Disposable Daze - Lakewood High School · Eash: I made this box for photography that was covered...

Disposable Daze:The consequences of

carelessness

Vol. 88, No. 4 • December 2008 • Lakewood High School•14100 Franklin Blvd.• Lakewood, OH 44107

2 The Lakewood Times

Staff

Rebecca McKinsey Editor in ChiefThealexa Becker Design & Focus EditorRachel Kowalski News EditorSarah Jawhari Opinion EditorIsabella Zettler Lakewood Life EditorJacob Ott Sports EditorAndrew O’Connor Advertising & Business ManagerValerie Locke Names MonitorMiranda Mave Art & Photo CoordinatorAdam Mihalski Public Relations & PollsterWilson Sackett Exchange EditorFiza Shah Future Book CompilerDanielle Szabo Distribution HeadKaren Ballash Adviser

The Lakewood Times Editorial Board

In the article “Put a treat in your basket and head straight to the casket,” Karen Borland’s quote regarding the gravity of the poi-soned candy situation should have been off the record. Chuck Wick’s first name is not Chick. Najam Hassan’s name was misspelled in a caption on page 14. Mr. Holmok’s first name is Ed, and he teaches Project Lead the Way and Woodshop. There is no student at Lakewood High School named James Bond.

Corrections

About the cover: Senior Evan Graves, in the pose of Rodin’s “The Thinker,” contemplates the amount of bottles and cans Lakewood High throws away in just one day. Photo by Alex Mezin, Staff Photographer. Cover Design by Thealexa Becker, Design Editor.

The Times staff debates how to spread the word about the need for recycling at an editorial staff meeting. Photo by Thealexa Becker, Design Editor.

3December 2008

Contents

Focus4 – Goin’ green

News14 – Overbored overtakes Lakewood15 – Facebook presents unexpected dangers16 – The financial crisis and students17 – LHS communication confusion18 – News Briefs

Editorial19 – Staff Editorial LHS recycling report card20 – Cheers and Jeers21 – Inquiring Times Recycling Times22 – The green generation?23 – Muddled morals

Lakewood Life24 – LHS Post Secret26 – Green-spirited gifts27 – “Role Models” review “Twilight” review28 – Greater Tuna reflections29 – Latin lover

Sports30 – Fixed gear phenomenon31 – Sailors among us32 – Editor’s Corner Sports Under Review33 – Underclassmen Uncovered Ranger Report34 – Love of the game35 – Killing pain: Travis Gallagher

Seated amid the rubble of a day’s recycling at LHS, Julia Houska (9), Mary Harty (11), and Chelsea Stenger (11) hear no garbage, speak no garbage, and see no garbage, while Evan Graves (12) attempts to think up a solution to the problem. Photo by Alex Mezin, Staff Photographer.

editor’s Note

Hey, LHS!How often do you worry about the environment? In an attempt to make

you more aware, we focused this month on what Lakewood High is doing to help in this area, and how we can do more. As you read, we hope you dis-cover easy ways that you can help protect the environment. Enjoy the green cover – the recycled paper is courtesy of Wausau Paper.

As you flip through, you’ll also find info on how Facebook can be hurting your future, ways to recycle The Times, and the growing popularity of fixed gear bicycles. Also check out the first installment of the much-anticipated LHS Post Secret. Remember that if you’re a writer, artist, photographer, or media enthusiast, we’re always welcoming new members.

Until next time,

Rebecca

The Lakewood Times4

FocusFocus

Lakewood High’s own “Green Team” is continuing its mission from last year: to increase awareness of the benefits of recycling, and to encourage Lakewood students to get involved – even if it just means throwing refuse away in the right containers.

The student-run group meets every Tuesday outside the H20 office during lunch periods. “Anyone can join our cause, and it’s not that demanding,” said junior Erin Carney, a Green Team member. “We are trying to find new and ef-fective ways to recycle at Lakewood High, and the Green Team is a great way to get together to work on that.”

Last year, the student-run group focused on paper recy-cling as its first project. The students started an “Every Page Counts” campaign and “received a great response from teachers,” said Nora Steele, H20 coordinator and advisor for the Green Team.

Today, most classrooms have a designated blue box for paper recycling. “Our main issue, at first, was who was go-ing to be collecting,” Steele said.

“We receive a lot of help from the people in Special Edu-cation, who collect the paper for us. We really appreciate that,” Carney said.

This year, the group will be working on other types of recycling. The Green Team has received a donation from PepsiCo to purchase blue bins that can be used for recycling plastic bottles. Several are already placed in the lunchrooms, the L-Room and various locations around the school.

Food Services is also involved in the recycling effort at Lakewood High. “This year we have two bins outside,” said Nancy Early, supervisor of Nutrition Services. “One for regular waste and the other for anything recyclable. Waste Management comes and collects our recycling bin and takes it to a factory where everything is sorted.” Early also said that Lakewood High has received a grant from Solid Waste for an additional 150 recycling bins.

One other thing that the Green Team is planning this year is the selling of bead bracelets made from recycled maga-zines. The brightly painted bracelets will help raise money for the group, while also serving as a reminder on the wrists of students about the positive effects of recycling.

By Shaina Switzer, Staff Writer

Lakewood’s recycling squad: the Green Team

To the right are some results compiled from a survey conducted by the LHS Green Team. These surveys were distributed by the team members during lunch periods to random students in order to gauge how willing LHS is to recycle.

Yes71%

No29%

Yes97%

No 3%If the opportunity were presented, would you recycle at school?

Do you or your family recycle at home?

Infographic by Thealexa Becker, Design Editor.

December 2008 5

Focus Focus

What are you most concerned about recycling?Eash: Plastic bottles.

There was news that the School Board responded positively in favor of having janitors collect recycled plastics. What do you think about this success for the Green Team?Eash: We thought that since we’re young, those people wouldn’t listen to us.Goodwin: This is really good. It furthers awareness. It’s nice to know they’re paying attention to what we’re doing.

What has the Green Team been doing recently?Eash: Yesterday we started passing out surveys. We’re trying to get the kids aware.

What have the responses been like?Goodwin: Definitely positive.

What do you think that main reason is that students don’t recycle? Is it apathy, ignorance, or lack of facilities to do so?Eash: People are lazy. But I think that if they’re presented with the opportunity they will recycle. Goodwin: If [recycling facilities] are more accessible to them, they’d be more willing to do it.

What is your goal for LHS by the end of this year?Eash: Consistency in recycling.Goodwin: At least as far as going in the classrooms to get the paper.Eash: It’s getting easier to adapt to.

Do you recycle at home?Goodwin: We do.Eash: I try to recycle paper.

Do you do anything creative with recyclable material?Eash: I made this box for photography that was covered with newspaper.Goodwin: I reuse cardboard boxes and plastic bottles.Eash: You know that you can break up cardboard boxes and use them as easels.Goodwin: You can also use the cardboard boxes as canvas. Eash: I paint little tea bottles white and make flowers out of tissue paper. Goodwin: I’ll use plastic bottles as vases, too. I’ve even made jewelry out of caps from cans.

Why should everyone recycle?Eash: Just think of the future. If you realize what the facts are, [not recycling] is kinda gross.Goodwin: Think of it as cleaning the world. That’s really what it is – a cleansing.

A Green Team close upBy Thealexa Becker, Design Editor

Megan Eash (left) and Sarah Goodwin (right), proud members of the fledgling Green Team. Photo by Thealexa Becker, Design Editor.

For the majority of America’s history, the country has run on a two-party political sys-tem. Many minor political parties in America are ignored, and citizens are frequently in the dark about the lesser-known parties.

Green parties and the notion of “Green pol-itics” exist globally. The first Green Party was started in 1972 in Tasmania. Twelve years later, the Green Party appeared in the United States.

Since 1984, there have been multiple Green Party factions, but presently, The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) reigns supreme.

