To kick off spring, Kamiakin Junior High has been busy with drives and days to benefit our students and the community.
Our annual Food Drive, sponsored by the Honor Society, started with a door decoration competition. Each homeroom was given a food to highlight and students glorified doors and hallways with some funny and inventive artwork. The theme for this year's drive was "Food Fight."
The Kamiakin Honor Society sponsored the drive to benefit Hopelink. Chairgirls were Becky Rundle, Misha Jamall, Lori Healow, Amanda Phan and Stephanie Gall. Competition was stiff! The winner was Mr. Jacob's 9th grade homeroom with "Steak"- steak door, steak dance and steak tapes and Ms. Brumm's LA class with "Cool as a Cucumber," was runner-up. Mr. Conrick's and Mr. Conner's homerooms won the Heavyweight (pounds) and Lightweight (number) competitions. Hopelink was the real winner with donations totaling over 3,000 items and 2,500 pounds!
We climaxed with a Spirit Week assembly that highlighted our volleyball and wrestling athletes and featured as guest athlete/performer, the 7-year-old skateboard-wonder, Tricky Mitchie Bruscoe.
Last year's first Healthy Choices Day was a hit and this year's April 2 date proved no exception. Healthy Choices Day focuses students' attention on the positive and empowers them to make healthy decisions for themselves. Among the many speakers were:
Juanita High School students Catherine Adams, Laura Rosen and David Cronin who shared the ins and outs of being high school students.
Cory Shepherd talked about the great programs and activities at the Kirkland Teen Center.
The presentation on "Bullying," presented by Sgt. Gallagher of the Kirkland Police Department was very compelling.
Dr. Nick Friedman, Kirkland naturopath and chiropractor, spoke about nutrition and gave muscle demonstrations.
Job Ready's AJ discussed strategies for finding jobs and preparing resumes.
Kamiakin's own Andrea Frost gave a talk about the effects of drugs and alcohol.
Juanita students teach at Kamiakin
Three Juanita High School juniors came back to their former Pacific Rim Studies class at Kamiakin Junior. High in the first week of April, this time to be the teachers. The students, Sofie Gogic, Dah-Yeon Hahm and Natasha Robinett spent last summer on an exchange visit to Japan, experiencing Japanese culture and daily life first hand. All three are studying the Japanese language at Juanita and as part of their language studies program, volunteered to teach a class of junior high students about their experiences.
They selected the Pacific Rim geography class of their former social studies teacher, Mr. Peter Conrick, who helped arrange for the girls to work with his classes over two successive days. "All three students were thoroughly prepared and had interesting resources, they were so enthusiastic and positive, my students really enjoyed their presentations," said Conrick.
Kamiakin Kudos
Our award-winning music man, Ward Brannman, and his students have offered a number of great concerts over the last few months and recently hosted the all-day, district-wide junior high band festival. This coming week the Kamiakin band will be playing at the annual Oregon State University Band Festival.
We are very proud of our band, orchestra and music programs. The following students have received awards this year for their musical accomplishments:
7th grade Concert Band - David Loveless, Sara Richardson, Natalie Rauschenbach.
8th grade Symphonic Band - Justin Chang, Nichole Frei, Danny Vlasin.
9th grade Wind Ensemble - Caitlin Diffey, Ashlyn Stoddard, Shea Taisey, Jessica Winkler.
9th grade Jazz Ensemble-Mitch Russell, Andrew Thorton, Duy Tran.
Big congratulations go to Carrie Stauffer and her Service-Leadership class, the "Earth Freaks," who were honored in a formal ceremony with King County Executive Ron Sims as a 2004 Earth Hero at School for "their exceptional work to protect our natural resources." In this first-year effort, the Earth Freaks adopted the once-closed Edith Moulton Park and organized volunteer events to clean up litter and clear storm drains.
Ms. Stauffer and her students have spent over 100 volunteer hours cleaning and maintaining the park and increasing community awareness for resource conservation. There will be one more school effort in June. Next year the Service-Leadership class is looking forward to a long-term partnership with King County and plans on submitting design suggestions to improve Edith Moulton Park for all of the area residents to enjoy.
All of Kamiakin Junior High was really happy when our students' entries to "Reflections" made big waves in the Lake Washington School District and the state. The theme this year was "I am really happy when..." and our winners were:
Alex Elsayed, with a piece about raising a peregrine falcon, won first place in the LWSD. His entry was sent to state competition
Matt Skurnik, with an entry about listening to music, placed 3rd in the LWSD.
Melissa Rangel wrote about a roller coaster ride and received Honorable Mention in the LWSD.
May Events
Capstone Community Night will be held on May 26 from 5 to 7 p.m. Kamiakin 9th graders will present their projects to adults, former and current Kamiakin Junior High students, and community members. The Capstone Program, which is part of the 9th grade curriculum, is unique to Kamiakin and has its foundations in community service. We encourage all of our friends and family to attend.[[In-content Ad]]
