The

HI-LINETiger

Tuesday, April 2, 2013 Volume 53 Edition 23

Youth on MissionsSome students dedicated their spring break to missions/Page 3

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This Wednesday, April 3, Cedar Falls High School stands up for Red Hand Day. It is a day when people all over the world raise awareness about chil-dren and teenagers that are forced to serve as soldiers in conflicts happening in some countries. Those involved in Red Hand Day leave their mark through getting people to paint their hands with red ink, printing it in big pieces of fabric. The social studies department is already collecting prints.

The idea of getting Cedar Falls High School involved in this movement came from senior Jillian Ross after she watched the movie Blood Diamond in Jeremiah Longnecker’s Developing Na-tions class. The movie tells the story of how the industry of diamonds causes conflicts in some countries in Africa and sometimes it ends turning into a civil war, like in Sierra Leone, in which children are not recruited, but instead are taken to work either in some kind of non government army or in the rivers searching for jewels.

Ross said she thought that it would be a good idea for high schools stu-dents to know what is going on in other parts of the world. “I am part of Senior Leadership, so when I knew they were looking for some different things to do

about different things, I thought I would really like to do this campaign. It would be a cool way to get people to know about it, and it is something important to people to know what is going on.”

Ross found out about the campaign browsing on the Internet. “It was very easy to get involved because it is not a money based thing. It is more about awareness.” There is a whole web-site about it, giving information about how to participate and showing events around the world that are supporting their cause. It also shows the progress of the campaign and what it has achieved so far. It is found in English, French, Ger-man and Spanish.

To let people know about her idea of raising awareness about the prob-lem, Ross said it was a little hard. “I contacted [Supt. Mike] Wells originally, and he got in touch with the mayor who will pass the hands on too after the event is over. I had people from differ-ent newspapers that contacted me and who are probably covering the event too. Mr. Longnecker also contacted the social studies department to try to get them on it too, so more students in this department can get to know about the campaign and participate, printing their hands with red ink on the social studies

hallway.”She used social network to promote

the event too. “I posted it on Face-book, actually, and I have a few of my friends reposting that, so I hope it got around.”

Regarding what she thinks about the whole subject on which the campaign is based on, she said it is heartbreaking. “They dehumanize them [the children] to make them basically killing machines. They take them away from their families, drugs are involved and abuse as well. I think people need to realize that this is a serious thing,” she said. “They need help. They can’t just get out of the situ-ation. They are basically facing death. There is really no options for them,” she added.

One of the Red Hand Day demands is that any child, either volunteering or being forced, should be allowed in any roles in the military. They should be able to join only after they are 18. The United Nations contributes to this premise by outlawing the usage of child soldiers in any country. Other strategies for fight-ing the use of child soldiers are to pun-ish people that are causing the problem and/or allowing it to happen, protecting those giving assistance and giving po-litical asylum to the kids that could get

out of the situation or that were rescued, raising more funds for child soldiers aid programs, banning arm exports and promoting peace education.

According to Ross, a big issue is the conflict diamonds. “That funds a lot of the conflicts that are going on, and that allows those people to get ahold of arms and other resources that they need to keep this happening. If people are aware of that, [they should] make sure that the diamonds that you buy are clean and not from those conflict areas,” she said. “It can make a huge difference.”

The Red Day Hand organization doesn’t raise money. The campaign is all about raising awareness for the situa-tion and orienting people to help other groups that are working with funds. There are ways to donate money on other websites, like the Child Soldiers International (www.child-soldiers.org).

To participate in the campaign and help to raise awareness about it, stu-dents can ask the social studies depart-ment to leave their red print on the fabric for the event that will happen of-ficially this Wednesday.

Two CFHS seniors jointly won third place in C-SPAN’s national high school video competition, which was centered around the theme, “Message to the President.” Their entry reflected the question: What’s the most important issue the president should consider in 2013?

Julie Doyle and Josh Thompson started brainstorming ideas in Septem-ber and took their initial footage then. In late October, they really committed to the project and had until Jan. 18 to make the five-eight minute documentary.

Doyle heard about the competition from alumnus Jarek Bakken who won 2nd place in the video contest a couple years ago for the entry he worked on with alumnus Sara Gabrielle and Daniel Yehieli. She told Thompson about the opportunity this year and both were ex-cited to submit a video.