The GPUS is among the “big three” third parties of America. Ralph Nader is the name commonly attached to the Green Party, but he is not the only Green politician in power. In the 2008 Presidential Race, two women were nominated at the 2008 National Convention for the Green ticket, receiving, in total, 148,223 popular votes. Since its establishment in 2001, it has grown in members and support.

The Green Party’s platforms follow its name. European and North American Green poli-tics are based on six foundational statements: ecological sustainability, social and economic justice, peace and non-violence, Grassroots de-mocracy, respect for diversity, and sustainabil-ity. Nonviolence, feminism and gender equality, and decentralization are additional key pillars in the GPUS. Specifically, Greens of the GPUS believe in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the right to choose, national health insurance, and electoral reforms. The Greens also contest the death penalty, the Patriot Act, the drug war, and the invasions of Iraq and Af-ghanistan.

Going green for the politically inclinedBy Jessica Paoli, Staff Writer

SUSTAINABILITYdefined

The belief, begun by mod-ern environmentalists and social justice advocates, that all of society must work to-gether to preserve the earth’s resources and ecosystems.

Courtesy of www.csa.com

The Lakewood Times6

FocusFocus

With Thanksgiving over and Christmas just around the corner, trash begins to build up at its worst. The most common items tossed away are plastic bottles, newspapers, and paper bags. Many people do not take into consideration what they are doing when they throw these ev-eryday items away.

For example, in the year of 2007, 1.5 million barrels of oil were used to make only a one-year supply of plastic bottles for bottled water. That is approximately two ounces of oil used for every plastic bottle.

Plastic makes up seven percent of house-hold garbage. Only 23 percent of the popula-tion recycled in 2007, which means 38 billion plastic bottles were tossed into landfills. A plas-tic bottle takes approximately 700 years before it begins to decompose.

It takes 100 million trees to make all the junk mail that is sent out every year. Paper is the most dominant waste in landfills all over the United States.

Plastic bottles are one of a few items used by LHS students that can be recycled. However, many of them are thrown away or left lying around for unfortunate teachers or staff mem-berss to clean up.

What can LHS students do to recycle, and how can they do it better? Blue recycling bins have been appearing all over LHS. These bins were placed by the H2O Green Team and are specifically meant for plastic bottles and alumi-num cans. Along with the bins, signs have been posted to point out where to recycle and what to recycle. Students can easily pick up empty bottles and put them into the blue bins, allow-ing them to be collected and taken to a recy-cling plant.

It is important to know that although the bottle is recyclable, the label and the lid are not. To make the job quicker for the recycling plant, simply remove the label and lid and throw them away. Then toss the empty bottle into the blue bin. Doing this saves time for those at the recycling plant, allowing them to recycle even more.

“The recycling from the bins will go to a charity and will fund bins to be placed out-side of the school,” said Breanna Moldovan, a member of H2O’s Green Team.

Moldovan suggests saving paper by printing or writing on both sides of a sheet. When stu-dents are finished with their paper, most LHS classrooms have designated buckets or boxes

to ensure it will be recycled. Newspaper and paper bags also have many

effective uses. “They can be used for art, such as paper-mâché,” said Green Team member Heather Ziegler.

Newspapers are also very effective at re-moving odors. Just stuff them into gym shoes, backpacks, or plastic containers to eliminate that hideous smell.

Students who have art classes and are afraid

their masterpieces will be damaged or mauled by the traffic of bodies that flows through the halls can use newspaper to wrap up their deli-cate works for extra cushioning.

Newspaper can also be used as a substitute for wrapping paper this holiday season. Color-ful comics or flashy ads are in bountiful supply and cheaper than regular wrapping paper. Even the normal pages of the paper can be used – with a little decoration, they will make any gift look good.

By Josh Watkins, Staff Writer

Recycling better now for a greener future

Art by Ryan Wood, Staff Artist.

December 2008 7

Focus Focus

Art by Jordan Congeni, Staff Artist.

Recycling ONE TON OF PAPER saves 3,000 TO 4,000 HOURS of electricity.

Every student who eats disposable lunches creates 67 pounds of waste every year .

Americans use 29 BILLION WATER BOTTLES A YEAR. That’s 17 million barrels of crude oil ... Oil is $53.61 per barrel ... That’s almost $1 billion a year.

THaT oIL couLD run onE mILLIon carS for onE yEar.

To make ONE LITER OF TYPE 1 PLASTIC, almost 17.5 LITERS OF WATER are required. The following are produced:componEnTS of acID raIn carBon monoxIDE LauGHInG GaS.

TWO OUNCES of crude OIL are used to produce one 8-OUNCE WATER BOTTLE.

Some startling facts about conservation...Compiled by Thealexa Becker, Design Editor, from The Daily Green, a National Geographic web site

The Lakewood Times8

FocusFocus

numBEr 1 pLaSTIcSPET or PETE (polyethylene terephtha-

late) Typically in: Soft drink, water and

beer bottles; mouthwash bottles; pea-nut butter containers; salad dressing and vegetable oil containers; oven-friendly food trays.

used to make: Fleece, fiber, cloth bags, furniture, carpet.

How to recycle: Curbside programs in most cities.

numBEr 2 pLaSTIcS HDPE (high density polyethylene) Typically in: Milk jugs, juice bottles; bleach,

detergent and household cleaner bottles; shampoo bottles; some trash and shopping bags; motor oil bottles; butter and yogurt tubs; cereal box liners.

used to make: Laundry detergent bottles, oil bottles, pens, recycling containers, floor tile, drain-age pipe, lumber, benches, doghouses, picnic ta-bles, fencing.

How to recycle: Curbside recycling programs in most cities.

numBEr 3 pLaSTIcSV (Vinyl) or PVC Typically in: Window cleaner and de-

tergent bottles, shampoo bottles, cook-ing oil bottles, clear food packaging, wire jacketing, medical equipment, siding, win-dows, piping.

used to make: Decks, paneling, mud-flaps, roadway gutters, flooring, cables, speed bumps, mats.

How to recycle: Rarely recycled.

Deciphering recycling:

Infographic by Thealexa Becker, Design Editor.

December 2008 9

Focus Focus

numBEr 4 pLaSTIcS LDPE (low density polyethylene) Typically in: Squeezable bottles;

bread, frozen food, dry cleaning and shopping bags; tote bags; clothing; fur-niture; carpet.

used to make: Trash can liners and cans, compost bins, shipping envelopes, paneling, lumber, landscaping ties, floor tile.

How to recycle: Not often recycled through curbside programs. Some stores accept the plastic bags.

numBEr 6 pLaSTIcS PS (polystyrene) Typically in: Disposable plates and cups,

meat trays, egg cartons, carry-out containers, aspirin bottles, compact disc cases.

used to make: Insulation, light switch plates, egg cartons, vents, rulers, foam packing, carry-out containers.

How to recycle: Some curbside programs.

numBEr 7 pLaSTIcS Miscellaneous Typically in: Three- and five-gallon water bot-

tles, ‘bullet-proof ’ materials, sunglasses, DVDs, iPod and computer cases, signs and displays, certain food containers, nylon.

used to make: Plastic lumber, custom-made products.

How to recycle: Some curbside programs accept these.

numBEr 5 pLaSTIcS PP (polypropylene) Typically in: Some yogurt containers,

syrup bottles, ketchup bottles, caps, straws, medicine bottles.

used to make: Signal lights, battery ca-bles, brooms, brushes, auto battery cases, ice scrapers, landscape borders, bicycle racks, rakes, bins, pallets, trays.

How to recycle: Curbside recycling pro-grams in most cities.

How to properly dispose of those pesky plastics

Information compiled from www.thedailygreen.com. Images from copyright-free sources.

Deciphering recycling:

The Lakewood Times10

FocusFocus

Lakewood Earth and Food (or LEAF) is, in the literal sense of the word, a grass-roots organization. In fact, this year’s slogan says it all: “Planting the seeds that change a city into a community.”

And while many students have most likely heard the name, read something about them, or seen them march in the 4th of July parade, few really understand the organization’s purpose.

