, abortion is a personal choice that should not be controlled by the government, and that should be an option no matter how the child was conceived.

There’s a reason that abortions were legal-ized, and now is no time for the United States to step backward socially.

that no school is safe from this unspeakable violence and that from now on everybody needs to be more aware.

The school administration has done a great job keep-ing the students and staff safe by hiring extra security in this time of risk and keeping an even closer eye on kids and suspicious activity. However, this situation shouldn’t be happening. Students, especially at a high school level,

should be mature enough to handle their frustrations in a better way. Bring-ing violence into the school won’t solve any problems; it just creates more. More sensible op-tions are available

at Wash for you to deal with your frustration. The staff is caring and considerate and will listen to your troubles. This is my charge to you: be smart. If you are thinking about endangering the school with any sort of violence, don’t. If you hear about someone that could put the safety of the school in danger, take action, tell somebody who can stop them. At this point in time, the responsibility is on everybody, not just the admin-istration, to make Wash as safe a school as possible.

If you hear about someone that could put the safety of the school in danger, take action and tell somebody who can stop them.

Everybody remembers the good old days in elementary school when you got to stand up in front of the entire caf-eteria to be recognized on your special day-your birthday, that is.

For Trent Buchanan, ‘10, it was definitely a day to remember.Buchanan was a f i f th grader, s i t t ing in the ca f -

e t e r i a , a n d a n t i c i p a t i n g s u m m e r b r e a k .It wa s one o f the l a s t day s o f s choo l , and the

lunch lady was announcing the summer b i r thdays . W h e n h i s n a m e w a s c a l l e d , B u c h a n a n s t o o d u p t o b e r e c -

o g n i z e d , i n s t e a d o f e v e r y o n e c l a p p i n g , p e o p l e b o o e d h i m . The lunch lady made him stand up again, and this time, the students responded appropriately.

WHS students compete for title of best, worst birthday experience EVERSurveyor rates birthday experiences: 5 stars the most extreme, 1 the least intense

Everybody sometime in their life wants a pet for their birthday.Peyton Doss, ‘10, wanted guinea pigs for her 14th birthday. Ask and you shall receive. On her birthday, Doss anxiously climbed

the stairs two at a time to her room where her new guinea pigs were awaiting her. Her mom purchased the two guinea pigs, a cage, food, and bedding, all for a total of only $20. It seemed to Doss that the guinea pigs were alive and well. She named them Zachary and Cody. A few days later, Zachary died. Two weeks later, Cody died.

It turned out that maggots were born in their cage and ate Zachary and Cody’s stomachs.

Sixteen is supposed to be a birthday to remember forever. For Spencer Walrath, ‘07, it would be.

His family was preparing to move to a new house just around his birthday. He was staying with some relatives while his parents were vacationing. His 16th birth-

day came and passed without so much as a piece of cake.Two days later, Walrath got a birthday card in the mail

from his grandparents. Finally, his parents realized that they forgot. They immediately went out and got him presents, and tried to pull it off as they were waiting for the weekend to celebrate, but Walrath caught them red handed.

“I found a receipt that said they bought the gifts two days after my birthday and I immediately knew they had forgotten my birthday,” said Walrath.

C o u s i n s c a n s o m e t i m e s b e t h e b e s t o f f r i e n d s , and f o r Br i t t any Goode l l , ‘ 08 , t h i s wa s t h e c a s e .

One year, her and her cousin decided to have a combined birthday party.On the day of their party, Goodell and her cousin, Tan-

ya Shaver, decided to go roller blading. Everything was fine until her cousin lost balance and fell on to a cement step. She got the wind knocked out of her and was unconscious.

“Everyone there just sat around and waited to see if she would beo k , b u t s h e i s p e r f e c t l y f i n e n o w , ” s a i d G o o d e l l .

What could go wrong on your birthday, especially when your parents were throwing you a surprise birthday party?

For Cour tney Ba s s e t t , ‘ 08 , i t wa s a hor r ib l e day.In order to get Bassett out of the house, her parents paid her sister to break

her headband. This ‘forced’ her dad to take her to the store to replace it. While getting out of the car, she accidentally closed her finger in the car

door. The abrupt pain caused her to cry as she, and through her tears, she saw a lot of people running about her house. When she entered, she couldn’t

find anyone inside, so she searched the basement while her dad looked upstairs. Then, everyone jumped out and scared her. She started crying again, and all she could say was, “my finger hurts.”

Birthday Do’s:-offer polite insight as to what you would like as a gift for your birthday -dress up-you have to look good!-inform your friends that your birthday is coming up so they don’t forget

Birthday no no’s:-don’t have expectations for the whole day to be perfect, or all about you. Sur-prisingly, other people have the same birthday. Share the specialness!-don’t blow off your homework, it will make your belated birthday...not fun

WORSTBEST

compiled by Katr ina Houmes

An exot i c re s t aurant in the mounta in s o f Co lora-do is where Aaron Aulwes, ‘09, spent his 13th birthday.

His family decided to combine his party and Christmas, which they always spend in Colorado, into one celebration.

They went to the restaurant Casabonitas, which means pretty house in Spanish. It had elaborate decorations with a huge waterfall in the middle of the restaurant, and a giant gorilla dancing around.

A f t e r t h e y a t e , A u l w e s a n d h i s f a m -i ly found a smal l amusement park wi th in the re s taurant . There , they played arcade games, went through a haunted house, and saw a western saloon.

A m o n g a l l o f t h e h y p e o f C h r i s t m a s h o l l y a n d l i g h t s , A u l -wes and his family st i l l found time to celebrate his special day as wel l .

S w e e t 1 6 i s a g r e a t b i r t h d a y i n i t s e l f , b u t f o r C o u r t n e y E v e r t s , ‘ 0 9 , i t w a s e v e n b e t t e r .

Everts had her birthday at the Residence Inn Hotel. “It was my sweet 16 and all of my family and friends were there to

make it special. Everyone was having a fun time together,” said Everts. They spent the night playing basketball and swimming. Although Everts enjoyed every moment of her party, the most cherished

moments were spent with her family, who she doesn’t get to see very often.“I will never forget this birthday that was celebrated for me because it was a great one,”

said Everts, “And I thank everyone who came and also my mom for letting me have the party.”

For sophomore Megan Heck’s 14th birthday party, family and friends gathered at the Clarion Hotel.

The hotel room was decorated in a Hawaiian theme, complete with fake palm trees, tropical glass-es and drinks, fish, and coconuts.

F e s t i v i t i e s i n c l u d -ed pi l low making, swimming, and hot tubbing.

In the pool, they enjoyed old-school games like Marco Polo. The favorite activity , though, was having girl talk in the sauna.There was a ping pong table by the pool where

t h e y h e l d a h i g h l y c o m p e t i t i v e t o u r n a m e n t .Heck’s friends spent the night at the hotel, where

they played cards and had pop chugging contests.To go along with the Hawaiian theme of her party, Heck

gave out gift bags with blow-up tropical fish and nail polish.

A birthday that spans from the water parks of Wisconsin to the theme parks of Florida was how Greta Oldach, ‘10, spent her 12th birthday.

Oldach first went to the Wisconsin Dells with her family and a friend to celebrate her birthday. They spent the weekend in a hotel with a water park.

Later that month, Oldach also got to go to Orlando, Fl., for her birth-day. In Orlando, Oldach went to Disney World and Universal Studios.

“It was great because I got to celebrate my birth-d a y o v e r a l o n g e r p e r i o d o f t i m e a n d g o t t o

go to some of my favorite places with my family and friends,” said Oldach.

A b b y O r t b e r g ’ s , ‘ 0 9 , s p e n t t h e n i g h t o f h e r n i n t h b i r t h d a y p a r t y i n h e r a u n t ’s c a m p e r.

It may sound like a bore, but a party including a cinematic adventure to Stuart Little and a sleep over in a camper parked in her driveway was the perfect party for Ortberg and her friends.

They all stayed up late drinking Mountain Dew and playing cards and other various board games although they did have an interruption from Ortberg’s sister throwing tennis balls at the camper trying to scare them.

“We were in third grade, and everyone was trying to create drama from people scar-ing us to ‘name calling.’ It’s fun to look back at how immature we were,” said Ortberg.

compiled by Megan Hartman

Surveyor’s Rating:Surveyor’s Rating:

Surveyor’s Rating:Surveyor’s Rating:

Surveyor’s Rating:

Surveyor’s Rating:

Surveyor’s Rating:

Surveyor’s Rating:

Reefs to Rocks dives deep into Belize for a week of scuba diving, Mayan ruin exploration

and took four students and five chaperones on a total of nine dives. Wash students on the trip were Rachel Conway, Katrina Houmes, and Erin Peters, all 08. They took six dives to 60 feet below the surface, went on two snorkeling excursions, and for the first time ever, one of the dives was at night. Everyone had to be previously SCUBA certi-fied in order to participate in the dives. In fact, a total of 150 former Wash students have been certified because of the club.

Over the years, Reefs to Rocks has funded its numerous trips to Belize through a series of fund-raisers: Collecting pop cans around school every Friday, selling candy in Reyner’s room, and recycling old tires are just a few examples.

Although in previous years their trips to Belize have lasted almost two weeks, it often felt too long and this year they opted to stay only a week from June 9-18.

While in Belize, the group not only scuba dived, they explored Mayan Temples, visited the National Zoo, which was funded partially by Harrison Ford and the cast of “Mosquito Coast”, went river rafting through caves and zip lining 80 feet in the air through the rain forest, and according to Reyner, we saw more turtles, sharks and octopuses than any other trip.

“Holding sharks on one of the scuba dives and touching the sting rays while snorkeling--that was definitely the coolest part of the trip”, said Conway. The favorite trip experience for others, including Reyner, was the night dive in which participants went 30 feet below the surface in pitch black darkness. In addition to the diving they got to meet the people who live there; the divemasters, street peddlers, and the farmers that still practice slash and burn farming.

After 16 years of teaching at Wash, Reyner

POSING BY THE ANCIENT MAYAN TEMPLES are Kayla Epple, Rachel Conway, Erin Peters, and Katrina Houmes, all ‘08.

Reefs to Rocks, founded by science, math and computer teacher Dan Reyner and for-mer science teacher David Stauffer, has been an active club at Wash for the past 10 years.

