By Ashlee Galloway
Marketing Editor “It was just a surreal moment to hear my name called. It took me an extra second or two to comprehend it. Being nominated was an honor in itself, but winning the category just made it so much more special.” 2014 Red Lion graduate Ben Otte took home an Emmy award for the “News: General Assignment” category at the NATAS Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards ceremony on September 19, 2015 at the Philadelphia Hilton. Otte’s award winning video featured a student who was well known around campus for playing his trombone on the rooftop of his apartment building. “I would always hear him play outside my dorm,” Otte said, “He was just a street away. When I walked to class I looked to my right, and I saw him there in the distance with the sun gleaming behind him. I was always thinking to myself how neat the story is. Many people talked about it so I knew I wasn’t the only one paying attention to it. It was just such a cool story so one time I went up to his apartment and yelled for him to come down and it took off from there. He agreed to do the interview and brought me up on to his rooftop. It was incredible.” Throughout the ceremony, he was introduced to several “higher ups” from Philly’s FOX affiliate and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. “Overall, it was just amazing to share the moment with the best in the business,” Otte said. Studying Media Studies and Production, he has a wide background in news journalism. As a student at Red Lion, he was an avid photographer and videographer for the Leonid and RLA-TV, as well as during sporting events. From a young age, he has been interested in news and broadcast, “Being able to tell a story through a video was just something special for me. I remember actually feeling that I “owed” it to others at times. In high school, producing a video and knowing that hundreds were watching when it played was a surreal feeling Then, hearing others talk about it throughout the day and telling me how much they enjoyed the videos basically told me that this was something I was supposed to do. I knew I was in the right place…” Currently, Ben is working for Temple University Television as an editor and producer. Working on numerous shows at the School of Media and Communication, he is the Production Supervisor for OwlSports Update and Director at Temple Update, which are both Emmy award winning productions. Of all of the people who have helped him to achieve his success, he would owe it to his older brother Kevin. “We’ve always had a close bond,” Otte explains, “he’s just always been there for me when it comes to video production. He’s taught me the bulk of best practices I know when it comes to shooting and editing. He’s really great at giving me constructive criticism (and I always ask him for it) so I really have used that to better myself.” To other students looking to pursue a career in production, his advice for them is to “outwork everyone.” “Always be willing to improve. Do what you truly enjoy doing and the rest will follow. Set high goals for yourself and stick by them. Stay humble. And always, always, always take advantage of the people (not always older) that are around you.” See the video at www.youtube.com/user/otteben
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By Ian Adler Editor-in-Chief “We have to continue, in all of our communities, to shatter the stigma associated with mental illness, and let people know that it’s an illness, so let’s get help.” Answering the call to help, as the Aevidum spirit represents, around 300 participants showed up to run the Aevidum “Color Blast 5k” on Sunday, October 4. The race began at Manor Middle School and followed the school’s 3.1 mile cross-country course. A color blast is a “friendly” run, in which various colors of powder are thrown on the runners by volunteers throughout the course. The event featured DJ services, post-run snacks, and a finale “color bomb”, where a powder tossing free-for-all coated the runners with all the remaining rainbow dust. The second annual color blast is just one of many events that Aevidum hosts, ranging from community talk events, talent shows, music or poetry nights and anything that schools that host the organization decide to hold. “The whole goal is to promote positive mental health,” said Executive Director of Aevidum Joe Vulopas. “Places where people are accepted, appreciated, acknowledged and cared for.” The color blast was described as “more of a community event” by Vulopas, due to the partnership with Teen Hope, a branch of the Samaritan Counseling Center, that helps middle and high schools to screen teenagers for mental illnesses. The money raised from the event was split in donation to both Teen Hope and the Aevidum organization. “It was a great experience,” said senior and Red Lion Aevidum club member Hayley Althoff. “The atmosphere was amazing, I loved being a part of it. I actually thought that there was going to be 50 people there, but there were like 300 and most of them were teens.” Both the community atmosphere and the warmth and welcoming nature of the both participants and volunteers definitively showed that the Aevidum spirit was alive and well. “I feel like depression and things of that sort are becoming more prevalent,” said Althoff. “I think that it needs to be made aware of, especially when you have kids in your own school committing suicide and you don’t even know that they’re depressed until something like that happens.” Red Lion not only brought student