LEAF is actually a great deal more complex than its widely-

publicized Community Garden project. In addition to Community Gardening, LEAF also supplies affordable produce on a weekly basis, brings in vendors who sell bulk, and works to reuse waste materials.

Community Gardens

Despite success in its first of-ficial year, the organization had a rocky start. During Mayor Tom George’s administration, several current LEAF Board members approached the mayor about the

possibility of community garden-ing. They were unsuccessful in getting a definitive or a supportive response, according to some of their founders. So they continued to work on their own.

“There were various people try-ing to do projects involving city support,” said Chris Trapp, the Treasurer of the LEAF Board. “We ended up with a group really into it, with all sorts of ideas.”

“Initially, we decided to focus on only a few goals with the over-

riding concept that this kind of group could really bring a com-munity together and make the city a more attractive place to live,” he added.

When Mayor Edward FitzGer-ald came into office, his admin-istration offered its support and even went above and beyond what LEAF could have expected by till-ing the soil, transporting humus, and getting water to the sites.

“This administration is more receptive to these ideas,” Trapp

By Thealexa Becker, Design Editor

Local community group promotes sustainability

Lakewoodites cash in on natural goodies from LEAF’s bounty on Thursday nights in the summer. Photo by Thealexa Becker, Design Editor.

December 2008 11

Focus Focus

said. “They are more responsive to what people want to do.”

The city tilled the land and helped get the gardens up and run-ning in order to help offset LEAF’s late-season start. Currently, there are 65 individuals gardening, with at least 130 plots, a statistic that ex-ceeded Trapp’s expectations.

Plots can be purchased for $25 for the entire season and Trapp said that he expects the plots avail-able at Webb, Madison, and Cove Parks, and Plover Gardens to be filled next year. “It will be interest-ing to see how each garden devel-ops its own personality,” he said.

“I would like to see 100 percent capacity next year,” said Amy Ben-nett, the Community Garden co-ordinator and ESL teacher at Hor-ace Mann Elementary. “I worked with the fourth grade to get a plot in Webb. I hope we can make a close bond between schools and community gardens. I would like to see schools near gardens work on them.”

The benefit of these gardens is that they provide a great deal of produce, so gardeners get more than their money’s worth. One plot produced five pounds of beets in a short period of time. LEAF also believes that the gardening process, among other things, can bring a community together.

As for expansion, Trapp added that there are several other loca-tions in Lakewood – both city- and privately-owned – that are possible candidates for the Community Garden projects.

Community support of Lo-CaL aGriCuLture

“We want to improve people’s access to good food,” said An-nie Stahlheber, a member of the LEAF Board in charge of the Community Support of Agricul-ture (CSA) program.

Stahlheber, a dietician who works for the Board of Health, is a passionate advocate for fresh, local food. So in 2007, she looked into a program called City Fresh, which helps provide quality food to low-income patrons.

The LEAF Board, which was already familiar with City Fresh, decided in the winter of 2007 to create a “fresh stop” on the steps of the Lakewood Public Library. Stahlheber was given the control over this project and throughout the next season, participation in the program grew rapidly, mostly by word of mouth.

“There is so much interest in this community, it’s crazy,” Stahl-heber said.

Aside from volunteering for City Fresh, people can receive a share (or half share) of food each week at a reduced price. The “share-holders” pay from week to week and get a portion of the produce. Stahlheber estimates that there are at least 300 people a week receiv-ing food through both City Fresh and another Community Support-ed Agriculture program, Covered Bridge.

Covered Bridge Gardens is a conventional, family-owned and -operated farm near Ashtabula. Its owners, Mick and Kay Prochko, deliver their produce in person during each LEAF Night.

“It’s rewarding to see this pro-gram take off like this,” Stahlhe-ber said. The food is picked within 24 hours and delivered directly to Lakewood. All of this fresh, local produce originates within 75 miles of the Cleveland area.

“It helps economically and en-vironmentally,” she added. “By keeping the money in the local economy, it helps the community improve itself.”

She added that another benefit of a program where shareholders receive local foods are that it sup-ports local farmers, who normally don’t get great prices when they sell in bulk to grocery stores.

Also, even the truck that deliv-ers City Fresh produce to the Ur-ban Community School in Ohio City, where it is picked up by vol-unteers, is run on vegetable oil.

LEAF NIGHT Probably the most visible ves-

tige of LEAF’s ever-growing pres-ence in Lakewood is LEAF Night.

Held every Thursday in front of the Lakewood Public Library, it is a chance for shareholders to pick up their produce, buy more goods from vendors, or barter for their preferred veggies. Art and enter-tainment are also provided. On the most recent session, the two featured artists were musician Joe Landes and painter Kris Williams.

“This is my first time selling at LEAF,” said Williams, a half-share holder who specializes in paint-ing big and little animals, although the favorites at her home are fat, round birds. “Everyone gets a turn [to set up a stall].”

But the main event is the queue for fresh produce. “I like it,” said

Danielle Masters, a shareholder who was at LEAF Night with her children. “The kids get good pro-duce and they know it comes from a farm.”

The produce offered was locally grown and included basil, dill, zuc-chini, squash, potatoes and bok choy. Occasionally, there are ber-ries, which seem to be a favorite.

“I love when there are berries,” said Masters.

“The berries last week were awesome,” said Williams of what she assumed were giant blackber-ries.

But not every vegetable is to everyone’s liking, which is why LEAF provides a Barter Table.

Residents pluck their shares of greens from LEAF stands. Photo by Thealexa Becker, Design Editor.


FocusFocus

“Whatever you get in your share, you can trade one for one,” said Amy Bennett, a LEAF Board member who was working at the Barter Table. “Some people kick it up a notch and bring in extra from their garden for community con-sumption. What can you do with [five pounds of radishes]?”

Bennett said she loves to work the Barter Table because she gets to talk to people and get their reci-pes as they trade food.

“I’m going to write them down and publish them in the newslet-ter,” she said enthusiastically. “I al-most wish I had a camera because they are so animated and passion-ate about their recipes.”

ExPANSIONTwo of LEAF’s four main proj-

ects are still not fully realized.“We tend to take on something

new each year,” said Lynn Rode-mann, the head of Madison Gar-dens, LEAF Bulk Buying and a

LEAF Board member. “Our goal next year is a giant industrial com-post site, so we could turn it over and work with our gardens.”

Rodemann’s own Bulk Buying program is still being developed. For one of the LEAF Nights, she was able to secure one vendor who sold in bulk, and hopes she will be able to return.

“I am hunting for vendors to come and sell flour and locally grown goods,” Rodemann said. The bulk vendor who did come had cornmeal, honey, oats, and split peas.

“She seemed pretty popular,” Rodemann commented, adding that she is looking for people to come and sell winter items like dried fruits, cheese and milk.

The last leg of LEAF is titled Earth Building and is concerned with soil composting, water collec-tion, and a healthy environment. While this part of the organiza-

tion is still being defined, the reuse of materials is a major factor in its development.

“Now people are recognizing LEAF,” Trapp said. “It’s just mak-ing people aware of the ‘green’ movement and being mindful of how we’re doing things. With en-ergy costs the way they are, we don’t want to be dependent on food coming from California or Chile. It would be good to create energy resources out of waste.”

He went on to say that there is room for people with non-food-related ideas to “hook up with LEAF” as long as these ideas are at least loosely tied to sustainabil-ity.

“It’s better than going on your own,” Trapp said, adding that some ideas he thought would be helpful were solar power and biod-iesel fuel. “We need to be as close to the community as possible.”

“We have a lot of potential,”

Bennett said about further growth of the program.

IMPACT“We’re building a community,”

said Dan Slife, the President of the LEAF Board. “We’re bring-ing people together for a healthy cause.”

In fact, most involved with LEAF would echo those same sentiments.

“I really enjoy meeting people at LEAF night,” said Rob Burgoyne, Vice President of the LEAF Board. “It’s a great celebration of food … we’re building this community in Lakewood around food.”