Membership has varied each year from 10 to a staggering 50. But no mat-ter how many kids show up, “the goal has always been the same, to do science outside of the classroom,” said Reyner.

The incentive for many current mem-bers has been the much anticipated SCUBA trip they took this past summer.

However, in the first few years there was no such trip. Students would instead meet once during the school week to learn a new skill and then go out and apply it on Saturday. From us-ing GPS in order to complete a treasure hunt across Cedar Rapids to using GIS software to map out rivers, streams, and their watersheds.

They visited the Shedd Aquarium, Mu-seum of Science and Industry, Field Museum of Natural History, Brookfield Zoo in Chicago where they saw Sue the T-Rex, and met and interviewed the gorilla expert Jane Goodall.

They took trips around Iowa to the Devonian Gorge, the Iowa Hall Museum of Natural History, Pikes Peak, Ledges State Park, Backbone State Park, Maquo-keta Caves State Park, Stone City and the quarry and caves that gave the city its name.

It was during these weekly excursions that members began to wonder what it would be like to see Iowa 200 million years ago.

After completing research on the an-cient geography of Iowa and comparing data, it was revealed that such a place re-ally does exist: Belize, in Central America.

This past summer, the club once again packed their bags and made their way back in time. Their trip lasted a total of seven days

credits Reefs to Rocks as one of the best things he has done here. “Watching the confidence level of kids rise over the course of the year

photo compliments of Dan Reyner

and the letters and photos that flow in from former students detailing dives they’ve completed-- that’s rewarding,” said Reyner.

Rebecca Dennisco-focus editor

Students hoping to get their college searches out of the way as quickly as pos-sible may have a harder time in the 2008-09 school year. As the college application season reaches its peak, col-leges throughout the coun-try continue to drop their early admissions program.

While there are several variations of the system, all of the programs give the student an admission deci-sion several months prior to the regular decisions. In general, it implies that if the student is accepted, he or she would turn down other school possibilities in order to attend their first choice.

However, many of the elite private schools, includ-ing Harvard and Princeton, are choosing to discard the controversial system. The reasoning behind the ac-

Kristina McLaughlinstaff writer

Any chemistry student knows that an incor-rect combination of chemicals could produce toxic results. This piece of scientific knowl-edge can also be applied to high school seniors choosing a college that will produce positive results in the advancement of education.

As highly selective schools become more expensive and increasingly selective, the ques-tion arises: is it worth it? Should you spend the price of a large three bedroom home in Cedar Rapids just to be able to claim a de-gree from Yale or Harvard on your resume?

“Studies show, that in reality, students

Early admit programs revoked

tion is the majority of early admission applicants were white, upper class students. In hopes of enriching the college’s campus with a more diverse student body, colleges are hoping to give equal opportunities to high school seniors throughout the nation by getting rid of the program. Underprivileged students are frequently unaware of the opportunity.

Some early admission programs that require the student to give a bind-ing agreement to the school results in a lesser amount of money given

for financial aid. Not able to know how much other schools will potentially offer the student, college-bound high school seniors end up paying a considerably larg-er tuition. The removal of the program would allow low-income families a better chance of receiving a high level education without com-pletely breaking the bank.

Even though Harvard may not feel the repercussions of eliminating the program, less known smaller schools rely on the program to en-sure a minimum enrollment for the incoming freshman class. Such schools use the program as insurance for the forthcoming academic year.

The removal of the early admission programs will af-fect college-bound students nationwide. However, wheth-er or not it will be successful in creating greater diversity on the campus will not be deter-mined until the years to come.

Ivy Leagues versus state schools

9th 10th 11th 12th

Senior Check List

greater success with an Ivy League educa-tion. If significant connections are a neces-sary component to success in your future career such as politics or attending the ideal medical school, such an education may prove to be worth the additional cost.

“One of the most obvious advantages of an Ivy League is the name recognition. Certain assumptions are made when you graduate from one of these institutions,” said Sue McDermott, guidance counselor.

Whether it is the Ivy League or a lo-cal community college, any student can find a school that will fit with their per-sonality and help them to have a suc-cessful and enjoyable college experience.

that were accepted into these highly selec-tive schools and chose to attend other less selectvie schools make around the same salaries as their Ivy League counterparts 20 years later. In fact, of the top 50 FORTUNE 500 companies, only seven of the CEO’s are graduates of an Ivy League school,” according to the August 2006 edition of Time magazine.

Many of the entry level jobs available right out of college would make it very difficult to repay student loans. Increased pay can come with a master’s or professional degree. Howev-er, furthering education beyond undergradu-ate school simply adds another couple years of student loans to tack on to the original bill.

Some careers may lend themselves to

•Print college applications from the school’s website.•Submit pre-application in-formation that may be nec-essary to a specific school.•Choose an essay top-ic and get started on it. Once it’s finished, have a teacher proofread it.

•Start building a resume with all of your extracur-ricular, academic, and community achievements.

•Submit applications to one of Iowa’s state schools or another “safety school.”

•Call ACT or SAT to have them send your highest scores to the colleges of your choice.

•Don’t forget to have your high school coun-selor send your high school transcript to each college.

•Talk to the teachers that know you the best about writ-ing your recommendations.

•Send in the complete package to all of your col-lege choices. Good luck!

•Get involved! Not only is it a good way to meet new friends, but it’s also a good alternative to sitting at home watching TV.•Take hard classes, but don’t over-load yourself. You don’t want to burn out before sophomore year.•Grades matter! There’s not much room for slacking. The last thing you want is for your GPA to be beneath the college requirement. Make sure you set goals and main-tain a suitable GPA.

•As if ITEDs weren’t enough, it is a good idea to sign up for the PSAT and PLAN tests for extra standard-ized tests practice.•Keep your grades up and start thinking about taking more chal-lenging courses.•Start volunteering and racking up those community service hours. It looks better than squeezing it in dur-ing senior year.•Pay attention during your language arts classes for essay writing tips. They could be the key to acceptance at your dream school.

•Plan to take the ACT or SAT so you can get a practice run in before you send your scores to the col-leges.•Begin your college search. Make a Barnes and Noble run and check out the latest edition of the Princ-eton Review.•When looking at schools, keep in mind what you would prefer in the size, location, academics, and extracurricular activities.•Keep your grades up. This year’s most important.•Think about visiting colleges.

•Complete the above checklist when applying to schools.•Talk to your parents about how you’re going to pay for college. For fi-nancial aid, fill out a FAFSA form.• Also, don’t let your grades slip. Col-leges do require final transcripts at the end of your senior year.•Apply for scholarships throughout the year. Look at the school’s web-site and websites such as www.fi-naid.com to get the most money.

•Choose a college. Then buy a sweatshirt to show your school

•Start practicing good study habits, such as taking notes. It’ll help you a lot in college.

www.dickinson.edu

Compiled by Erin Wahle

Tim Kennedy, class of 2009Major: Communications

Surveyor: How does the school work compare to Wash’s?Tim Kennedy: In high school you could pad your grade by doing well on all the homework, but in college you can’t get good grades unless you do well on tests. Tell Big Bob Throndson that I got a B+ in statistics last year. I’m sure he’ll agree that that’s a pretty big improvement. S: What is your favorite class so far?TK: Taking Interpretation of Literature is a requirement for almost all majors, so when I took that last year I didn’t expect it to be very cool. But the teacher I had for that class was awesome. He got along well with all the students and made me actually want to go to the class. How much you like a class depends so much on your professors and TAs. S: How are the teachers?TK: That’s a dumb ques t ion . I jus t answered that . Are you even l i s tening to me, Rebecca? S: What is the cafeteria food like?TK: The cafeterias at Hillcrest and Burge are really good. If you go to Hillcrest and you can’t find anything you like, you probably don’t have any taste buds. I’d get that checked out if I were you. S: What kind of school spirit is there?TK: Everyone loves the Hawkeyes. Obviously, football games are great. All the cool kids go to those, but there are also a lot of other fun sports to go watch. It doesn’t hurt that we’re pretty good at a lot of these sports, either. S: What are the people like?TK: Iowa isn’t quite as diverse as Wash, but you still meet a lot of good people. Lots of people are from Chicago, which is cool. The problem is they all like the Bears and Cubs, so that’s annoying. S: What do you do for fun?TK: My favorite thing to do in Iowa City would probably have to be getting cookies from Cookies & More in the Old Capitol Mall. I spit mad game at the shorties who work behind the counter. S: How far from home is Iowa?TK: Iowa City i s about a 20-30 minute dr ive and about a 17-hour walk away from my house. S: What made you choose Iowa?TK: A lot of my friends go here so that made the choice a little easier. It also helped out my parents wallets, and you know I’m always trying to please them. Iowa has worked out pretty well for me, and I’m sure I’ll say the same thing when I’m famous.

Dan Kempf, class of 2008Major: Communication and Entrepre-neur Certificate

S: How does the school work compare to Wash’s?Dan Kempf: There is not nearly as much, but when it comes test time it seems like it’s an equal amount of work because you have to study so hard and there is so much material to cover. The only homework is papers.S: What is your favorite class so far?DK: My favorite class so far that I’ve taken would probably have to be Communication and Theory in Everyday Life.S: How are the teachers?DK: Really cool. I haven’t had a bad teacher yet and the old-est teacher I’ve had is probably 35 years old so they’re young, cool, and understanding. Each class has a professor and a T.A., which are really close to your age so that’s really cool.S: How are the dorms?DK: I personally didn’t like the dorms because I didn’t like my roommate, but as far as the dorm life went, it wasn’t bad at all. I met a whole bunch of new people.S: What is the cafeteria food like?DK: DELICIOUS! There are so many different options each day and I like it a lot. However, I know a lot of people who got tired of it after two weeks. The food is pretty plain, but I like that. S: What’s the school spirit like?DK: A ton!! Especially on game days, there are always companies downtown handing out things to get people pumped up for the football games and then it dies down until basketball. And if you’re wondering about black and gold being worn everyday, yes, it is worn at all times.S: What are the people like?D K : E v e r y o n e i s d o w n h e r e t o h a v e a g o o d t i m e s o t h e p e o p l e a r e a l l r e a l c o o l . S: What do you do for fun?DK: I like to play Frisbee golf. You can go downtown and just chill in the ped mall. There are a lot of bars to go and watch foot-ball in, tons of restaurants, you can go over to other people’s hous-es and dorm rooms, the usual. And I ALWAYS study, of course.S: How far from home is Iowa?DK: It takes like 35 minutes, going the speed limit.S: What made you choose Iowa?DK: I wanted to stay in Iowa and I decided I would rather go to Iowa over UNI, Iowa State or Kirkwood any day.