participants, but also adult volunteers, including both club advisors Mrs. Rohrbaugh and Mrs. Persing. “Overall, I thought it was a lot of fun,” said Rohrbaugh, who spent the duration of the event handing water to the runners. “I think the kids enjoyed it, we raised a lot of money and it was a success from an overall standpoint.” “Between our 20 participants, ranging from elementary to high school, we raised $500, which is pretty impressive,” said Rohrbaugh. Overall, the event raised about. “Whenever I speak, I always say that we all have a role in making sure that our children are healthy. What is that role that we have?” said Vulopas. “Today, at this event, there were people from everywhere here, which again just surrounds these kids so they know that they can do the right thing, that we care for them.” By Ashlee Galloway Marketing Editor “One day your life will flash before your eyes, do something worth watching.” This quote, which has been voted on by the senior class, represents Red Lion’s strength throughout times of tragedy. Seniors Stone Hill and Nicholas Mankin unexpectedly passed away in June following a car accident in which the vehicle struck a pole. The senior class has voted to honor Hill and Mankin by choosing the colors aqua and yellow to represent their class. The colors were chosen in honor of the two because aqua was Stone’s favorite color and yellow was Nick’s. The senior class also voted on their class song, flower, and motto during a class meeting held on Sept. 22. Class President Jennifer Owrutsky stood on stage, along with the rest of the Executive Council committee members, and presented the seniors with a powerpoint of the various flowers, songs, etc. Of the several different flowers to be chosen from - Forget Me Nots, Hydrangeas, and Carnations - the winning choice was the Forget Me Nots, with a total of 163 votes. During the meeting, Vice President Ian Adler played samples of each of the song choices for the class to listen to before they voted on their favorite. Adler played samples from “I Lived” by One Republic, “Top of the World” by Imagine Dragons, “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield, “We Come Running” by Youngblood Hawke, and “September” by Earth, Wind, and Fire. The hit ‘70s song “September” took the vote by storm with 60 percent of the votes. The options for class motto were, “One day your life will flash before your eyes, do something worth watching,” “You choose the legacy you leave,” “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” and “Sometimes, your biggest problem is in your head. You have to believe.” Of these quotes, “One day your life will flash before your eyes, do something worth watching,” came in first to a close second by “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams,” with 65 votes. Forget Me Nots, the senior class flower, will be given to seniors at graduation. Class shirts, which can be ordered from Miss Seitz in A209, will feature the class colors, yellow and aqua. Shirts will also feature the quote, “the tassel is worth the hassle” on the back. In memory of Hill and Mankin, the senior class will be given gold football pins to wear during graduation. Underclassmen will also be able purchase the pins if they wish to wear them. By Ben Wesley
Staff Writer In person, DaNica Shirey doesn’t come across as a superstar. She’s soft-spoken and friendly. Just a bit of a technophobe—she didn’t get an iPhone until she became a contestant on a popular reality show. And truth be told, she’s kind of short, too. But this Red Lion Senior High School alumna may very well be one of the best singers in America after becoming one of the top 8 contestants on season 7 of The Voice, a televised singing competition on NBC, and getting her current position as a singer for Philadelphia’s prestigious Big House Band. So how exactly did DaNica Shirey go from Red Lion student to nationally acclaimed singer? She credits her father as inspiration. Though he wasn’t a professional singer, he had a love for music that was passed down to his daughter. Shirey remembers sitting on his lap as a young child. “We’d make up words back and forth to each other,” she said. Shirey started young. She began singing for other people around age 8, and was singing at paid gigs by the time she was 14. In the high school, Shirey had surprising choices for what she considered to be the most helpful classes for her career: public speaking and drama. Both were taught by the late English teacher Sara Yorty, who Shirey considers to be a particular inspiration. “It definitely helped me be more prepared for interviews, being able to talk to people and stuff like that,” Shirey said of the classes. I asked Shirey if she had any advice for someone who wanted to aspire to be like her, and she said: “Be positive. Don’t dwell on negative things in life. I’m probably the happiest person I know. Always try to reach for better goals, and know that if today isn’t a good day—just know for a fact that tomorrow will be better. If you are very passionate about something, you know, don’t give up on it. Do it because you love it—don’t do it because somebody tells you to; do it because it’s in your heart. And when you end up succeeding later, it’s going to make you feel amazing because you kept going towards that goal.” By Zachary Rhine News & Feature Editor If someone asked one of their friends if they wanted to go searching for hidden containers in the middle of the wilderness using only a map and/or a GPS, they would most likely be called