“Food brings people together,” Bennett added. “I’ve met people and fostered relationships with people who I wouldn’t normally have a relationship with.”

After just a few minutes at LEAF Night, it does become clear that people come not only for the food, but to see friends and social-ize.

“I feel as if I’ve seen every face in my community,” Rodemann said. “It’s amazing how food can bring people out of their houses and turn it into a community event.”

“I personally know many more people in the community,” Trapp said. “It illuminates that there are a lot of people around who are concerned about the city and the environment … the more people, the more power you have.”

The biggest lesson, as Stahlhe-ber put it, is how great, friendly, and helpful the community is. She’s seen other communities try to do this kind of program, and the results have not been as im-pressive.

“It’s really a miracle that this happened,” Slife said. “A hundred twenty-seven plots and four city gardens in one and a half months – that must be some sort of re-cord.”

One of the guest vendors doles out nuts to patrons looking for a healthy treat. Photo by Thealexa Becker, Design Editor.

December 2008 13

Focus Focus

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News

A man and woman stop at a Lakewood fast food restaurant. They don’t want a happy meal or a slushie drink. They aren’t on a mission for fries or a cheap plastic toy. No, these folks are seeking a more important item. They are look-ing for vegetable waste.

This duo happens to be Toni Nagy and Erik “DJ” Emagine, the frontmen for the New York City based organization, Overbored. The veg-gie oil waste will be used to fuel their renovated graffiti covered eco-bus.

Overbored’s most recent project was a “get-out-the-vote operation.” The team members decided that they wanted to work in a battle-ground state. The Overbored team and three friends traveled to Lakewood to assist in the get out the vote process.

Nagy and Emagine say they “wanted to be there to aid in the energy, and participate in what we thought would be a very politically driven time in history.” They wanted to make sure voters from all parties felt their vote would matter.

“Our objective was not to preach which way

to vote, but to encourage voting, period,” Nagy said. The Overbored crew visited Cleveland State University to raise awareness about the election and to encourage students to take ac-tion.

Overbored began in 2006 when Nagy and Emagine had Massa Green Enterprises, a com-pany that specializes in automobile conversion, work on their old school bus. MGE is an of-ficial dealer of Golden Fuel Systems, one of the leaders in engineering and installing SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil) diesel converters. After the conversion, the bus was able to run mainly on vegetable oil.

The process and the mechanics of the bus are very simple. The team pumps vegetable oil remnants directly from a restaurant’s waste bin into a filter. After the oil is filtered, it is contained in a holding tank. After the bus is started, the dirty oil from the holding tank is heated and transferred to another filter, and is ready to be used in the engine. Not only is this method of transportation financially beneficial, it is better for the environment.

“We believe that extracting oil from the earth

has detrimental effects on the planet both en-vironmentally and socially. We did not want to support that approach to transportation,” Nagy said. “Using veggie oil is a zero-economy system. It is taking a waste product from res-taurants that usually pay to have [the waste] tak-en away, and fueling our bus, which we would otherwise have to pay to do,” Nagy said.

Nagy and Emagine describe Overbored as a “multi-dimensional lifestyle brand that aims to bridge the gap between pop culture and con-scious living.” The team tries to incorporate lifestyle, media, music and adventure in its proj-ects to reach the widest audience possible.

The next event that Overbored is planning is called “Walk the Plank.” It is a mission in which six NYC longboard skateboarders will skate from New York to LA, spreading the word about environmental awareness and so-cial responsibility. The idea for this tour was inspired by a love for the outdoors and the en-vironmental nature of the skaters. The tour will begin in either the spring or summer of 2009, depending on sponsorships.

Overbored: Eco-activists visit Lakewood

Overbored’s veggie-oil-powered bus is designed to stand out. Photo by Rachel Kowalski, News Editor.

By Rachel Kowalski, News Editor

December 2008 15

newsnews

Facebook, a social networking website simi-lar to the popular MySpace, allows students and adults to communicate with each other and keep up on what friends are doing. Members are able to write on friends’ walls, and can post, tag and comment on photos. Lately, however, it’s not just friends looking at profiles and pic-tures.

The Washington Post found that ten per-cent of admission officers of the nation’s top universities look at prospective students’ social networking sites. Some admissions officers said they rejected students because of material on the sites.

What does this mean for the 3.3 million stu-dents graduating nationwide this year?

According to a recent survey of forty Lake-wood High students, 64 percent of seniors said they have a Facebook account, and 24 percent admitted to posting inappropriate pictures.

Risqué photos, or any pictures of anyone participating in illegal activities, such as drink-ing or drug use, should not be uploaded to the Internet. It’s all too easy for a college admission counselor to find a student’s MySpace or Face-book account.

“I do have pictures [online] of myself and some friends drinking,” said a Lakewood senior who wants to remain anonymous. However, he added, since his Facebook account is set to Pri-vate, he “[doesn’t] see the harm.”

Only 61 percent of high school seniors surveyed knew if their Facebook or MySpace accounts were set to Private, or if there were privacy settings at all. If a member’s page is not private, anyone can view that page, along with pictures, posts and other personal information. Senior Kavita Elliot doesn’t “post informa-tion or any pictures of drinking” because she doesn’t want “online predators to somehow

contact or find [her].” Although some admissions officers turn

to online networking sites to find out more about applicants, not all colleges are looking through pages and pages of online profiles.

In a recent Rolling Stone article, Janet Lavin Rapelye, Dean of Admission at Prince-ton University, said Princeton “hasn’t rejected any applicant because of information posted on the Internet.” Some schools, including North Carolina State University, will only do an Internet search if the application “raises red flags,” such as a removal from school.

Companies have also been known to look at networking sites for information on pro-spective employees. Elliot does not agree with colleges’ and businesses’ practice of looking at Facebook or MySpace accounts. She asserts that “personal lives should be left alone.”

the dangers of facebook

By Danielle Szabo, Staff Writer

Photo by Rachel Kowalski, News Editor.

Could colleges be looking at yours?


news news

Television screens were bom-barded the week of October 3rd with images of graphs, charts and numbers only college graduates would understand.

This financial crisis effects ev-erything from small businesses to student loans. Current and perspective students may wonder how bank failures will affect their ability to pay for college.

The financial markets of the United States have been in trouble for the better part of this year. The main reason is the reckless lending of money by banks.

Sub-prime mortgages are mort-gages that seem affordable to people who can’t afford a normal loan. Their low interest rates make them attractive to people who are worried about money.

When loan recipients can’t af-ford their monthly payments, the bank takes the property. This is called foreclosure, and it’s happen-ing at an alarming rate in Cleve-land.

Foreclosed homes in Cleveland and around the area have a pro-found effect on everything from the car business to student loans.

When banks lose billons of dol-lars, they are forced to stop lending money. They have to cut programs in order to keep their bank profit-able. Unfortunately, many banks are cutting student loans.

Pam Sandoval, the Cleveland Scholarship Advisor for Lake-wood High, debunked some myths about the future of the student loan system. “What we have been told is that the amount of private lenders will be smaller next year,” she said.

Private lenders are banks, in-vestment institutions, and student loan businesses. In fact, 60 percent of private lenders have gone out of business in the last six months. This will affect the number of lenders needed to pay for the tu-ition, room and board, and sup-plies.

The security of the federal loan system, which is money given on a

financial-need basis, will be avail-able to students who meet mini-mum qualifications. “Actually the federal system should be more available to students, in terms of expanding,” Sandoval said.

She added that when it comes to the safety of the financial aid system, there is nothing to fear. The monetary status of financial systems won’t be affected by the credit crisis because major uni-versities use federal money.

“I discourage students from using private loans at all costs. Look at alternatives so you don’t have to pay them off after gradu-ation,” Sandoval said. “Have an affordable safe school if you and your family can’t meet the finan-cial obligations of your dream school.”

Sandoval also wants to remind all seniors that even if they don’t plan on applying for financial aid, they should still fill out the FAFSA form.