IOWA

COE COLLEGE•Population: 1300 students•40 majors•Required 5 hours of Com-munity Service•Two required workshops

LORAS COLLEGE•Catholic, liberal arts college•40 majors•13 prepro programs•Average class size 15-20

SIMPSON COLLEGE•Population: 1,485 under-grad•75-acre campus•14:1 student-faculty ratio

Interview with Katie Jones, class of 2010Major: Undeclared

Surveyor: How does the school work compare to Wash’s? Katie Jones: Ok, so, what your teachers say about college being way more intense work-wise than high school, it’s true. Mainly in the form of reading. But one thing high school teachers usually forget to mention is that in college you also have way more free time. S: What is your favorite class so far? KJ: Cultural Encounters in History. It’s probably the most de-pressing class I’ve ever taken and my professor is very terrifying/in-timidating, but the class is just amazing. It really makes you lose hope in humanity, but the way he teaches and what he teaches just absolutely blows my mind and makes me want to be a history major.S: How are the teachers? KJ: I’ve been really, really impressed with the four I have, but I’ve heard some bad things about a few. One bio professor is apparently insane, for example, and only cares about ferns. S: How are the dorm rooms? KJ: There is a wide diversity of dorm room sizes. I was lucky enough to be put in a triple with two amazing ladies. Although some of the dorms are pretty small, you figure out a way to make it work. It’s almost scary how quickly my dorm room felt more like home than my actual house.S: What is the cafeteria food like?KJ: It’s absolute ly del ic ious ! But we have bas ica l -ly the same options every day, which gets a little tedious.S: What kind of school spirit is there? KJ: A weird kind. As much as Grinnell is stereotyped as nerd-cen-tral, there are really quite a lot of different sorts of people at Grinnell. Jocks, hippies, and, yes, even some D&D kids. One thing they all have in common, though, is that they all have the weirdest interests! S: What are the people like? KJ: The people are AMAZING. There are a few people who seem convinced that they know everything and there are some who are lacking some social skills, but for the most part, everyone is really laid-back, intelligent, and fun.S: What do you do for fun? KJ: Warning: a -lot- of people drink at Grinnell, but a lot of people don’t too. You can really make your own choices. Even with the homework included, I’ve already had some of the best times of my life in college.S: How far from home is Grinnell?KJ: It’s only a little over an hour, but it honestly feels like an en-tirely different planet. It really is like a weird little magical world.S: What made you choose Grinnell? KJ: I went there for a concert and just loved the atmosphere and the people. Speaking of which, all the concerts and mov-ies shown at Grinnell are free and everyone is welcome to en-joy the festivities, so anyone who wants to have an awesome time and see what Grinnell is like should totally drive down!

Interview with Stacey Walker, class of 2010Major: Political Science/Communications or Business Law

Surveyor: How does the school work compare to Wash’s? Stacey Walker: The work is rigourous. I would say i t l eve l s out a t r ight about the AP leve l a t Wash.S: What is your favorite class so far? SW: [My favorite class so far is] Interpersonal Communications.S: How are the teachers? SW: The professors are very intelligent, and down to earth. They are open and willing to work one on one with students.S: How are the dorm rooms? SW: Freshman dorms are not very lavish to say the least. However, the upperclass dorms and suites are much nic-er. The freshman dorms will be remodeled for next year.S: What is the cafeteria food like? SW: There are about 3 on-campus restaurants that stu-dents can choose from. The food is very good sur-p r i s i n g l y, h owe ve r i t d o e s g e t o l d a f t e r a w h i l e .S: What kind of school spirit is there? SW: School spirit is about right for a school this size. However academics are clearly the priority and there is no negotiating between extracurriculars and academics.S: What are the people like? SW: The people are adaptive. That is to say there is a clear atmo-sphere around the campus that people begin to adapt to. There is di-versity here, however you wouldn’t notice it unless you looked for it.S: What do you do for fun? SW: [I] go to clubs.S: How far from home is Drake? SW: [From home, Drake is] two hours.S: What made you choose Drake? SW: [Drake] offers the best education in Iowa, and possibly in the Midwest.

GRINNELLDRAKE Des Moines Grinnell

Iowa City

2005 WHS Graduates in Iowa colleges:•University of Iowa: 50 students•Iowa State University: 20 students•University of Northern Iowa: 13 students•Kirkwood Community College: 99 students•Coe College: 11 students•Cornell College: 1 student•Drake University: 3 students•Luther College: 8 students•Mount Mercy College: 6 students•Simpson College: 1 student•Wartburg College: 2 students

www.drake.edu www.masoncontractors.org

rootsweb.commassyratingws.comstudentsreview.com

Leah Koerber, class of 2010Major: Child, Adult, and Family Services

Surveyor: How does the school compare to Wash’s?Leah Koerber: It i s HUGE! Classes are about 300 o r s o , and you a c tua l l y h ave t o s t udy. S: What is your favorite class so far?LK: My favorite class if Human Development and Family Stud-ies. We learn about the process of life and family interactions.S: How are the teachers?LK: The teachers are very helpful, and they do every-thing in their power to help you if you need it. The only difference is that you have to approach them if you have a question; they will not hunt you down.S: How are the dorm rooms?LK: The dorm rooms are good depending on how much you want to pay. I have my own bath-room that I only have to share with my roommate. S: What is the cafeteria food like?LK: There are usually five meals they have planned but everything is buffet style so you can eat whatever. You can pretty much get whatever you want, even steak!S: What kind of school spirit is there?LK: Spirit is very intense, especially at the football games. Most people that go to school here are life-long ISU fans and there are always lots of old cou-ples that met at Iowa State attending football games. S: What are the people like?LK: This was the reason I came here; everyone is really friendly! Everyone here really wants to help you succeed.S: What do you do for fun?LK: There are always parties you can go to, but if not, the campus always sponsors numerous activities and there is always a big turnout. The memorial union’s workshop of-fers lots of classes on weekends like belly dancing and crafts.S: How far from home is Iowa State?LK: Iowa Sta te i s about two hours f rom CR. S: What made you choose Iowa State?LK: I chose Iowa State because they have so many majors that I knew if I changed I would still have op-tions. As soon as I was on campus I got a great feeling!

Jamin Nollsch, class of 2010Major: Pre-architecture

Surveyor: How does the school work compare to Wash’s?Jamin Nollsch: Seriously, the work isn’t that hard. My hardest school work right now is probably math, which is like 50 or 60 problems per week. My drawing assignments take a lot of time, but they’re turning out pretty good. S: What is your favorite class so far?JN: I like philosophy a lot, it’s a lecture only class, so there are no stupid assignments, just a few tests, which are relatively simple. My favorite though would be my drawing studio, because I get a few hours three days a week of just drawing time with 20 kids. S:How are the teachers?JN: My math teacher is no good. Usually at least half of the class is gone before the lecture is over; she’s repetitive and senile. The rest of the teachers are fine. The lecture teachers are just there in the front talking and have no clue who’s in their classes. The teachers for my smaller classes, like my design studio and my English class, are very helpful. S: How are the dorm rooms?JN: The dorm rooms are fine, kind of. I live in Friley which is pretty old in general, so it needs some updates. The walls aren’t the same color everywhere. My favorite part of the room is the carpet patch in the center, made from carpet samples, that’s a different color from the rest of the carpet.S: What is the cafeteria food like?JN:The food’s pretty good, but I’m getting sick of it al-ready. There’s a lot of choice but not too much variation.S: What kind of school spirit is there?JN: School spirit pretty much consists of obnoxious kids yelling, and girls getting into ridiculous Cy-clone gear and body paint. So I can’t complain. S: What are the people like?JN: The people on my floor are really cool. There’s only a few people that really get on my nerves, but no one that I really hate.S: What do you do for fun?J N : I g e t k r u n k . W a i t , n o I d o n ’ t .S: How far from home is ISU?JN: 107 mi (about 2 hours 49 mins) accord -ing to Google maps. (Google maps is the best) S: What made you choose ISU?JN: It came down to price and how freaking easy it was to get in. Also, they have a very well known archi-tecture program, so it was the obvious choice for me.

Interview with Jaymie McGrath, class of 2010Major: Elementary Education

Surveyor: How does the school work compare to Wash’s?Jaymie McGrath: The classes I am taking this semester have a lot more reading then any other classes that I have had at Wash. Right now I am in Philosophy and Anthropology, and that is mostly reading and lecturing. There have been times where I have a lot of things due or multiple tests in one week, but it hasn’t been that bad.S: How are the teachers?JM: The teachers at Luther are really great! Most of my teachers are always willing to meet with me during the day if I need help. It’s really nice because then you get to know them better and they know you also.S: How are the dorm rooms?JM: It is a big change! My dorm room is smaller than my room at home and this is my home, not just my bed room! I am pretty sure that Luther has some of the smallest dorm rooms of colleges! It’s cool to live with someone you don’t know, and be near all these different people that you can just hang out with whenever. S: What is the cafeteria food like?JM: Sometimes there are great main food selections like chicken and mashed potatoes. No matter what, you will have a decent meal! We also have a place called Marty’s and it is a place where you can get burgers and fries, and you can do meal transfers so it doesn’t cost you anything thing more.S: What kind of school spirit is there?JM: Umm NONE. Well, not none, just slim! This is the part that kills me! All you can do is laugh about it! People go to the games and stuff, but its deffinately not like high school or like Iowa. Everyone has a lot of Luther Pride, it’s just not so much spirit when attend-ing games and getting pumped for new things that are happening!S: What are the people like?JM: There is every type of person at Luther. Anyone could come here and find a group of friends to hang out with. It is really cool because everyone kind of recognizes everyone. S: What do you do for fun?JM: It depends on the night of the week. Sometimes on week nights if I don’t have to study or do laundry, I might go watch a movie or go to Walmart with some girls. On Wednesdays, it is a popular night for people to go out. On the weekends, it’s mostly Saturday football and at night, usually you will hang in the dorms or a house. Then at 11:30 everyone files down to Rascoes or Americana. S: How far from home is Luther?JM: Two hours of little small towns, cows, and corn.S: What made you choose Luther?JM: Well, Luther is far enough away that I can stay away, but if I want to go home, it is easily accessible. I thought I wanted a big school, but I realized that a smaller school was probably bet-ter fit for me. I really enjoyed my stay with Blair when I came, and time was kind of running out to be completely honest!