According to Doyle, she and Thomp-son both had some filming and editing experience before they started their project. However, they learned a lot of other things throughout the process. “This experience has provided many

opportunities. We both learned how to communicate better, not only with each other, but also with the people we had to interview. Patience and perseverance were definitely key components. There were times in the whole process where we both wanted to give up because

we were frustrated,” Doyle said.

D o y l e also got to try out d i f f e r e n t c a m e r a techniques she never had before. “[Alumnus] Austin Han-sen was a w e s o m e and let us borrow his c a m e r a gear for a w e e k e n d so we could

get great footage,” Doyle said. Thompson and Doyle agreed on

a subject they both had a lot of inter-est in. “Choosing our topic wasn’t too hard. We didn’t want to focus on some profound topic that would only leave the audience thinking and not doing.

Lending a Hand Senior kicks off Red Hand Day to highlight child military atrocities

Seniors earn third place in C-SPAN contestInstead, we decided to choose a topic that relates directly to our commu-nity and also to our country,” Thomp-son said. “The issue of small business growth has recently been addressed nu-merous times in politics but never got major recognition, and was therefore a fair topic of choice in our opinion.”

From making this video, Thompson learned some valuable lessons. “I came to realize the difficulty of more ad-vanced video editing, and I also learned that two minds are better than one. Teamwork is an essential skill to possess as well as the ability to be wrong and accept it,” Thompson said.

These two students will share a $750 scholarship for their third place victory.

Doyle recommended this competi-tion to other students. “It takes a lot of time and effort, but you have a chance to earn money being creative, and in my case, doing something I love,” Doyle said. “There were many early mornings and late nights, but it proved to be worth it.”

CUNHA By Staff Writer Ana

AMJADI By Editor-in-Chief Maya

Seniors Julie Doyle and Josh Thompson recently learned that their entry into the annual C-SPAN video competition earned third place and a $750 award. This is a shot from their video.

Tuesday, April. 2, 2013 HI-LINETiger

The

OPINION2Our View

The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes at Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division Street, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.cfschools.org. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Tuesdays to read during their RCTs fourth period.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hi-Line staff or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial is presented weekly in the editorial labeled Our View, and it is the view of the major-ity of the editors listed below.

Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to The Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed. Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Thursday for publi-cation in the following Tuesday edition. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Writers should include their contact information for verification.

Editor-in-Chief: Maya AmjadiNews Editor: Katherine MayhewOpinion Editor: Maya AmjadiSports Editor: Jared HyltonFeature Editor: Sandra Omari-BoatengEntertainment Editor: Lindsey DavisHi-Line Online Editor: Martha HallStaff Writers: Ana Cunha, Amanda Harwood, Alyssa Jensen, Lauren

Nickerson, Kaleb Bengston

Contact Us

Quality gaming sites worthy of time

Congratulations to the Cedar Falls High School FIRST Robotics Team that competed in Minneapolis 10,000 Lakes Regional this week-end. After eight qualifying matches, the team came out ranked second in the competition. The top seeded team joined the Swart Dogs during the elimination rounds. The Swart Dogs won the competition along with their partners Team 2052, Night Crawlers, from New Brigh-ton, Minn., and Team 3244, Granite City Gear Heads, from St. Cloud, Minn. They fought hard for this first place victory.

The team also submitted essays and award submissions for review. Two students at each regional compeition are eligible for the Dean’s List award. Junior Jared Faylor was presented this award, which was the first time a Cedar Falls student has won it. He now is eligible for the national Dean’s Award during the champi-onships that will take place during the end of April. Ten students will be selected out of the 120 eligible.

Three students from the Swart Dogs team met with judges for interviews and were awarded the Chairman Award. Junior Srinivas Dhanwada, and sophomores Lauren Harter and Charlotte Brandenburg presented why their team was the best model for what FIRST robotics stands for. This was also the first time Cedar Falls won this award. The robotics team also brought home the Safety Award.

The high school physics competition at the University of Northern Iowa last week also had stellar results for the CFHS participants. Teams were formed of six groups, one participating in each event. The CFHS teams won first, second and third place. The first place team will move on to the state competition. First place individ-ual wins include senior Maddie Mix’s toothpick bridge and juniors Dhanwada and Katie Yang’s mousetrap car.

With the many days off from school this year, students have had plenty of time to surf the Web in search of fun, and gaming web-sites fulfill that need.