Peggy Welch, a financial aid administrator at Wittenberg Uni-

versity, notices the effect of the financial crisis on students. Welch says current students are having difficulty making ends meet when it comes to tuition. This is com-mon on university campuses na-tionwide.

“Most students use private loans to pay for college and that industry is hurting the most due to the financial crisis,” Welch said. “This problem won’t go away quickly, and it should effect stu-dents next year.” .

The bottom line is that money for college will be tougher to ob-tain next year. Sandoval and oth-er scholarship officials are great people to turn to for ideas on how to pay tuition. Never assume you can’t pay for college, because there are always options. Be creative about meeting tuition require-ments, and work tirelessly to ob-tain scholarships.

Crisis leads to college cost concernsBy Evan Graves, Staff Writer

Financial Aid Facts

• FAFSA forms due February 1

• Nearly $107 billion was distributed in the form of financial aid in 2007

• 83.3 percent of students at four-year and private colleges and universities receive some type of financial aid

• The interest rate in the next four years will go down from 6 percent to 3.4 percent

• $100 million are lost to scholarship scams every year

Courtesy of www.finaidfacts.org

Art by Jordan Congeni, Staff Artist.

December 2008 17

newsnews

Brightly colored posters hang up in the hallway by the LHS Book-room and all across the Old Build-ing. One neon orange poster by the Bookroom reads in boldface text, “Senior Announcements.” Another eye-catching flyer a few steps away reads, “Join Ski Club!”

All around the school, these head-turning posters are popping up to deliver important informa-tion to LHS students. The reason for the increase in these posters is the school’s continuing difficulty in communicating with students through the PA and video an-nouncements.

PA announcements are talked over, ignored, and in some cases, not even heard. Video announce-ments are also unable to adequate-ly get the word out to students.

Sophomore Michael Koltiska appreciates the video announce-ments. “I really like the slide show of clubs and their meeting times on the TV announcements,” he said. “Most of the clubs I’m in are on it. However, what is spoken on the announcements is usually very difficult to hear.”

The administration is working through these technical difficulties. A major cause of the announce-ment problem in the Old Building is the current construction work taking place in the area that used to be the New Building. Construc-tion workers have accidentally cut power to some of the PA systems. These accidents have led to PA malfunctions and breakdowns.

In the mods, the PA is either too quiet or too loud, depending on the classroom. “At the moment, we are trying to adjust the mods room by room,” principal Dr. Bill Wagner said.

Staff members are working to alleviate these technical problems

Communication conundrum: LHS struggles to spread the wordBy Al Rodriguez, Staff Writer

Seniors Mark Miller and Bridget Mckay teach LHS a lesson about communication in the Barnstormers’ fall production of “Greater Tuna.” Photo By Kimmie Farkas, Staff Photographer.

as quickly as possible. “Every day, the PA announcements are being emailed to seventh-period teachers by the Student Activities director and guidance counselors so that they can read the announcements to the students,” Wagner said. But the effort made by guidance coun-selors seems to be in vain, because students are still not getting the information being offered.

Seventh-period teachers feel the same way. Spanish teacher Matt Heslep, who teaches in the mods, rarely hears the PA announce-ments in his room. When he does hear them, it’s a fight to get his stu-dents to listen. “I think the PA an-nouncements should be gone, and teachers should just get a simple announcement so they can read them to the kids,” he said.

The reasons for the communi-cation difficulties are varied. While the PA malfunctioning might be the biggest cause, students’ will-

ingness to listen is also a major factor.

Math teacher Cassandra Alanen believes it’s the students and their attitudes that will make more of a difference than the consistency of the announcements.

“Last year none of my kids would listen,” she said. “But this year I have a class of freshmen that I read the announcements to and they attentively listen to the PA and TV announcements when we hear them.”

These technical difficulties are affecting more than just the stu-dents. Club advisers are being hindered as well. Membership for some clubs has been dwindling because of lack of announce-ments about club opportunities and meeting times.

Social Studies teacher Joe Lobozzo, who is the adviser of several clubs, feels that while some of his clubs are doing fine, others

are suffering. “The Young Demo-crats group has been difficult be-cause it’s hard to get out word to upperclassmen without announce-ments they can hear,” he said.

On a positive note, though, the with lack of announcements causes more word of mouth. Sci-ence teacher Dan Delong, advisor of the Gamers Club, thinks that word of mouth is just making his club better. “We have turnouts of thirty-plus and four TVs, and still some kids don’t get turns to play,” he said. “The word of mouth is re-ally great.”

Administrators claim that the technical difficulties are being looked at. Until the system is fixed, it might be a very good idea to stop and read those brightly col-ored flyers that are hanging around the school. You just might find something you need to know.


news news

• Model United Nations, a club advised by Dr. Chuck Greanoff, won several awards in its com-petition on November 6 and 7. Representatives from the sopho-more, junior, and senior classes participated in the competition. The Awards were distributed as follows:

Honorable mention:- Seniors Peter Malonis and

John Kearney, representing Cuba. Excellent Delegation award:- Seniors Robin Elder and Matt

Weasley, representing South Africa on the UN Security Council.

Superior Delegation award:

- Senior Thealexa Becker and junior Alex Neidert, representing Italy on the UN Security Council.

- Juniors Grant Colvin and Zack Urbach, representing South Africa on the UN Economic and Social Council.

- Sophomore Alberto Ro-driquez and junior Una Bobinarcs, representing North Korea.

Superior Delegate award:- Grant Colvin was awarded the

“Gavel” for the most outstanding delegate in the UN Economic and Social Council.

• The Toys for Tots program has been going on for years now. The point of this program is to collect new, unwrapped toys dur-

ing October, November and De-cember each year. Then the toys are distributed as Christmas gifts to needy children around Lake-wood and the Cleveland area. The whole program is to help those who are less fortunate to experi-ence that joy of opening a present on Christmas Day.

• Hope for the Holidays is a food drive held from November 5-14, collecting cash donations.The winning class won a pizza party. All the contributions go to the Lakewood Charitable Assis-tance Corporation to assist in pur-chasing food. This is sponsored by H20, AYF, Key Club, the staff of

Student Council, and the class of 2010.

• The Lakewood Times, along with the H2O Green Team, has been working to make Lakewood High a more eco-friendly school. The Times, in an effort to show the extent of environmental igno-rance at LHS, collected the cans and bottles that were discarded in one day. In total, 246 bottles and 53 cans were collected. All of the cans collected were recycled and the $22 the brought in will be do-nated to Hope for the Holidays in the name of the Times newspaper staff.

Times staffers work together to create a masterpiece from recycled cans. Photo By Theal-exa Becker, Design Editor.

By Fiza Shah and Adam Mihalski, Editorial Board Members

19December 2008

Editorial

World hunger. AIDS. War. The environment. Any student can name the problems facing the world today, problems whose solutions sometimes seem unreachable. However, there is something LHS students can do about at least one of these problems – the environment.

Lakewood High administrators have taken – and are continu-ing to take – steps to ensure that students have the opportunity to recycle. There are boxes for recycled paper in almost every classroom, and have been for some time. Several blue bins can be found around the school for recycling cans and bottles as well, and there will soon be more – a commendable victory for H2O’s Green Team.

LHS staff members have done everything they can. Now it’s up to the people using the majority of the recyclable materials to take care of the rest. All the blue bins in the world won’t make a difference unless students take the initiative and put their Pepsi cans or Gatorade bottles in the bins so that they’ll

The Times urges blue bin use for green purposes

be recycled.In addition to recycling, students should consider the con-

tainers in which they are carrying their water. Going through half a dozen disposable water bottles a week is unnecessary, es-pecially when these bottles are potentially unhealthy. Accord-ing to The Plain Dealer, many disposable water bottles contain as many as 38 chemical pollutants. Students can benefit their health, their wallets, and the environment by using non-dispos-able canteens or bottles to carry their water.