ISU

WARTBURG COLLEGE•Population: 1,179 students•Almost 100% receive some financial aid•Best majors: biology and business administration

CORNELL COLLEGE•Block system (one class for 3 1/2 weeks)•Population: 1,117 students•Average ACT 23-29•Mainly a liberal arts college

MT. MERCY COLLEGE•Tunnels connect all the buildings•Avg. high school GPA: 3.43•100% of students receive some financial aid

Interview with Colleen Bell, class of 2009Major: Communications

Surveyor: How does the school work compare to Wash’s?Colleen Bell: I feel that I spend more time studying material at UNI than I did at Washington, but also miss the busy-work that teachers enforced in high school. As far as toughness is concerned, I think that Wash’s AP classes are very similar to classes at UNI.S: What is your favorite class so far?CB: Last year during second semester, I took an anthropology class that I found to be extremely difficult but ended up doing fairly well in. Many courses in college have professors that will give a variety of exams.S: How are the teachers?CB: I have had a couple of teachers that have been wonderful and have made an effort to get to know students on a personal basis and then I have had teachers that would not be able to pick me out as one in his or her class on the last day of the semester. UNI offers smaller setting classes as well as large lecture hall classes. S:How are the dorm rooms?CB: The dorm rooms differ from building to building, but I love my room this year. I have a large white sink that just shines.S: What is the cafeteria food like?CB: UNI has excellent food. There is a fresh variety every day and the key word here is fresh. I gained a freshmen seven but really can’t complain. One of my very favorite things about our dining center (the piazza) is that there is constantly fresh fruit being brought in. I had strawberries and whipped cream for dinner tonight.S: What kind of school spirit is there?C B : P A N T H E R P R I D E ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !S: What are the people like?CB: Believe it or not one of the deciding factors in coming to UNI was the fact that when I attended the school, every time I went in or out of a building, there were students that held the door for me. Small acts of kindness like this are what I enjoy being around every day.S: What do you do for fun?CB: I enjoy hanging out with my friends on the weekends, and during the week love working out at the Healthbeat, which is a workout facility in a building very close to me. I found a small Baptist church about five minutes away. I enjoy watch-ing Gilmore Girls with my best friend who lives down the hall and on Friday nights love going to an ice cream place called Four Queens. I usually get a medium chocolate shake.S: How far from home is UNI?CB: 55 minutes to one hour and ten minutes. Driv-i n g t h e s p e e d l i m i t t e n d s t o b e a g o o d i d e a .S: What made you choose UNI?CB: It is a great distance from home, the people are very friendly and the administration at UNI is interested in seeing students succeed in realistic and measurable ways. But most importantly, purple and yellow look awesome together!

UNI LUTHERCedar Falls Decorah

Ames

www.study.usa www.luther.edu

www.rinderknecht.comwww.weberstone.comiowameetings.com

North

South

EastWest

Colleges across the nation

U of CA—BERKELEYBerkeley, California•Population: 22,705 undergrad•SAT Ranges: 1300-1440•Financial Aid: 48% receive some•Best majors: Engineering and Architecture

REED COLLEGEPortland, Oregon•Population: 1,312 undergrad•ACT Range: 28-32•Financial Aid: 50% receive some•Best majors: Biology and Chemistry

U of MI—ANN ARBORAnn Arbor, Michigan•Population: 24,517 undergrad•ACT Range: 26-30•FInancial Aid: 40$ receive some•Best majors: Pre-med and Engineering

CARLETON COLLEGENorthfield, Minnesota•Population: 1,930 undergrad•ACT Range: 28-32•Financial Aid: 55% receive some•Best majors: Mathematics and Computer Science

TULANE UNIVERSITYNew Oreleans, Louisiana•Population: 7, 976 undergrad•ACT Ranges: 28-32•Financial Aid: 73% receive some•Best majors: Pre-med and pre-law

EMORY UNIVERSITYAtlanta, Georgia•Population: 5,680 undergrad•ACT Ranges: 29-33•Financial Aid: 37% receive some•Best majors: Business and Psychology

VILLANOVAVillanova, Pennsylvania•Population: 7,267 undergrad•ACT Ranges: 27-30•Financial aid: 76% receive some•Best majors: Finance and Com-munication

JAMES MADISONHarrisongburg, Virginia•Population : 14,683 undergrad•ACT Ranges: 22-26•Financial Aid: 29% receive some•Best majors: Psychology and Business

www.encyclopedia.quickseek.com

www.busumich.edu www.gis.carleton.edu

www.allcriminaljusticeschools.com

www.coe.jmu.eduwww.des.emory.eduwww.tulane.eduwww.mathcamp.org

Their album shows off their typical style of inspirational music with a contempo-rary and country flavor through a mix of traditional songs and other favorites. The songs on this album combine conven-tional songs like “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” with some of their favorites such as “I Pray on Christmas” to display their diverse styles of big band to Dixieland.

“We’re not trying to get rich and famous. We just love to sing and promote the mu-sic ministry. In the end, we are just trying to make a difference,” Armstrong said.

To finish off the summer, they were privileged to spend 16 days traveling through Europe with the Iowa Ambassadors.

The Iowa Ambassadors is a group of musicians including 200 singers and many band members who tour Europe performing at many different venues.

The 2006 tour visited England, France, Liechtenstein, Austria, Italy, Germany and Switzerland and boasted many performances at famous cathedrals such as St. Mark’s in Venice. They were also fortunate to be present in Paris during the World Cup.

As a part of the tour for their first year, Armstrong and his wife, Shelly Armstrong, served as supervisors on a charter bus that carted the musicians around Europe.

Whether their future holds a famous world tour for The Marshalls or a trip chaperoning young musicians traveling Europe, the Armstrongs are undecided. But the Armstrong duo hope to have an ac-tive summer, no matter what it may bring.

CONDUCTING VARSITY CHORALE IS a member of The Marshalls and Washington choir director, Matthew Armstrong.

Building on the success of their three previous albums, The Marshalls are excited to “go out on a limb” to produce the Christmas album they had always dreamed of making. Although it will make for a busy December, they look forward to performing and promoting their latest release.

Where is George??

Aunna McDowellstaff writer

Opportunity after opportunity contin-ues to arise for Washington students to get involved. One of the newest is archery club.

“I hunt, and I’m interested in archery... I wanted more people to learn about archery,” said John Holtzman, ‘09, the club’s founder.

Tracy Mooney, Spanish teacher, allows the club to meet in her room, and Maureen Mark advises the club.

When Holtzman became interested in starting the club, he talked to a WHS teach-er about his idea. The teacher sent out a mass e-mail looking for some-one to advise the club, and Mark responded.

Mark thought she could help the club get started because her hus-band got her involved in archery, promoting her to be a mem-ber of Waltonians, a local archery club.

So far, club meetings have con-s i s t e d o f f u n d - r a i s i n g i d e a s .

Holtzman and Mark are trying to figure out how many students are interested so the right amount of equipment can be provided.

T h e c l u b c u r r e n t l y h a s a p -p r o x i m a t e l y 2 0 m e m b e r s .

T h e c l u b i s s t i l l u n c e r -tain how equipment will be provid-ed, but many options are available.

The club is debating whether equip-

Kristina McLaughlinstaff writer

To many, Christmas in July means sales at a local department store reminding the public that the holiday season is quickly approaching.

But for Matthew Armstrong, music director at Washington, and his band, The Marshalls, Christmas in July meant recording their favor-ite holiday tunes with big name studio artists.

Living the dream, they began the process in Branson, Mo. with names like Gail Lennon (a member of the Lennon Sisters, a group of singing sisters from the 1960’s to the 1970’s) to produce the desired big band and jazz sound to incorporate in a few of their songs.

To add variation to their style, they traveled to Direct Studio in Nashville, Tenn. to explore their “country flavor.”

In Nashville, they had the chance to work with amazing professional studio artists. These talented musicians made the process seamless with their ability to hear the song a single time, leave to practice it twice and then record the tune flawlessly.

The talent and professionalism of per-formers such as the fiddler from many Shania Twain songs and a cellist, who has been recorded on over 20,000 albums in-cluding names such as Garth Brooks, gave them a unique experience not found in the recording studios of Iowa or South Carolina.

“It was humbling to work with such talent-ed musicians. After spending a year teaching, it was exciting and invigorating to work with artists to help us improve,” said Armstrong.

“The club is open for anybody and everybody...If you have a handicap, you’ll be able to shoot a bow,”— John Holtzman, ‘09

ment should be purchased, equipment and space should come from the Walto-nians, or equipment and space should come from joining the Archery Ad-venture Crew, a program that is pro-vided through the Boy Scouts of America.

Holtzman and Mark believe that archery is a great sport for anyone. An athlete doesn’t have to be the fastest or strongest to be successful in archery. Physical handicaps

are not a major setback. “The club is open

to anybody and every-body...If you have a handicap, you’ll be able to shoot a bow,” said Holtzman, remem-bering an archer who could shoot despite having only one hand.

Holtzman and Mark hope to stir up lots of in-terest in archery among Wash students and stu-dents in the neighbor-ing schools. Marion and

Linn-Mar both have archery clubs, and Holtzman hopes to compete against them in tournaments as well as other schools.

Mark hopes to get a wide variety of Wash students involved in archery and said, “I want to talk to the physical education department and see if they would be interested in bringing archery into the physical education curriculum.”

H o l t z m a n e n c o u r a g e s a l l WHS s tuden t s t o g e t invo l ved .

“ . . . W e ’ r e g o n n a h a v e a b l a s t , ” H o l t z m a n s a i d .

Archery club offers new opportunites for Wash students

Surveyor has hidden our favorite founding father Mr. George Washington, the first presi-dent of the United States. Surveyor puts you, the reader, up to the challenge of finding him lurking among the pictures that scatter the many pages of the Surveyor, or, wherever he may hide. Good luck and happy hunting!!