One of the most popular gam-ing websites on the Web right now is addictinggames.com, and it is great. It offers an attractive home page, a search bar if you are look-ing for a specific game, categories that range from action to games leaning more to the female side of the spectrum. The game quality is very nice, and the only wait is the ad at the beginning, which isn’t that bad. It offers strategy games, car games, shooting games, sports games, action games, puzzle games, funny games, girl games and multiplayer games.

I’m going to break each cat-egory down. I started with strategy games, and the game’s name is ‘noitcelfeR.’ It has a nice engine and runs smoothly. The game itself is fun, so the website is worthwhile and has quality games. The ‘car’ category had a wide range from stunt to racing. I picked Max Dirt Bike to test run, and it had a very nice physics generator. It has a high difficulty level and requires a lot of concentration. That was an entertaining category, and I’m sure the rest are enjoyable as well.

Next, the ‘shooting’ category. I picked “Ricochet Kill” out of a se-lection of high variety. The loading is like the others, and you have to wait for an ad to finish before you can begin gaming. Once it started up, it froze, and then I refreshed the page to see if it would work. It sent me through the ad again and

froze a second time. I moved on to the third in the series and that one even froze, so to my disappoint-ment, I had to move on to a differ-ent shooting game completely.

Marksman Hunter was my choice, and this also has an ad. The game is quite boring, but it holds a good idea. I didn’t find it challeng-ing enough, but that is my opinion.

Trick Hoops Challenge was my next selection in the ‘sports’ sec-tion. It offers a multiplayer or single player and is of moderate difficulty. It starts out with an easy opponent, and you progress to more difficult as you go.

Next up is an action game called ‘The World’s Hardest Game.’ It is what it claims to be. The difficulty level is insane, but it is really addict-ing. You are a square and you have to collect the yellow circles without being touched with the moving blue balls.

Puzzle games are up next and my selection was Isoball 3, which starts out simple, but then gets really hard. Addicting, as the web-site’s name proclaims. Next are funny games, but my selection was in no way funny to me. It’s a serious matter. The game name is Tattoo Artist 2. It was really hard. You have to outline certain tattoos according to the person who comes in. It was so hard, I couldn’t finish one with it on novice.

Next was girl games, and I chose “Challenge Acceppted.” It was a game about a cat in an ob-stacle course trying to escape. It’s alright, but the music is too loud, and it doesn’t have a volume op-tion. The gameplay itself is good,

with a nice difficulty and challeng-ing variables.

I also checked out multiplayer games, and I picked “Dave Fear-less is Stuntdriver,” a game that is incredibly difficult. You have a RPM meter, and you have to make sure it stays in the correct place to ensure a perfect launch, otherwise you crash and blow up. The game leaves a little margin for error.

The next site I explored was miniclip.com. It has a nice server with an easy search and categories for easy game selection. I chose the game Runner 2. It’s fun and simple, with a moderate gaming difficulty. The quality is good for that game, so I continued testing the site. I picked TGMotocross 3, and it was really fun. The graph-ics and physics generator were great, playing ragdoll whenever you crash. The difficulty increases each level, and it got more addict-ing the further you went.

The next game I tested was from the category labeled ‘action.’ The game’s name was called “Fan-cy Pants 2.” It was good, though the storyline (I was glad though this was the first game with some substance

CrazyMonkeyGames.com is a site very similar to miniclip.com, but different in games. It offers a good variety of games and a nice search engine. It lets you search a specific game or a type of game (i.e. sports, action, shooting, etc.) The gameplay is nice, without too many glitches and a nice entertain-ment level.

Music tastes have evolved drastically over the years. Baby boomers

wore grooves in their Elton John, Bob Dy-lan, and Paul Simon records. Bruce Spring-steen and Led Zeppelin tick-ets sold out. So when they have children of their own, what happens to parents’ mu-sic tastes?

T o d a y ’ s music contains many swear words that parents don’t want their kids to hear. When listen-ing to top 40 radio, parents

may change stations to more appropriate songs. Rihanna’s “S&M” contains sexual overtones but is played constantly on Top 40 radio. Ke$ha likes to “pop bottles” and “stop the club” when she walks in. Compromises will be made, whining may be heard, but parents could be positively influencing their kids’ musical tastes.

Diana Harwood, mother of Nathaniel, 12, Seth, 15, and Amanda, 18, notices that her mu-sic taste has evolved over the years, but not because of her kids. She listens to Pandora radio and CDs. “I associate dif-ferent kinds of music with different parts of my life. Sometimes when I listen to music it really takes me back to the time that I first remember hearing

the music,” Harwood said.