So many people avoid the topic of the environment because it has been made into such an intimidating issue. And while it is serious, part of the solution can be found in simple actions like using a different trash can. Students don’t have to worry about saving the world (at least not yet). They can make a difference right now by making an effort to recycle. The energy it takes to pick up a bottle and toss it in a recycling bin is greatly out-weighed by the energy recycling it will save in the long run.

Task GradeRecycling Paper Mastery

Recycling Cans and Bottles Needs Improvement

Availability of Recycling Materials Needs Improvement

Encouraging Staff and Students to Recycle Making Progress

Providing Organic Foods in the Cafeteria Needs Improvement

Involvement in Environmental Groups (i.e. Green Team, LEAF)

Needs Improvement

Raising Awareness of the Need to Recycle Making Adequate Progress

Attitude Toward Recycling Making Excellent Progress

Overall Making Progress

LHS Recycling Report CardThe OGT gives grades to schools based on their academic performance, and since there seems to be such a focus on evaluation in the state of Ohio, the Times has hopped on the bandwagon and “graded” LHS on its efforts towards helping the environment. The results were far from abysmal, but we still think that LHS has some work to do. With a little effort on everyone’s part, LHS could be a formidable force in the recycling and conservation community of Lakewood.


Editorial Editorial

• To gathering stress as seniors strain to meet deadlines for college, scholarship, and financial aid applications.

• The Junior and Senior Powder Puff game ended in a tie. This isn’t elementary school anymore.

• Midterms are still on the schedule.• Having Parent-Teacher Conferences

right before Thanksgiving. • Jeers to students and staff who will still refuse to recycle even after reading this Times issue.

• Jeers to the lack of Times readers willing to write a Letter to the Editor. Let your voice be heard!

• To the upcoming winter break.• To PepsiCo for providing recycling

containers for cans and bottles soon to be placed around the building.

• To the Ski Club Vermont trip. • Cheers to the first few snowfalls to grace the Lakewood area. We can’t have a snow day without snow!

• Cheers to the LHS students who raised over $3000 for Lakewood Char-itable Assistance Corporation with the Hope for the Holidays contest.

• To the upcoming winter holidays - Christmas, Eid, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Winter Solstice, and all others!

As preservers of democracy, our schools shall protect, encourage, and enhance free speech and the exchange of ideas as a means of protecting our American way of life. The Times and its staff are protected by, and bound to, the principles of the First Amendment and other protections and limitations afforded by the Constitution and the various court decisions

implementing those principles. It is the mission of The Lakewood Times, the official newsmagazine of Lakewood High School, to serve as a public forum that promotes the gathering and exchange of ideas, and

uphold high journalistic standards for the purpose of enriching the lives of our readers.The Times is established as an open forum for student expression and as a voice in the uninhibited, free and open discussion of issues. The Times will not be reviewer or restrained

prior to publication. Content of the Times, therefore, reflections only the views of the student staff or individual students and not school officials. The Times, and staff, will strive to avoid publishing any material determined by student editors or the student editorial board to be unprotected, that is, material that is libelous,

obscene, materially disruptive of the school process, an unwarranted invasion of privacy, a violation of copyright laws or electronic manipulations changing the essential truth of the photo or illustrations. Other obligations can be found in the handbook available to each student. The Times adviser will not act as a censor.

It questions arise over specific copy as defined within this policy, student journalists will seek the advice of the communications attorney from the student press law center. The Times editorial board as a whole will be responsible for determining editorial opinions, which represent the opinions of a majority of the editorial board. No single member of the Times can be held responsible for editorial content decisions. The Times is a tool in the learning process of journalism and operates as a learning laboratory. Any student may be a member of the staff, with or without prior journalism experience or enrollment on the staff for credit. As a forum for student expression, the Times will publish all letters to the editor, provided they are 300 words or less and contain the author’s name, house, and address. On occasion, we will publish letters using the “name withheld” providing the Times editor, or a team editor,

knows the author’s identity.We reserve the right to withhold a letter or column and return it for more information if we determine it contains items of unprotected speech as defined by this policy. Letters will

be edited for spelling and grammar. Should a letter contain errors in fact, excessive grammatical errors or be too long, it will be returned to the author for re submission. Deadlines for letters and columns will be no later than ten days before the next publication date. The Times may choose to report student, staff, faculty, and alumnus deaths as he editorial board is made aware of them. We reserve the right to decide not to cover a death based on relevance, timeliness and circumstances. In cases where the editorial board decided not to cover death,

letters to the editor in regard to that death could be printed.

Editorial Policy

[ ]Want to see your name in print?

Send your opinions to The Times

in Room 316!

December 2008 21

Editorial Editorial

What would you do with a million dollars?“ ”“Move out of Lakewood.”

-Melissa Liegl, Junior“Buy a lot of clothes and shoes and food.”

-Andrew Loftus, freshman.

“Buy the mall.” -Sean Kinsella, senior.

“Make sure my family is set, and give to charity.”

-Gabe Williams, senior“Buy a house and cars and put the

rest in the bank.” -Kevin McEntee, freshman.

Compiled by Danielle Szabo and Adam Mihalski Photo by Sarah Jawhari, Editorial Editor

Read it—fold it—gift it. Just don’t toss it!“What can I do with the Times besides reading it?”We encourage students and staff to think of The

Times not only as quality writing, but also as a large stack of extremely foldable paper. Instead of toss-ing your extra issue, roll up your sleeves and clear some space. After all, there are other ways to recycle besides dumping your paper in a recycle bin. Take apart a previous issue for the greater good and learn how to make a “Times Paper Lantern.” • Remove staples from Times issue and open up. • Remove one free sheet from Times issue—pick a sheet with lots of graphics! • Section off paper and cut so that it becomes a perfect square. To make directions as clear as pos-sible, we’ve used a clean sheet of white paper with numbered corners. One side has the numbers by themselves—the back of the paper has the numbers in circles. Follow the step-by-step instructions.

“I made them. What now?”Little Times origami creatures can be gifted to

friends and family, though they carry a decorative effect as well. String the paper lanterns together, end to end, to create a decorative chain (perfect for Christmas trees!). Little Times butterflies, if stapled at the tip, can also be strung up. And if all else fails, at least your paper will look fashionable on its way to the recycle bin.

So read The Times, and then fold it up! Amaze your friends and save the planet.

By Sarah Jawhari, Editorial Editor

Fold opposite sides together.

1. 2.

3.

Fold both ends to top

4.

Flip and do the same to other side.

5.

Find the open end with the flaps, open the page all the way, and then flatten it.

6.7.

Fold ends to top, flip, and do the same to other side. Should look like this.

8.

Fold sides to center, flip and do the same.

9.

Put numbered edges into slots formed by folding sides to center. Do this to both sides. There should be an opening near the end. Find this and blow!

“Go shopping, buy a store. And move to Amsterdam.”

-Amanda Szabo, senior.


Editorial Editorial

Today’s generation is not as green as we claimBy Sarah Jawhari, Opinion Editor

“Green this, green that!” “Don’t overuse that light bulb, or we’ll all die.” “How can you not be eco-friendly?”

“I have a T-shirt that says, ‘Save the planet…and the pandas.’” It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that there has been a con-siderable amount of raised awareness for not only global warming, but also our planet’s health as a whole. How many times have we been reprimanded for poor water quality because of illegal dumping, or the huge holes in the ozone layer that can’t be fixed, or the fact that quite a few of us still don’t recycle at home? How many estimations and predictions have been made that have started off with the infamous, “Millions of cars release millions of gallons of poisonous gases each day…” or even, “Greenhouse gases

are creating a global warming effect that must be stopped…”? While previous generations have tried to stop the planet from getting any filthier, their efforts weren’t enough. Indeed, past attempts from the ’70s and beyond were merely futile tries – if we have the tech-

Art by Sarah Jawhari, Opinion Editor.