Megan Barnes

Expanding his repertoire, Armstrong records new album, travels overseas

Bears have ‘super’ thoughts

Brent Gaswaystaff writer

A week after the Warriors’ dominating 44-14 win against their long-time city rivals Cedar Rapids Jefferson, they were tested by an even greater rival in

the homecoming game, Iowa City West on Sept, 28. Wash ended up winning the game with a score of 24-21 on a late touchdown, two-point conversion, and field goal.

The Warriors had been preparing for the game against Iowa City West for quite some time, a game crucial to advancing to the state playoffs.

After a fairly even game had be-gun, West took a 21-13 point lead that would last for a good portion of the game. The lead was broken when Washinton’s Tony Meis,’07, caught a touchdown pass from Barney O’Donnell,’07. O’Donnell then made a miraculous two-point conversion run, ducking in and out of his blockers to avoid the Iowa City West defenders.

With the game tied up at 21, West’s offense pushed down the field within field goal range. After the ball was snapped on fourth down, the West kicker kicked the ball into the line of scrim-

m a g e w h e r e i t w a s b l o c k e d b y B r y c e B u c h a n a n , ’ 0 7 .The Warriors were left with one minute, seven seconds to get their final

score. O’Donnell rushed in a few times to take the ball to the Washingon 34. In the following play, O’Donnell spotted Meis and connected for a 29 yard gain. With three seconds left, the kicking team rushed onto the field. Joe Dra-hos,07’ then made the 39 yard field goal to take the lead, and the win 24-21.

“Every week, we practice field goals similar to the last-second field goal made in the game. I felt pretty confident,” said Drahos.

The fight, the kick, and another Warrior victory

Stephanie Steimelstaff writer

The Chicago Bears are bound for the playoffs this year - and maybe more. With a defense at the top of its league, the Bears made the play-offs last year for the first time in quite a while, though they scrubbed out before the Super Bowl.

With a healthy Brian Urlacher leading the attack, the defense is set already this year to prove that last year was no fluke – the Bears are here to stay. A key element was missing last year, though, an element that caused the Bears’ failure in their Super Bowl bid. A lukewarm offense was the problem, with young quarterback Rex Grossman suffering from injuries, inexperience, and an uncertain offensive line. While their running back put up relatively solid numbers, the Bears played much like the Baltimore Ravens, with the defense feeling the need to shoulder the entire burden of vic-tory, including scoring.

This season, Gross-man & Co. are light-ing up scoreboards and post-game highlight reels with their strong and consistent play. Grossman has passed for a career high 8 touch-downs so far, going to favorite targets Muhsin Muhammad and Bernard Berrian among others. In contrast, the Bears’ defense has held opponents to a combined total of only 3 touchdowns, less than one per game as the Bears have gone on to win three of their four games by more than 20 points.

Grossman has only three interceptions so far, giving him a great touchdown to interception ratio. The Bears’ rushing stats are another factor that speaks to their suc-cess. Thomas Jones has nearly three hundred yards in four games, with Cedric Benson adding nearly a hun-

dred of his own. This combined pass-and-run threat gives the Bears the momentum they need on offense to completely dominate what once would have been close games. The game against the Vikings was a classic Bears match-up, low-scoring with the victory by a field goal - but that was the only one. The other three games were all Bears, on both sides of the ball.

The Bears’ defense is showing the same playoff-caliber consistency that set them apart last season. As long as they can keep key assets like their star middle linebacker Brian Urlacher and cornerback Charles Tillman healthy, the Bears should continue to dominate offenses. Look for them to put up good numbers even against the high-powered of-fensive teams like the Bengals and the Colts. Lance Briggs and Urlacher himself lead the team in tackles

with more than 30 apiece, and not far behind are Charles Till-man and safety Mike Brown. The Bears defensive line is another picture of excel-lence, with Ad-ewale Ogunleye returning, averag-ing half a sack per game in 31 total

games for the Bears. Alongside the strong tackle Tom-mie Harris, Ogunleye was definitely a good acquisi-tion for them from his former team, the Dolphins.

The Bears win on Monday Night Football is proving the football gods are on their side.

Whether on offense or defense, the Bears are dominating each and every team they play. They have so many dimensions to their offensive attack and such talent and tenacity on defense that it seems almost impossible that we won’t see them win their division and maybe even make it to a place they haven’t been in a long time - The Super Bowl.

Katrina Houmesbusiness manager

Washington High School’s varsity vol-leyball team kicked off their season Aug. 14.

The varsity and JV practice times alternate with the sophomore team and last around two and a half hours. Every practice consists of various volleyball drills, running, and typically ends with scrimmages.

Despite the loss of four letter winners this year, the team is managing to competitively keep up with other teams in the conference.

Based on the conference statistics, Wash-ington’s top varsity players this year are Steph-anie Crippen, setter, ‘07, Alicia Strong, libe-ro, ‘07, and Dede Hobbs, outside hitter, ‘07.

The volleyball team has given some of their best performances in tough losses to rival MVC teams.

CRW women’s volleyball ‘sets’ up a good season

Eleanor Vernonstaff writer

The Warrior women’s swimming and diving team has re-covered from the loss of some very talented seniors from the class of 2006 by compensating with a strong class of 2010.

Zoey Dietz and Sami Puk, both ‘10, are among those leading the packThe swim team will face a

difficult district meet on Oct. 28, against the highly ranked Jef-ferson and Kennedy teams. Kari Kolsrud, ‘07, is capping off four amazing seasons and is ranked in the top 15 for her time in the 100 breast stroke. Emily Kopec, ‘09, won the 100 and placed in the 200 free at the Mississippi Valley Conference meet on Saturday Oct. 14, and the team placed 6th overall in the MVC. With the duel meet season over, the Warriors have begun competing with more competitive teams.

“ Ta p e r i n g h a s b e g u n and it is time to really focus and start dropping times,” said Sarah Van Deest, ‘08.

The diving team, with a total of 6 divers this year, has had a lot of personal improvements.

“This year has been more suc-cessful than previous years, and ev-eryone is doing much better than expected,” said Dakota Crosswhite, ‘07, ranked in the top 30 in the state.

Warrior women’s swimming, diving reach far to meet season goals

“The best games were the Prairie and Ken-nedy duals because they are both ranked in the top 10,” said Coach Dan Rhine. “We played them very tough in two out of three games of the match.”

Many of the g i r l s on the team f ind the aspect of chal lenges as a team and an individual athlete to be very stimulating.

“When I play in the games, I’m actually compet-ing against another team,” said Rachel Conway, ‘08. “When I’m at practice I’m competing against myself and that is a very hard thing to do. Plus when you play, your adrenaline goes up and it is exhilarating.”

The varsity volleyball has had two close matches against Xavier and Jefferson, both of which went to five games. In both instances Washington outscored the opponents in total points, but ended up losing the both matches.

PREPPING FOR A SET is Alicia Strong, ‘07, as teammates stand ready to support. Strong is one of the top players on the team.

SCANNING FOR AN OPEN RECEIVER IS Barney O’Donnell, ‘07.

PREPPING FOR A DIVEis Dakota Crosswhite, ‘07

“With a healthy Urlacher leading the attack, the de-fense is already set to prove that last year was no fluke -- the Bears are here to stay.”

M e g a n B a r n e s

M e g a n B a r n e s

Photo compliments of Spencer Thornton

WARRIOR ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT: Stars who are great contributors to fall sports

Brent Gaswaystaff writer

For as long as he can remember, Wash-ington’s multi-talented Barney O’Donnell,’ 07, has been playing sports. Since his first freshman game, he has lettered in baseball, basketball, football and tennis.

“All my life, for as long as I can remember I’ve been playing sports,” said O’Donnell. “It’s been a way of life for me. Growing up I looked up to my favorite athlete Deion Sanders. He did it all, and he looked good doing it, too.”

Although O’Donnell’s favorite sport changes with the season, he will always look back on beating Iowa City West in the basket-ball sub-state final as his best sports memory.

During his baseball career, he has played varsity both his sophomore and junior year. His sophomore year he was second team all-metro and he was first team all-metro his junior year.

In football his junior year, he played wide receiver and defensive back. This

Brent Gaswaystaff writer

At the early age of 6, Ross McLaughlin, 07, realized his love for golf -- a love that would continue throughout his high school years.

It was McLaughlin’s dad who first introduced him to golf, when he took McLaughlin out to the course, Squaw Creek. Though he wasn’t very good at first, this didn’t stop him from aspiring to improve.

“I was terrible,” said McLaughlin. “I felt frustrated because I couldn’t hit it.”

McLaugh l in p r a c t i c ed and im -proved . He was fur ther insp i red by his favorite golfer, Tiger Woods.

“I’ve gotten a lot more consistent over the years,” said McLaughlin. “Mentally, I’m a lot more prepared. I also am a lot more one-shot-at-a-time than I used to be,” said McLaughlin.

As a freshman, McLaughlin was on varsity for about half the season. He was shooting around 80 for 18 holes.

Meredith Bellsports editor

With the arrival of each new sport this fall came the kickoff of Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

FCA is one of the many clubs at Wash that is significantly increasing in membership and is growing to be one of the largest. The club, supervised by Randy Ray and Karo-line Rozeboom, meets every other Monday at 6:15 p.m. and is welcome to anyone at Washington, athletes or non-athletes.

This summer, leaders across the Midwest had the opportunity to attend the FCA Lead-ership Conference, where college students and young adult leaders led students in preparing for the coming year. Washington’s represen-tatives at the camp were Mikaela Fisher, ‘07, Ricky Mellor, ‘07, and Katelin Oney, ‘08.

“[At the conference] the kids learned about leadership qualities and really what a huddle is supposed to be like, what FCA is, and how big its potential is,” said Ray. The conference not only inspired the students but also gave them a greater understanding of how they

Emily Kopecstaff writer

It’s a new school year, which means new clubs are being created at Wash-ington. One of the many new clubs this year is the Fitness Club.

The purpose of the club is for girls who are not currently playing a sport this term or to stay in shape for their sports in winter or spring term.

Fitness Club was started by Tracey Stranathan. Stranathan is also a math teacher at Washington. She worked with the girls’ track athletes last year and thought it was a good idea to do something for them out of season.