Harwood was very conscious of what she listened to when her kids were younger. “I would turn off the radio when songs with inappropri-ate language came on or comment that it ‘wasn’t very nice’,” she said. Nowadays, compromis-ing is easier. “Sometimes we have to compromise, but usually it isn’t about what they like and what I like. It’s more about what I am in the ‘mood’ for. I pretty much like all the music they like, but that doesn’t mean I am always in the mood for it.”

On the other hand, kids have drawn musi-cal influences from their parents’ music. The re-cent comeback of vinyl is bringing many older

artists to the forefront of the younger music scene. At 18th Street Vintage in Cedar Falls, vinyl re-cords of all kinds can be found, from Jimi Hendrix to Herbie Hancock. A Bob Dylan concert at the McLeod Center in Octo-ber 2010 drew families of all ages.

So, until kids don’t have to hitch rides from their parents, they should take turns choosing the music. “S&M” probably won’t be a hit with the moms and dads of the world, but Ellie Gould-ing’s catchy song “Lights” might be. The radio prob-ably won’t ever be fully appropriate, but learning to compromise provides benefits for both parents and children.

Families influence taste in music

HALL By Online Editor Martha

BENGSTON By Staffwriter Kaleb

Science contestants deserving of honors

Tuesday, April 2, 2013HI-LINETiger

The

FEATURE3

This spring break, some students from Cedar Falls High School decided to make a difference. They hit the road for two different mission trips. One trip went to God's Mountain Ministries in Missouri. The other traveled to Nuevo Progresso, Mexico. These students and leaders had many life changing experi-ences over Spring Break this year.

Both mission trips did all kinds of work. The students got to help provide people with food, clothes and more. Senior Ellen Jones is no stranger to mis-sion work. Jones has gone on five mis-sion trips. The past three years, Jones decided to go on the mission trip to Nuevo Progresso, Mexico.

Many students also went to God’s Mountain Ministries in Missouri to serve. Senior Jackson Nichols went on the trip for the first time this year. “My first mis-sion trip was in Nuevo Progresso, Mexi-co, and it was super impacting and hum-bling to see how happy the locals were even though they lived in such poor circumstances. That's something that I try to keep that in mind when I'm taking things for granted,” Nichols said.

Nichols choses to go on mission trips during spring breaks for many reasons. “I go on these trips to grow in my faith while interacting with people and getting to know them better. It's also a great way to serve the Lord and get away from everyday life for a week. I've gotten to know a lot of awesome leaders, and they have really connected with me and taught me a ton of things,” Nichols said.

Jones also loves getting to do mis-sion work each year. “I go on these trips because I want to do something mean-ingful with my vacation. While going on trips with family and friends is fun, I be-lieve I have built so many relationships and grown so much by helping people with my time,” Jones said.

In Mexico, the students and leaders try to help the community and people in every way they can. “We mostly do different construction on houses. One year we built an entire house in two days. I mean the house is about the size of a shed in your backyard, but it is the greatest thing ever to them. Other years we have just done little projects to

a church and other houses around the town. This year I was able to replace a rotten roof and re-tar a tin roof so that it didn't leak every time it rains,” Jones said.

Jones met so many people in Mex-ico, but she became especially close to one young boy. “I have met a lot of people over the years, but one kid I met has totally changed my life. Two years ago on my first trip I met a kid named Roberto and he was 11 at the time. He and I played soccer and just hung out the whole time we were there. I came home and just was absolutely heartbro-ken that there was nothing I could do for him,” Jones said.

Her second year in Mexico, Jones met up with Roberto again. “The next year I went back and saw him. He took me to his house, and I was able to meet his parents and see how they live. He sleeps on a super thin matt on a cement floor, yet he is one of the happiest kids I have ever met,” Jones said.

This last year, Jones was reunited with Roberto once again. “This year when I went he found me and almost

tackled me. He was so excited to see me. I brought him a baseball glove and ball. We stood in the road and played catch for about an hour and a half. Ro-berto and I aren't really able to talk to each other very much, but we have an amazing bond. I miss that kid every day. He has so little but is always smiling and just finds joy in the little things. He has totally changed my life and how I look at what I have,” Jones said.

The mission trips have truly changed Jones’ life. “There are so many life changing things that happen on these trips. We learn so much about God and our relationships with him. One of the biggest things that has changed my life is just seeing how happy the people of Mexico are with the little that they have. It has really made me realize how much I have and really humbled me and how I live my life,” Jones said.