“There’s a pretty good chance that the aftermath of a lazy green gen-eration will seep out somewhere.”

nology, the know-how, and the drive, perhaps we’ll be the genera-tion to make a difference. Maybe we’ll even be the last generation to honestly push the envelope, so our children and children’s chil-dren won’t have to face the same fears we face today. That being said, I can’t help but cringe a little bit at many of our attitudes towards the subject. If we have to be green, we should be green all the way. A nonchalant “I’ll do it tomorrow” doesn’t have a place in our desperate need of repair. Look at it this way: is our gen-eration even capable of making a change? Or do we only buy the recycled panda tees because they happen to outline our figure and bring out our eyes? It’s probably a better idea to take on the responsibility and make the change while we can, before we follow in the steps of our precedents and land in a littered grave. We have to give it our all. Even if we try to avoid it, there’s a pretty good chance that the aftermath of a lazy green gen-eration will seep out somewhere, whether that’s the drowning of the entire population, the suffoca-tion of the human race by smog, or even the extinction of our beloved endangered animals—namely, pandas.

December 2008 23

Editorial Editorial

Since the first day of kindergarten, when we all learned “polite words,” until senior year, when teachers drill into the students’ minds how to be-have, our morality has been determined for us.

Pre-packaged guidelines on how to speak our thoughts are handed out to students throughout the course of our public education. Unfor-tunately, morality isn’t as simple as adhering to a predetermined set of rules.

This confusion is creating a problem here. Students seem to have two different sets of rules, two different moral guidelines: one that society has hammered into their minds, and one used among impressionable friends.

Lakewood High School is rather diverse. The fact that in just one classroom, a sample of a dozen different cultures can be observed, is something in which we take pride. However, this good quality should not become a chain holding us back. It should not become a blindfold, shielding us from reality. The reality is that we are more vulnerable to negative ideas than other schools.

Throwing morality out the windowBy Fiza Shah, Editorial Board Member

Just because we say “Hi” to the foreign kid in the hall doesn’t mean there is not any animos-ity. Just because we treat the Muslim girl in the hijaab the same as we do any other girl doesn’t mean we don’t notice the cloth distinguishing her from everyone else. Just because we give a friendly smile to the student with Down syn-drome doesn’t make the “humorous” conversa-tions we have with our friends go unvoiced. Just because we don’t say any-thing directly to the over-achieving student doesn’t justify the conversations we have behind his or her back.

In the classrooms, stu-dents and teachers alike speak of discrimination as a disease. However,

when we are making fun of the kid who stammers, or the overweight girl, we become focused on the cruelest things we can say to our peers.

Why even bother faking morality? One moment we are talking about how slavery was the Dark Age in American History class, and next we are picking on a peer, simply because of his or her appearance.

Instances of this can be seen all over LHS – students are treadingbe-yond the boundaries society has set.

We need to step up to the plate. We aren’t in elementary school any-more. We don’t have teachers holding our hands every step of the way. If we want to be treated like we’re mature, we have to deserve it. And we won’t deserve it as long as we’re acting in ways we denounced in class just five minutes before.

LHS is filled with some of the kindest students I have ever met. How-ever, sometimes this is overshadowed by the need to be cool, the need to comply with every demand made by our peers.

Our generation has seen what our parents have seen: a war, failing economy, political strife, and discrimination. As the saying goes, history repeats itself. Even today, discrimination, though in a different form, is prevalent.

Great leaders like Ghandi or Martin Luther King, Jr. didn’t go against everything they stood for when it was convenient. They didn’t accept what they had been opposed to their entire lives.

Unfortunately, for many, our education only goes as far as the class-room door. What we learn is useful only in standardized tests and college essays. However, this is not how it should be. What we say in the class-room should be the way we live. We can’t make the mistake of throwing our morality out the window.

Art by Nesreen Jawhari, Staff Artist.

“We become focused on the cruelest things we can say to our peers.”


Lkwd Life

Confessions from LHS Post secret:

December 2008 25

Lkwd Life Lkwd Life

Confessions from LHS Post secret:

Post Secret, Lakewood Style This idea was borrowed from the community art project “Post Secret” started by Frank Warren. We’ve had a great response so far, and we are still accepting LHS Post Secrets. Both students and staff are welcome to contribute. Blank cards are available in Room 316, and completed Post Se-crets can be dropped off in the box outside the room. We will continue this section as long as Lakewood High School keeps confessing.


Lkwd Life Lkwd Life

This holiday season is a great time to give eco-friendly gifts to all of your friends and family.

In addition to Lakewood High’s efforts, the Lakewood community as a whole is trying to help the planet. Green Smart Gifts is just the beginning to this new trend.

Green Smart Gifts is located at 14534 Detroit Avenue, across from Lakewood Hospital. The owner, Mary Evans, started the store to help “spread awareness of sustainability by promoting more conscious personal consumption, one person at a time.”

Shoppers at Green Smart Gifts can expect to reap the rewards, according to Evans. “You have a triple benefit,” she said. “You feel better as a giver and receiver, and it’s better for the earth.”

But how does someone decide what to put into an earth-friendly store? Evans focuses on a five-step method to bring merchandise into her retail store. First off, she wants the gifts to be made from all-natu-ral ingredients, such as soy candles and Burt’s Bees products. The teas and baby products she sells need to be made out of all organic ma-terial. Many of her products are made from recycled materials such as glass or bike chains.

Finally, Evans tries to support the local economy as much as pos-sible by carrying products from local jewelry-makers and artists. All of the products she sells are tools of change, all designed to help people improve their daily

lives.It’s easy to “go green” if you

try some of these tips from Green Smart Gifts for an earth-friendly holiday:

Gifts:•Try limiting the number of

gifts you give to people by draw-ing names.

•For gift exchanges, try earth-

friendly gifts.•Consider non-material gifts:

babysitting, teaching or tutoring, house cleaning.

•Volunteer: there are lots of op-portunities locally, or you can try www.ChangingThePresent.org for a wide range of causes you can support.

Be green-spirited this holiday with eco-friendly gifts

Left: Green Gift’s earth-friendly wooden truck. Photo by Miranda Mave, Editorial Board Memeber.

By Miranda Mave, Editorial Board member

Above: Green Smart gift’s jewelry, displayed on painted cards. Bottom: Green Smart gift’s gardening supplies. Photos by Miranda Mave, Editorial Board Member.

Gift Wrapping:•Instead of going out to buy

wrapping paper, try using mate-rials around your house to wrap your gifts: old posters, maps, sheet music, wallpaper scraps, scarves, or fabric remnants. Try rolling clothing items and tying them in the middle with a ribbon.

•Small gifts can be hidden in the branches of your tree.

•Household items can be placed where they will be used with a rib-bon attached.

•If you do use wrapping paper, make sure it’s made of recycled material. Unwrap carefully and save the paper for reuse, and if the paper is not re usable, be sure to recycle!

Lighting:•Choose strings with fewer

bulbs and the fewest watts per bulb.

•Choose LED lights if possible, which are more energy-efficient than incandescent ones

•Operate lights for as few hours as possible at night. Use a pro-grammable timer so you won’t leave them on accidentally.

•You can always pick up a small supply of LED lights at Green Smart Gifts.

If your family puts up a tree this year try an artificial tree. They are environmentally friendly and unlike a real tree they can be re-cycled.

December 2008 27

Lkwd Life Lkwd Life

For those of you who have been waiting for a cute family movie, “Role Models” is not for you. If you fell in love with “Wedding Crash-ers” and thought “Knocked Up” was a knock-out, “Role Models” is a must-see.

“Role Models” is the funniest comedy since “Pineapple Express,” and features the same string of characters. Paul Rudd and Sean Wil-liam Scott star as two friends stuck in a dead-end job selling energy drinks to high school students. When a twist of events caused by an energy overdose lands the pair in the slammer, they are forced to choose between jail time and kid time. The humor escalates to an all-time high when they are placed in Sturdy Wings, a program that places grown adults with trou-bled youth.