something along the lines of crazy or insane. However, if they asked their friend if they would like to go geocaching, they would probably receive a better response. The scavenger hunts that would become known as geocaching started in the early 2000’s, when satellites became available to civilians instead of solely the military. Messages boards all over the world began filling with directions to hidden items for people to find. A company known as Groundspeak caught wind of the growing phenomenon and decided to capitalize on it by creating a common website for geocachers to record their adventures and communicate with other geocachers. At the core, geocaching is a real-life treasure hunt. Anyone who owns a GPS and spirit for adventure can participate in the hunt. Hidden containers, also known as geocaches, all have certain latitude and longitude coordinates associated with them, and when plugged into a GPS can be located. Some are as straightforward as that, but others have puzzles and mysteries that need to be solved first in order to locate the caches. The containers all possess a logbook for the geocacher to record that they were there. Some containers also have small trinkets and gift cards in them, placed there by other geocachers. Many of Red Lion’s own teachers and students participate in geocaching. As of the end of September 2015, math teacher Dave Hively has found a total of 3534 geocaches. He’s found a cache in every state from New York to North Carolina, and the furthest he’s gone to find a geocache was Honduras. He jokes that, “I use multimillion dollar technology to search for tupperware in the woods.” Mr. Hively has made geocaching a family event, as his children also enjoy the experience. Hively has also incorporated his love for geocaching into his work. Every year he places a geocache for his AP Calculus classes to solve and find. Mr. Hively also offered some tips for anyone interested in getting involved with geocaching. “Start with the free app on your phone and try to find the easy ones first. There are some standard, basic hides that everyone finds, and they set you up for finding harder hides down the road.” He went on to explain that there are different difficulties and terrain levels that are associated with each of the caches. “It makes for a fun group activity,” continued Hively. By Sarah Cimino
Staff Writer Nurses never know what might happen next. They never really know when someone might need their help or when something bad will happen. And they will have to be at the hospital all night to monitor things. Every single day, nurses will have a new story to tell. While some people like the idea of that other people don’t. It’s hard being a nurse. They get attached to patients, they have to know how to listen very well, and going to school to become a nurse is not easy at all. Sarah Meeks, a nurse at York Hospital, knows that the profession has ups and downs. “Being a nurse is both exciting and scary,” Meeks said. “You have to know what you’re doing.” Regardless, Meeks thinks that nursing is worth all of the struggles you have to go through. “Being a nurse really changes the way you look at the world,” Meeks said. There are a lot of different types of nurses. There are agency nurses who go from place to place for their job, ambulatory nurses who take care of temporary patients who only stay for 24 hours or less, nurse anesthetists who assist the doctors in a lot of different ways, including the hospital room, the surgery room and dentists’ offices. Those are only a couple of different kinds of nurses that someone could choose from. Nurses have to go through school. If someone would want to stay here in Pennsylvania, they may attend school and earn their certification through these organizations: Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing, Pennsylvania State Nurses Association, there’s also Pennsylvania Coalition of Nurse Practitioners. According to Meeks, nurses have to be very professional people. They have to know how to keep a straight face and how to keep things serious because it’s hard not to get attached to patients. Also, it’s just a very important and serious job. A lot of students here at Red Lion want to become nurses, for example, sophomore Seirra Skaggs would like to pursue nursing “I like the idea of making people feel better and feel themselves again.” Skaggs said. “I think I would have an amazing life if I become a nurse.” By Brianna Lehr
Staff Writer Pride, an acronym that seems to appear everywhere around Red Lion, stands for personable, respectful, integrity, dependable, and engaged. Red Lion is expanding the plan to let Pride be a more student based program in the 2015-2016 school year. Pride is a program in school to educate, encourage, and reward positive, above and beyond behavior involving school expectations. The program started in 2011, but was not prevalent until 2012, which was when one of Red Lion’s well-known teachers, Andrea Rohrbaugh, took over the program. “I like the message,” Rohrbaugh said. “I want to recognize the good in school.” In the 2015-2016 school year, Pride plans to have multiple speakers coming in, such as former NFL Pittsburgh Steeler, Tim Lester, who came in September, and Mrs. Castle. The card making in the winter is to spread joy during the holiday season to the Red Lion Senior Center, the Pediatric Ward, and Manor Care. The pep rallies will be presented to recognize sports in the winter and spring. A lip dub will be created by a certain list of students and teachers. Lastly, a