Far left, seniors Beth Keesy, a West High student, Jackson Nichols and Mckenzie Sesterhenn prepare food at God’s Mountain. At top, senior Ellen Jones poses with her buddy Roberto in 2012. Below, Jones and Roberto hang out again in 2013.

Spring Break spent in service

By Staff Writer Lauren Nickerson

Submitted Photos

Tuesday, April 2, 2013HI-LINETiger

The

SPORTS4Athlete

Weekofthe

Senior Halle Benson en-ters her tennis season look-ing to make a run at State.

What are your goals for the rest of the season?

I think we’re going to do better than we did last year because we have a lot of good new girls.

Do you enjoy playing doubles with Hannah Mal-laro?

I like playing doubles. It’s different from last year be-cause we didn’t have set dou-bles partners, and now we’re getting used to playing with each other.

TigersActionin

Women’s Track & FieldNext up: Waukee on April 2 at Waukee at 4:45 p.m.

Men’s Track & FieldNext up: Marshalltown Invita-

tional on April 5 at Marshalltown at 5 p.m.

Women’s TennisNext up: Cedar Rapids Wash-

ington on April 2 at Washington at 4 p.m.

Men’s TennisNext up: Cedar Rapids

Washington on April 2 at home at 4 p.m.

Women’s SoccerNext up: Linn-Mar on April 8

at 7 p.m. at Linn-MarMen’s Soccer

Next up: Iowa City High on April 4 at IC High at 4:15 p.m.

BaseballNext up: TBA on April 6 at

home at 10 a.m.Softball

Next up: Waterloo East on May 21 at home at 5:30 p.m.

Women’s TennisHalle Benson

JensenStaff Writer Alyssa

Unforgiving spring weather impacts sports seasons

Not only does the weather affect roads or schools, but it also affects spring sports.

Men’s soccer, women’s ten-nis and women’s track are just a few of the upcoming spring sports that’ll certainly be affect-ed by the cold, snowy weather. With the weather as bad as it is, safety is the first complica-tion.

“With all this snow and ice, it can be very slippery out on the tennis field, which can be dangerous to the girls,” women’s tennis assistant coach Sheryl Dekutoski said.

Junior high women’s track coach Joe Brown agreed. “This year, we’ve already had one girl fall on the ice. Along with this, last year we had a broken collarbone due to the slippery

mud,” Brown said.Another big complication

with this sort of weather is the cold and how the team is going to stay warm. “We really like to bundle up with hats, mittens, soccer pants and sweatshirts,” men’s soccer athlete senior Jackson Nichols said.

Women’s tennis head coach Mike Knox said he feels the same way about tennis. “The girls put on as many layers as possible. They’re pretty good about that. They wear team sweats, gloves, hats and basi-cally anything to keep their upper bodies warm. We didn’t have to worry about this prob-lem last year, since last year the temperature was around 80 degrees,” Knox said.

Of course, with this weath-

er, there’s always worry about the cancellation of games or practices. “This weather has dramatically affected practice. The varsity girls have played only indoors, which costs mon-ey, and there hasn’t really been any practices for JV or non-var-sity teams. March 26 was the first official practice. By now, we should’ve had a week to 10 days of practice,” Knox said.

Men’s soccer faces the same problem. “We haven’t been able to go outside yet. It’s mostly been in the gym, which isn’t helpful since there’s lim-ited space. Along with this, the fields are slushy, so we don’t get an accurate feel of what a game will feel like. Hopefully, we’ll be ready,” Nichols said.

According to Brown, not

only has this year’s weather af-fected practices for junior high women’s track, but the past few years as well. “Two years ago, we had five track meets in basi-cally nine days since all of the meets got postponed. It was terrible,” Brown said.

But even if the weather brings all these complications to various spring sports, the coaches have faith in their teams. “The girls are all season veterans. They play indoors all winter and are used to this sort of weather. Most of them have been playing tennis for two or three years and know what to expect,” Dekutoski said.

Kaz Brown gives verbal commit to KentuckyJunior volleyball player Kaz Brown announced on Sunday, March 24, that she had verbally committed to playing volleyball at the Uni-versity of Kentucky in the fall of 2014. The announcement came following a visit to Ken-tucky over spring break. “Excited to announce that I verbally committed to the University of Kentucky to play volleyball,” Brown said via Twitter. She also made Volleyball Magazine’s “Top 30 Underclassmen to Watch.”

Alex Weidenbacher Photo

Cold Kickoffs