“This club is a good opportunity for those girls out of season to stay in shape,” said Stranathan. “It’s a lot of fun and the girls really enjoy the club so far.”

There are about seven girls on average who show up for their practices, and they work out everyday from around 3:00 to 4:30 p.m.

Barney O’Donnell dazzles the field Ross McLaughlin swings for victory

New Fitness Club aims to stay in shape

FCA kicks off another year of faith and funcan lead their school and share their faith.

Another new activity promoted this year was Fields of Faith, held on Oct. 11. This was a city-wide meeting of FCA members and others in the community involved in the orga-nization. The meeting, led by a speaker from River of Life Church, was planned to be locat-ed on the Kennedy football field, but because of the cold the meeting was pushed inside. Despite the weather, the meeting was a success.

Upcoming events include an FCA dodge-ball challenge against Kennedy, a city wide high school gathering, and an organized gift drive for Samaritan’s Purse providing Christ-mas gifts for children in Third World coun-tries. Serving early breakfast for each sports team at Wash has been tradition in the past years, and FCA plans to keep the tradition.

“I’m hoping kids can stretch themselves this year,” said Ray. “It’s easy to stay in our own comfort zones, but if we take our faith into our daily lives and hold each other accountable, all of the FCA members can make one solid group and one solid voice to impact their school.”

“One of my favorite parts about being in this club is that it’s a small, consistent number of girls each day,” said Caitlin Breitbach, ‘07. “It makes it a lot more easier to work out since there aren’t that many of us and it’s also a lot more fun.

The club does a variety of workouts. One day it could be running sprints on the track, and then lifting. Another could be distance running and then lifting. A lot of workouts are to help the girls get ready for their sport.

“I really like being in the club,” said Kaitlin Smith, ‘08. “I want to stay in shape for track, so this is a really good way for me to do that.”

Natasha Hillicker,’07 said, “I got in-volved with fitness club because I wanted to work out without doing a sport. We do a lot of different things in practices and I like to work out, so I enjoy the club a lot.”

Fitness Club isn’t just for those to stay in shape for a sport. The club also opens up an opportunity for girls who are not involved in a sport and just looking for a good workout.

year he has been keeping defenses on their feet while playing quarterback to get the team started with a 4-2 record.

O’Donnell came out strong in tennis as only a freshman, making first team all-metro and first team all-conference. He continued this trend and was both first team all-metro and first team all-conference the next two years. He has also taken third and second in doubles at state, and third in singles at state. He has been on three state qualifying teams, which have finished second twice and third once.

“I’ve been pretty fortunate to have winning teams,” said O’Donnell. “It seems like every season, Wash has a good team. I think that our teams represent how nice of a job Dr. Plagman does with our school and student athletes. He’s the core to Warrior success.”

Next year, O’Donnell will most likely choose to do one of two things. He will either go to a small school and play a different sport each season as he does in high school, or he will go to a bigger school and play only football.

“I had a lot of fun freshman year,” said McLaughlin.“Chris James and Nick Miller were really good teammates,” said McLaughlin.

When McLaughlin was a sophomore he played No. 1 for varsity for the first time. He was shooting around 77 for 18 holes. As a ju-nior, McLaughlin was yet again No. 1 and he even shot a 68 in qualifying. That year, he had improved by about two strokes to shoot 75’s.

In McLaughlin’s last year as a Warrior, his team was much better than the previous year. He was shooting 72-74 for most of his rounds and he tied for 8th in the state co-ed tournament with Sarah Novak,’ 08.

“We did alright,” said McLaughlin. “Sometimes we struggled, but there were times when we stepped it up and played better. If I could change one thing about my golf career it would be to have made it to state this year.”

McLaughlin plans on playing golf in college. He is unsure where he wants to go, but he wants to possibly pursue a career as a professional golf instructor.

GATHERING FOR A MEETING are leaders of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (left to right) Mikaela Fisher, ‘07; Katelin Oney, ‘08; Randy Ray, teacher, and Ricky Mellor, ‘07. FCA has begun its many new plans for the new school year.

WARMING UP FOR A RUN are members of the fitness club. This new club at Wash meets nearly every day after school.

Mary Crumley

Mary Crumley

Karly AbelLucas AdolphsonEvan AndersonReginald AndersonAshley AullAaron AulwesEmily BarkerMegan BarnesBailey BarryAlexis BartlingSheldon BazzelCorrina BeanDaniel BelayTimothy BerryMariah BeshearsJessica BixbyHall BlockAllyson BrawnerJoseph BredlCaitlin BruggemanAaron CastroMatthew CeryanecChad ChristensenAndrew ChuppHannah Marie ColtonBryce CooksBrian Andrew CovingtonEmily Ann CovingtonMatthew DaughteryStephanie DavenportKyle DvorakAaron EklandKellar ElliottAudrey ErgerCourtney EvertsDouglas FowlerGabriel Steven FranaAshley FreemanKyle FreemanAlexander FullerRocio GarciaLauren GlantzAlexandra GorkowMadeleine HalyardZachary HarfordTosha HarrisonRoland HartMegan HartmanEllen Hatala

Laura Seyferstaff writer

Who can you count on to be at all of the foot-ball games and cheering their hearts out? Why, of course, it’s the cheerleaders.

This fall, the cheerlead-ers are staying very busy. They practice every day out in the courtyard for a hour and a half. During practice they all work very hard on stunting, jumps and going over their cheers.

“Practice is very fun,

Cheerleaders pep up schoolYoung runners add to girls XC teambut at the same time we all work very hard and make sure that we get our cheers and jumps down. We are all very determined,” said Chelsea Hines, ‘09.

They also are busy follow-ing the football team to all of their games. They make sure that the crowd is up and cheering on the Warriors. They also make sure that the football team’s spirits are up. Occasionally before big games the cheerleader’s mix up treat bags and bottled water to give to the players.

Laura Hartstaff writer

The Warrior women’s cross country team continues to have a successful season.

The team placed second at the district meet and advanced to state. It also placed second at the Clinton, Linn-Mar and Cedar Falls Invitationals.

Varsity runner Ramsey Steiner, ‘08, has contrib-uted to the team during vital situations. Not only has Steiner dropped over two minutes (started the season

at 18:02, and her last time was 16:02) but her place at the Cedar Falls Invitational determined the tie between Xavier and Cedar Falls. “I passed a Marion girl at the end and three Xavier girls during the race. I got 29th place overall, which helped us with getting second place.”

Kahle Novak, ‘08, Mad-die Becker, ‘10, and Mad-eline Steiner, ‘08, all broke 16 minutes at the last meet. Now, the top five runners on varsity are under 16 minutes.

“This is awesome,” said

runner Madeline Steiner.This year’s workout sched-

ule is “more intense from last year,” said Steiner, ‘08.

Dave Coates, the head coach, is impressed with the Warriors finishes at the meets.

The Warriors state rank has improved during the season. They started ranked seventh. Currently they are fourth.

“We have high hopes for districts. We are all really excited for state, because we didn’t make it last year. The team has seen lots of time drops,” said Steiner.

The group of younger run-ners work together to make the team the best they can be.

“There is a lot of friendly competition between Mad-die, Kahle, Madeline and I. All of our times are very close, so during the meets we are constantly work-ing and pushing each oth-er,” said Ramsey Steiner.

Kate Baustian, 08, said “This season has been a ton of fun. The ends of the season runs are the best—Reforma-tion run, casino run and the rainbow run are very fun.”

Brett HayesCharles HeinsRandi HiltonChelsea HinesThomas HolmesEric IntlekoferParker JamiesonAndrew JarveyMichael JarveyAllison JohnsonJacob JohnsonSpenser JonasAlexander KarrWesley KeeneNathan KintnerSarrah KnauseEmily KopecAbbey KramerRebecca KrewerJason KrusieLong LaiSean LeeperReece LeuenbergerRyan LippJoel LydonLewi ManirumvaCamille MarieLiddEileen MarshallSean MatthewsMason McCortAunna McDowellColin McLaughlinShaun MellorMolly MeyerLauren MitchellEthan MoyerStephanie MuehlemannGloria MunyakaziTiffany MurphyHong NguyenTyler NiblickClaire NillesCassandra NovickIan OlsonShondra OlsonPeter OlutundeAbigail OrtbergCarter OswoodMichael Pace

Courtney PattersonZachary PatzwaldGabriella PerezJason PerkinsDavid PetersenDaniel PetersonDanielle PetersonLandon PickensAustin PiperJared PolandAbigail Pressley-BrownBrittany QuaidErik RandallDevon ReeseLuke ReynoldsAbigail RingsZachary RogersSarah RolandCallie RooneyJacob RoyEric SchlehuberKaren SchmidtJonathan ScholerLaura SeyferNikhil ShahFallon ShakespeareAlisa SharpSara SheltonKathryn SiebelsRegan SieckAusten SmithElizabeth SmithCaitlin SoleMartin StrobelJerome StrongRoss SullivanKathleen SwainAlexander TaylorJennifer TitusJordon Van HoutenMeredith Van WoertAshley VarnerDanielle WakehamBrett WarnerBrittney WelshMackenzie Lynn WilliamsLindsey Wolfe

The Washington High School

PTA congratulates the following

Academic Numeral Award Winners

STARTING OFF THE DISTRICT CROSS COUNTRY MEET IS the men’s cross country team. Wash won the meet and advanced to state.Mary C rum ley

Exciting, scary Halloween sites around CR:Be sure to check them out this weekend!

Lauren Glantzstaff writer

Throughout the month of

October, multiple haunted houses, farms and mazes are set up around Cedar Rapids to encourage people to get out of their houses and pro-mote the Halloween spirit.

The Nightmare Manor is one of the more popular Halloween attractions. It has been located at 525 ‘H’ Street SW, behind the police station, for nine years. It costs $7 for customers 13 and up and $6 for ages 12 and under.

The house opened Satur-day, Sept. 30 and will stay opened until Tuesday, Oct. 31. The house is open from 6:30 p.m-10p.m. The most popular attraction within the house is the electric chair, where scare seekers are able to witness a mock execution.