student and staff basketball game is planned for the spring. Pride plans on expanding their student leadership group and getting more students involved in that, and to throw out more ideas to help continue Pride’s success in the high school. “We want to instill a pride in Red Lion, be proud of Red Lion,” Rohrbaugh said. By Carly Guise Staff Writer Every minute, 20 people are victims of intimate partner violence. Every day, three women are murdered by a current or former male partner. Domestic violence is defined by violent or aggressive behavior, typically, but not always, within the home, towards a spouse or partner, with abusers often using intimidation, threats, isolation, and sexual assault to control their victims. On average, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will experience domestic violence in their lifetimes. Jessica Castle from the YWCA York calls it an epidemic. “The most recent statistics that I have seen show that 1 in 3 teens are or will be in a teen-dating violent, abusive relationship,” she said. “This doesn’t only mean physical abuse; it can be verbal, emotional, or digital. There’s a lot of different forms of abuse.” Domestic violence is often hidden from the public eye, which is why it can be hard for close friends and even parents of victims to figure out that something is wrong. One of the main red flags to look out for is control. This can range from the abuser controlling who the victim can be friends with to deciding what is acceptable to wear out in public, or even if they’re allowed to go out at all. Other flags that should be paid attention to as well include extreme jealousy and verbal bullying, especially in teenage relationships. “If you see that behavior is changing in your friend, if they’re becoming more withdrawn, or not hanging out with you, and making up a lot of excuses, it would be time to get concerned,” Castle said. “The best thing to do in that case is to reach out to that person, in a supportive way, to let them know that you’re concerned and that you’re there for them.” It’s also very important to not reach out to a friend in a judgemental fashion. “If you think about someone in an abusive relationship, their self-esteem and confidence is down, and the last thing that they need is a friend to criticize them too.” Castle said. While it may take a while for the person in the abusive relationship to recognize it, the best way to help them through it is to be persistent and be there for them. And when they finally do realize that their relationship is dangerous, the most effective way to get away safely is to make a plan and make everyone around them aware of the situation. Let those connected to the person know that they are trying to leave the relationship, so that they are not encouraged to “just take one phone call” and reconcile or to allow the other person to get ahold of a new cell phone number or street address. Domestic violence is all about control and power, so the most dangerous time for someone in an abusive relationship is when they are actually leaving the abuser, taking the power and control with them. For those who aren’t sure whether or not their relationship is toxic or not, Castle has one question to help you decide. “Ask them to take an inventory of what they like about the person they’re in a relationship with, as well as what they don’t like about that person. Do the healthy characteristics outweigh the bad, unhealthy ones?” By Natasha McLane
Staff Writer Aevidum’s Color Blast 5k on October 4 was, as the name suggests, an absolute blast. The 5k isn’t the only event students have to look forward to, as there is plenty more to come. For those who don’t know, “Aevidum is a student-based support group that brings awareness of and support for mental health awareness and suicide prevention,” said Mrs. Andrea Rohrbaugh, co-adviser of the Red Lion Aevidum club. According to Teenmentalhealth.org, 1 in 5 teenagers have a mental illness. This ranges from depression and anxiety, to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and even anorexia. Sadly, suicide is the third 3rd leading cause of death in ages 14-24 years old. The impact of a mental illness is devastating. In 2004, a teenager in Lititz, Pennsylvania and student at Cocalico High School committed suicide. In this tragic event, Aevidum was formed by high schoolers at Cocalico and teacher/Executive Director Joe Vulopas and is now taking storm across the nation. “Even when we’re faced with the deepest and darkest tragedies, there is always learning, there is always something good that can come of it,” said Dr. Brenda Becker, Superintendent of LItitz Area Schools. In 2014, Red Lion launched the start of Aevidum. Starting this year Aevidum plans to have lessons during Academic Prep period. Aevidum will also make the school more aware of depression and prevention of suicide along with always keeping the door open for those who need a hand. Hence the term, “I’ve Got Your Back.” This year alone, numerous students have already reached out to Aevidum. One who struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts should not be ashamed. “Our society tends to shame or ignore those with mental illnesses, and I want to change that,” said singer-songwriter, and activist Demi Lovato. This is exactly what Aevidum does, brings support and awareness. Those that struggle on a day-to-day basis should know they are not alone, and that it is “Okay to talk about,” said Andrea Rohrbaugh. |
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