Another popular attrac-tion is the Bloomsbury Farm Fall Festival. The festival is lo-cated at 3260 69th St. Atkins,

Iowa. The festival includes a four-acre haunted corn maze and hayrack rides. It opened Oct. 1 and will stay open un-til Oct. 31. It’ll be open Mon-day through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Sunday it opens at noon and closes at 5 p.m.

There is a haunted trail lo-cated off ‘H’ Avenue in Cedar Rapids. The trails, as well as the other festivities, are aimed toward younger children. Activities include children’s crafts, games, costumes, treats, and haunted woods perfect for kids ages six to 14.

North Liberty Jaycees Haunted Barn is currently opened and will stay opened until the night of Oct. 31. It’s located at 2359 Mehaffey Bridge Road. Entry fee is $6, but starting Oct. 29 bringing a canned food item will take $1 off the admission price.

The Haunted Mansion in Garrison will be open this weekend on Friday and Saturday. The mansion is lo-cated in a warehouse on Main

Street in Garrison. Admis-sion is $5 for children under 12 and $7 for all attendees above the age of 12. All pro-ceeds go to the Garrison and

Mt. Auburn firefighters for new fire fighting and emer-gency response equipment.

The town of Sigourney is also hosting a haunted house.

The house is opened 7 p.m. to midnight, Oct. 27 and 28. It is located above Cooke Drugs at 105 S. Jefferson Street.

A Night at Ushers Scary is located in Cedar Rap-ids at Ushers Ferry Historic Village. Ushers Ferry is lo-cated at 5925 Seminal Valley Trail NE. Adults and teens will tour the village after dark and experience creepy, crawly views of Ushers Ferry. Admission is $5 for both adults and teens. Children’s tickets will not be sold.

Another scary site is Fright-mare Forest located by Xavier High School in Cedar Rap-ids. Frightmare Forest‘s story line follows a mystery dealing with Cedar Bend Asylum.

The address of Frightmare Forest is 4811 Preserve Lane. It’s open weekends until Halloween. The hours are 7 p.m. - midnight on Friday and Saturday and then 7 p.m. - 9p.m. on Sunday.

For the thrill-seekers an-other option for a frightening

forest and Haunted House can be found in rural Dona-hue, Iowa. Donahue, which is about an hour and 20 min-utes away from Cedar Rapids, has a scary forest called Terror in the Woods. The website says the forest is 42 acres of pure horror. Although people may have to wait quite awhile in the line, the line itself is full of ‘haunted’ spooks. It costs $10 per per-son, but people can receive a $2 discount if you bring a non-perishable or household item. Terror in the Woods is open Fridays and Saturdays 7 p.m.-midnight and Sun-days from 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.

T h r o u g h o u t C e d a r Rapids, and its surround-ing areas, there are a many different frightful experi-ences for scare seekers of all kind. During the last few days of October, get out and spread the Halloween spirit by attending one of many haunted, but fun adventures.

Fun, simple Nutter Butter ghost treatsJackie Albrecht

a&e editor

Are your parents telling you you’re too old to go trick-or treating this year and need to find something else to do? Looking for a fun and easy Halloween treat to make this Halloween Weekend? Don’t worry, you don’t have to look any further! These cute and quite simple Nutter Butter Ghosts will be sure to please people of all ages.

Ingredients -2 packages White Almond Bark -1 package Nutter Butter Sandwich Cookies-1 package Miniature Chocolate Chips

Directions-Over medium-high heat, melt the white

almond bark in a medium saucepan. Stir almond bark to make sure it doesn’t burn

on the bottom of the pan. Then Allow the almond bark to melt entirely. Once melted, dip Nutter Butter Cookies into almond bark. Then let it drizzle over the pan to get rid of any excess almond bark. Then place the dipped cookie onto wax paper. Before the cookie cools, place two miniature chocolate chips on top part of the cookie for eyes. Al-low them to cool. Makes about 30 cookies.

E n j o y !

“The Shining,” re-leased in 1980 is one older, scary movie choice. A man, his son and wife become the caretakers of a hotel. Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotel’s past guests using a telepathic gift known as “The Shining.” The father, Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, is busy writing a novel when he slowly slips into insanity. After being con-vinced by a waiter’s ghost to “correct” the family, Jack goes completely in-sane. The only thing that can save Danny and his mother is his telepathic gift of “The Shining.”

Another older frighten-ing movie is “Silence of the Lambs” released in 1991. Young FBI agent Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster, is assigned to help find a missing woman kidnapped by a psychopathic killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to a psychopath named Hannibal Lecter, played by Anthony Hopkins. FBI agent Jack Crawford, played by Scott Glenn, believes that Lecter is a very clever manipulator that has the answers to their questions to help locate the killer. Clarice must first gain Lecter’s trust before he’ll give away any information.

“Psycho,” is a thriller released in 1961. Marion Crane, played by Janet Leigh, is unhappy with her job and missing her boyfriend. Marion is given $40,000 to be put in the bank. Minutes later, impulse has taken over and she takes off with the cash, wanting to leave Phoenix and start a new life with her boyfriend. 36 hours later, paranoia and exhaustion have set in, and Marion decides to stop at a Motel. Innkeeper Norman Bates tells her sto-ries about his controlling mother, before Marion heads to her room for the infamous shower scene.

The 1984 version of “Nightmare on Elm Street” is another older, scary movie. Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp, is having vio-lent nightmares about a mys-terious, badly burned man with a razor-fingered glove that calls himself Freddy Krueger, played by Robert Englund. When she recog-nizes that her friends are have the same nightmares, and that one by one they are be-ing murdered in their sleep, she turns to her dad, who does not believe her. After she finds out the truth behind Freddy’s rampage she decides to take action and bring this murderer out of dreamland and into the real world, where he can go where he belongs.

“Se7en,” released in 1995 is a drama suspense thriller that portrays the exploits of a disturbed serial killer. His twisted agenda involves choos-ing seven victims who represent examples of disobedience of each of the seven deadly sins. Two cops, an experienced veteran detective, played by Morgan Freeman, and an ambitious young ho-micide detective played by Brad Pitt, team up to capture the perpetra-tors. Unfortunately, they too become rapt into his cruel plan. Gwyneth Paltrow also appears in this movie as Pitt’s wife.

The 1978 version of “Halloween” is a last movie selection. On a Halloween night in Haddonfield, Ill. in 1963, six year old Michael Myers murdered his sister. Michael is then institutional-ized where he is placed under the care of Sam Loomis. In October 1978, Michael, escapes from the institution. After witnessing the escape, Dr. Loomis heads back to Haddonfield where he knows Michael will kill again. Mi-chael begins stalking three teenagers: Laurie, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, and her friends. Loomis has to hurry before Michael kills again.

(Stories by Jackie Albrecht)

Frightening thrillers to watch on Halloween

Miranda Bernste in

A l l g r a p h i c s c o m p l i -m e n t s o f a m a z o n . c o m

3 D R T . c o m

Grease is the word in Washington hallwaysStephanie Steimel

staff writer

The 50th anniver sa r y o f Wash-ington this year has struck a ‘50s craze throughout the school and it is evident in this year’s fall musical choice: Grease.

There will be three performances held, pro-viding everyone with plenty of opportunities to make it to at least one of the shows. They will be held Nov. 9, 10, and 11 in the audi-torium and are open, as always, to anyone.

However, viewers may be surprised to di scover that they won’t recog-nize the Grease they’ve come to know through the highly popular movie.

“It’s actually quite a bit different than the movie,” Adam Hoffman, ‘07, said.

The pe r fo rmance wi l l be ba sed off the play rather than the movie.

The general plot is the same as the movie

with Sandy and Danny being the two central characters. Sandy and Danny will share a summer fling, and assume their relationship will have to end along with the summer. However, in a sort of freak accident, Sandy ends up moving and attending the same high school as Danny, who is an almost entirely different person when with his friends than he was with her. The biggest dilemma is if he will be able to have a relationship with her without looking like a wimp in front of his friends.

However, while the plot remains mostly unaltered, some of the songs are entirely dif-ferent, because the movie changed them when it was created. That means that while some of the classic songs may be MIA, there will be completely new ones to take their place.

The f ou r ma jo r cha r a c t e r s a r e all played by very talented individuals.

Hoffman will play the role of Danny, the lovestruck player who has to act tough

in front of his friends. Elizabeth Terpstra, 08, will play Sandy, the innocent new girl that has to adjust to a whole different school and friends. Molly McPartland, ‘07, will play Rizzo, the notably bad girl who does whatever she feels like doing. Finally, Alex Gassman, ‘07, will be Kenicke, Danny’s main man who feels he has something to prove.

Originally, the musical was intended to be Chicago. However, that plan quickly perished when none of the high schools were able to obtain the rights for the play, and therefore were unable to do any reproduction of it.

Besides, Grease happens to be Dr. Plag-man’s second favorite musical ever, which also was a very important consideration when deciding which musical to do. Not to mention it fit in well with the ‘50s theme, so it seemed like the perfect choice. Be sure to mark your calendar for at least of the three musical performances of Grease.

Maddy Halyardstaff writer

Slice of Jazz, Madrigal Sing-ers, Concert Choir, Momen-tum Band, Wind Symphony, and Marching Band: that’s quite a list for one person.

However, Trevor John-son, 08, is involved in all of these activities and still has time for a life outside the Wash music department.

Johnson began his vocal career at an early age. He auditioned for and made the Opus Honor Choir in fifth grade and played the lead role in his Johnson el-ementary school musical put on at TCR. In sixth grade Johnson joined FLAPCO, the Franklin Middle School show choir. However, af-ter this his musical involve-ment halted for a period.

“I’ve always really loved music, but in middle school my friends were all really involved in athletics, so that kind of became the most important thing and took over music,” said Johnson. Fortunately for the Wash music department, some people were not going to let Johnson give up that easily.

“On the last day of eighth grade, my choir director

pulled me aside and asked me what he did to scare me out of singing. He told me to look into music in high school and encouraged me to get involved again vocally,” said Johnson.

His choral director must have had some effect on him because in 10th grade Johnson rejoined the cho-rale department at Wash.

“Trevor was not involved in the choral program as a freshman,” said Matthew Armstrong, choral director at Wash. “When he joined, it was an answer to a prayer. He made a huge difference in Varsity Chorale last year and as a junior in Mad-rigals, Slice, and Concert Choir. He has a great voice and an even better attitude.”

However, Johnson is not only involved vocally. He has been playing the french horn since middle school and made the All Iowa Honor Band through the Iowa Band Master’s Asso-ciation in eighth grade. Now, he is involved in the Wind Symphony, Momentum Band, and Marching Band.

“The band program at Wash is amazing and no one knows it unless they’re involved,” said Johnson. “Mr. Shanley and Mr. Miller are

PRACTICING FOR ONE of his perform-ing groups is Trevor Johnson, ‘08.

geniuses. I enjoy watching them and learning how they run the band program so well. I’ve spent a lot of years mastering the french horn and it’s been a lot of fun staying involved in band.”

Johnson performs at many events throughout the year, but his favorite part about the performing arts is not the ap-

plause or the performances. “Last year was the first year

I tried out for Madrigals or Slice, and I was really nervous about it. As soon as I made it, though, I realized how grate-ful I was to be making music. I don’t even care as much about performing as I do about just making music. The level of music we’re singing

is higher than anything I’ve ever done before, especially in Slice, and just creating an awesome sound and learning how to blend well with others is amazing,” said Johnson.

Johnson’s involvement with music has taught him how important it is.

“It’s taught me how much music is part of my life and how much I need it to live. I don’t know what I did without it and now that I have it, I never want to give it up. Singing has taught me a lot about myself- especially singing at church. You stop thinking about yourself or performing or attention. It’s more about how I love music and want to share it with everyone and want people to appreciate it; you learn not to care what people think.”

Despite his major involve-ment with music at Washing-ton, Johnson doesn’t think he wants to pursue it as a major in college or as a career. He is more interested in major-ing in dentistry or going to medical school, but is defi-nitely considering receiving a minor degree in music.

“ I t ’ s s o m e t h i n g I want to keep getting bet-ter at and will always be a hobby,” said Johnson.

Fav. Food: BBQ ribs

Fav. Schoo l Sub-j e c t : C h e m i s t r y

Fa v. Ba n d /Mu-sic: Likes a varie ty

Fav. Th ing to do in spare t ime: Hang o u t w i t h f r i e n d s

Fav. Sport: Soccer

Fav. Se ason: Fal l

F a v . H o l i d a y : T h a n k s g i v i n g

Fav. Flavor of Ice Cream: Cotton Candy

Fav. Color: Blue or Red

November A & E Events3: “Camelot” at The Paramount

3-4: “The Pajama Game” at Kirk-wood Community College

3-4 & 10-11: “Stage Door” at the Iowa City Community Theatre

9-11: “Grease” Musical at WHS. Starts at 7:30 in the Auditorium.

11: Jazz Concerf at Kirkwood

14: Java and Jazz Concert in the band room

16: Jerry Seinfeld @ US Cellular Center

18: All-State Music Festival in Ames

22: I Can’t Stop Loving You: Musi-cal tribute of Ray Charles at the Paramount

Trevor Johnson pursues music to the max in a variety of vocal, instrumental groups

Q & A

M i r a n d a B e r n s t e i n

j u l i u s b i l j e t t s e r v i c e . s e / p i x

Ruby Tuesday’s offers wide variety of choices, comfortable atmosphere

Do you enjoy watching old movies, or making some silly films with your friends? If so then Film Club is the club for you! Film club was started this year by Patrick Berry and Josh Poland to help spark interest in film. The Club has three goals for the year: to watch good movies, to make good movies and to host a film festival. So far this year they’ve already been on a field trip to Baijou Theatre in Iowa City and are planning on taking many more throughout the year. Also this year, Wash’s Film Club was chosen for a scholarship from the web site www.ismfilms.com. The web site has lots of informa-tion about producing films. So if film club’s for you, where do you go? They meet every Friday after school in Mr. Fletcher’s room, the INC in the technology wing.

If you love curling into a ball and reading a good book then you need to check out Book Club. Book Club had been going on for years, but was recently restarted at Wash. Usually the club will read about a book every two to three weeks, depending on the length.

They have been trying to get in contact with Gar-field Elementary to set up a reading buddy program with the kids. Also, they’re planning a fund-raiser to help boost the fiction section in the IMC by having a book drive, and possibly a coffee sale where profits would go to the library. Normally the meetings are on Tuesdays at 4 at First Ave Espresso on First Ave.

Do you love art and photography? If yes, then you should look into Wash’s art club. Art club is a newer club that meets Tuesdays in Ms. Naso’s room. The club was started to encourage self-expression outside of struc-tured art classes and keep kids having fun with art. So far this year they’ve made many ambitious goals, one of which is to make a mural to hang somewhere around out campus. Some of their plans for the year are to do some things with prints, mural making, and painting. To support their club, they’re planning a fund-raiser by making and selling T-shirts for other clubs. If you’re in-terested in joining, attend one of their weekly meetings.

A & E clubs going strong throughout Washington

OFFERING A GREAT ENVIRONMENT to eat and socialize is Ruby Tuesday’s. Ruby Tuesday’s is by Lindale Mall.

Emily Penningrothstaff writer

Just when everyone thought the nanos were the new minis, and iPod shuffles were really ‘out’ for good, Apple brings them both back, even better and smaller.

You may have seen the new iPod nanos ad-vertised glowing in the dark with their new vi-brant colors of blue, pink, green and silver. The new nanos are even thinner than before, have a brighter screen, and can hold up to 2,000 songs. They come in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB. The price for the new iPod nanos start at $149. The new nanos can also hold up to 25,000 snapshots and have a battery life of 24 hours.

Not into nanos? The new iPod shuffle

might be the perfect fit for you, especially if you are a person on the go. The new shuffle (“second generation”) is even smaller, which makes it even more convenient to cart around in your pocket. It comes with a clip so you can be a proud owner and showing it off by wearing it on your shirt or your belt. The new shuffle is only 1.62 inches long, and weighs half an ounce. It can compare in length to two small paper clips, and is less than half the size of the old (“first generation”) shuffle. It costs $79, holds about 240 songs (1GB) and was named the “worlds smallest MP3 player.” Be sure to check out your local electronic store for the new and improved iPod addi-tions. All of these new additions are sure to make your iPod music time more enjoyable.

Top Five List of the Worst...M O V I E S TV SHOWS S O N G S

1. Da Dip

2. MmmBop

3. Tru ly, Madly, Deeply

4. Thong Song

5. Barbie Girl

1.Parental Control

2. Next

3. Baywatch

4. Jerry Springer

5. Pokemon

1. Spice World

2. The Blair Witch Project

3. Gigli

4. From Justin to Kelly

5. Dumb & Dumb-erer: When Harry Met

Lloyd

Molly Parkerstaff writer

There’s a new burger place in town, incase you haven’t already heard the buzz, about Cedar Rapid’s new fran-chise, Ruby Tuesday’s. At first glance you might think that Ruby Tuesday’s is only an old-fashioned American hamburger place, but once you step in the door and smell that inviting aroma, you’ll realize that it’s much more.

Ruby Tuesday’s is located off of Collins Road by Lindale Mall. You might remember the building as the old home of Boneheads. This restaurant has much more to offer than those other eating establish-ments. The menu has plenty of options: ranging from salads, chicken, seafood, dips, mind-blowing desserts and of course the obvious: burgers!

There are many types of burgers to choose from on the menu. One cheeseburger, in particular, is called the Colossal. If you’re very hun-gry you may just be able to eat the entire thing. If a Colossal doesn’t sound great to you though, you could go for one of their many

other burger choices, ranging from turkey burgers to bacon cheeseburgers. There’s some-thing for everyone on their menu. The menu can seem a little overwhelming with it’s great amount of choices, but you won’t go wrong.

The atmosphere of Ruby Tuesday’s seemed very at home and cozy. It felt like a

W r i t t e n b y M o l l y P a r k e r

good place to just be talk-ing, eating, and hanging out with friends. Personally, I couldn’t stop looking around at the walls, they’re filled with all sorts of things express-ing American culture. You could spend hours in there and not see every picture in there. I wouldn’t classify the food at Ruby Tuesday’s as

extremely overpriced, but it seems like a little much to pay $10 for a simple hamburger and fries. Overall, I’d rate this restaurant a nine out of 10. The restaurant was very comfortable and the food made me want to come back.

Ev e n t h o u g h Ru b y Tuesday’s is probably best known for their gourmet-style, wide array of ham-burgers, they have plenty of other options, in case you’re wanting something else.

Although Ruby Tuesday’s is a fairly recent addition to the list of food options in town, there is a newer restaurant on the other side of the mall, Red Robin. It’s located on First Avenue. The competition between the two new restaurants seems like it will come naturally because they share similar themes, menus and tastes.

Ruby Tuesday’s is not just another burger place, it’s much more than that. I was quite impressed by the restaurant, and believe that it will probably stay around Ce-dar Rapids longer than most new restaurants. It’ s atmo-sphere is amazing, and it has a great variety in its menu.

Apple puts new additions on iPodsFilm Club

Book Club

Art Club

Compiled by Emily Penningroth

a p p l e . c o m

M a r y C r u m l e y

W a r r i o r H o m e c o m i n g 2 0 0 6

STORMING OUT OF THE TUNNEL BEFORE THE HOMECOM-ING GAME ARE Ceth Davis, ‘07, Keenan Davis, ‘09, and Mi-chael Small, ‘07. The Warriors beat Iowa City West with a last minute field goal to make homecoming week even sweeter.

HAVING A GREAT TIME IS Tyler Thirnbeck, ‘07.

POSING FOR THE CAMERA ARE Homecoming King Ricky Mellor and Victoria Munyakazi, both ‘07

RIDING THEIR BIKES IN THE HOMECOMING PARADE ARE Ryan Phelan and Ross Westercamp, both ‘08.

RIDING A FLOAT AT THE PA-RADE IS the orchestra.

Samantha Jacobo

Samantha JacoboPho to Comp l imen t s o f Monumen t

Pho to Comp l imen t s o f Monumen t Pho to Comp l imen t s o f Monumen t

Pho to Comp l imen t s o f Monumen tMINGLING AT THE WASHINGTON HOMECOMING BONFIRE ARE various Washington students. At the event, Adam Hoffman and the Ice Tea Tall Boys performed. The bonfire followed the Homecoming parade. Students packed the baseball field.