Rudd’s witty, blunt sarcasm and Scott’s vul-gar, stupid jokes make them the best comedic team since Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson in “Wedding Crashers.” The director, David

Wain, also directed “Wet Hot American Sum-mer.” Jane Lynch (“40 Year Old Virgin”) plays a reformed drug addict-turned-Sturdy Wings director. McLovin sheds none of his geeky de-meanor as Augie, Rudd’s cape-wearing, sword-fighting “Little.”

Aside from its hilarity, the movie delivers a lifelong lesson. Perhaps best worded by the mute Dwayne Hoover in “Little Miss Sunshine” and reiterated by Rudd at a family dinner with Auggie’s parents: “Do what makes you happy.” Whether it be fighting in an imaginary “Laire” battle, as in Augie’s case, or learning the truth about women from William Scott, “Role Mod-els” leaves you with more than a good laugh.

If an award-winning book were to be made into a movie, you’d generally expect the film to have some changes. From my most generous perspective, the new motion picture “Twilight” would only earn two stars. Waiting an hour to get a good seat at the midnight showing wasn’t worth sitting in a hot theater full of nearly 200 screaming girls anticipating the first glimpse they get of Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) together.

“Twilight” was dreadful and embarrassing to watch. I have to admit, it was entertaining – I couldn’t help but laugh at the terrible act-ing. Kristen Stewart did a great job in “Speak,” and Robert Pattinson’s part in “Harry Potter” was phenomenal. I was awfully surprised to see their downgrade in talent.

The scenes seemed somehow misplaced. I don’t think I would have understood the movie or even agreed to finish watching it if I hadn’t read the book first. Junior Ashleigh Payne saw the movie without having read the book.

“I didn’t like the transitions from one scene

to the next,” she said. “I did like the love story, though.”

If I were the author of the book, I would be personally offended that the remake of my extremely popular book was so poorly put to-gether.

As I watched, just as I would start thinking the movie was matching up to the hype of the book, a scene, a horrible facial expression, or even an easily notified scripted remark would disappoint me. I think as the books started get-ting popular, Hollywood was too anxious to put enough time and effort into a film with the quality to even compare to the novel.

“Twilight” deemed not so bright

Mischievous mentors amuse moviegoers

Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Photos courtesy of Summit Entertainment, LLC.

By Bo Jenkins, Staff writer

By Isabella Zettler, Lakewood Life Editor

A fan of the novels but not the movie, Bo Jenkins is a student in Mrs. Ballash’s Journalism class.


Lkwd Life Lkwd Life

Greater Tuna opens to a sea of studentsPhotos by Mark Miller, Marybeth Donahoe, and Kimmie Farkas.

The LHS version of “Greater Tuna,” directed by David Gannon, opened on November 6 and played for three nights. This comedy looked at the stereotypical Southern, racist, perception many media promote.

Jason Williams, Joe Sears, and Ed Howard originally co-wrote the play, and both Sears and Williams played all the characters, adding to the comedic effect.

However, the LHS version cast more students as characters, allowing many to enjoy the opportunity. The play’s rich and lively characters helped make up for its lack of plot. It used puns and other devices to bring Southern stereotypes into a comedic light.

December 2008 29

Lkwd Life Lkwd Life

Learning the language of Pig Latin is simple. In fact, as long as someone can speak English relatively well, it’s possible to become fluent in Pig Latin in a matter of mere seconds. However, do not be fooled. Pig Latin and the real Latin language are two very different things. And nobody knows this more than Latin teacher Dr. Laura Abrahamsen, who has been at Lakewood High School for nine years.

When Abrahamsen attended Lakewood City Schools as a girl, students started foreign language classes in the sixth grade. After she had taken French for six years, Abrahamsen’s friend convinced her in their junior year of high school to switch to Latin II. They wanted to be in the same class.

When Abrahamsen approached the Latin teacher at the time, Emil Sores (whose name happens to mean “luck” in Latin), about taking Latin II, “he said ‘You’ll fail,’” Abrahamsen said.

Nevertheless, she took the chance. Abrahamsen ended up doing surprisingly well in Latin. In fact, ironically, when she took college place-

ment exams after her senior year, she placed higher in Latin than in French.

After graduating from Lakewood High School, Abrahamsen attended Dartmouth College. After originally majoring in Classical Archaeology, she switched her major to Classical Languages in hopes of one day be-coming a Latin professor. After undergraduate school at Dartmouth, Abrahamsen obtained her PhD from Bryn Mawr College in Philadel-phia, Pennsylvania.

Eager to achieve her goal of becoming a college professor, she took a job at Cleveland State University upon graduation and remained there as a professor for four years. And then finally, after all those years, Abraha-msen returned to an all-too-familiar place: Lakewood High School.

“I never ever intended to be back here,” she said. However, LHS needed her. “Emil Sores called, and said Paul Nemec

is retiring,” Abrahamsen said. “They’d stop teaching Latin if I didn’t come here.” Tired of Cleveland State and ready for something new, Abrahamsen took the job.

Abrahamsen currently teaches Latin to all four grades at Lakewood High School. She’s the advisor of both the Latin Club and the Knitting Club (knitting is one of her favorite hobbies).

While the Latin department may not be very big, it is a popular class that is making a comeback. The comeback stretches outside of the school. There is even a Latin Wikipedia, with articles ranging from Drew Carey to The Strokes. While Abrahamsen does not oversee this site, her students were responsible for writing some of these articles.

Abrahamsen’s students are what keep her going. “I’m inspired by watching students turn into adults. That’s fun,” she said.

Students, on the other hand, continue taking Latin for many reasons. “It’s different than modern languages – If you’re someone who is really tongue-tied about speaking, there’s not much speaking in Latin. Plus, it does wonders for your English,” Abrahamsen said. Students also enjoy listening to her various stories.

One of most popular stories, which students tend to get a kick out of, is her experience as a contestant on Jeopardy in 1993. “Pretty horrible,” she said when describing her experience. While she likes to block most of the show out of her mind, she does remember one rather embarrass-ing moment. The question was, “The first line of address delivered over the telephone.” The correct answer: “Mister.” Abrahamsen’s response: “What is the vocative?”. Her answer, a Latin noun case, came as a result of her Latin credentials – and possibly some nervousness.

Her overall experience on Jeopardy? Not a very good one. She was disappointed. “Jeopardy is more about producing entertainment for America,” she said. She also noted that Trebek is actually much short-er than he appears on TV, a remark possibly showing the resentment she still carries towards the show. Besides, in a Pig Latin category, Alex Trebek couldn’t even pronounce “Iggletpay,” Pig Latin for Pigglet. If Trebek has trouble with this, then he should probably stay away from real Latin. Or maybe he should ask Abrahamsen for some help. She’d be more than happy to teach him something.

Dr. A teaches Trebek a lesson in LatinBy Ben Gallovic, Staff Writer

Dr. Laura Abrahamsen maps out the Roman world for her students. Photo by Alex Mezin, Staff Photographer.

Ben Gallovic is a student in both Dr. Abrahamsen’s Latin class and Mrs. Ballash’s Journalism class.


SportsNo brakes, no shifter, no worries:

By Wilson Sackett, Editorial Board Member

Due in part to Lakewood’s heavy population, residents of this city often consider bicycles the quickest means of transportation. Fixed breaks, a growingly popular bike, can be seen cruising Detroit, breaking speed limits on Edgewa-ter, and even racing competitively in the Olympics.

Fixed gears have been around since the 1800s as one of the first bikes, but as the “gear age” pro-gressed, they became lost among newer models. Instead of gears, the chain is connected directly to the wheel, taking away the ability to coast, but because your ped-als move at the same rate as your wheels, you build momentum as you ride. Fixys, as they’re often called, usually have no brakes, and are replaced by leg power revers-ing on the pedals.

In the city setting, fixed gears tend to hit their prime with LHS

students. Junior Ryan Matricardi has been riding fixed gears ever since the summer, when a friend introduced him to the style. Ma-tricardi rides a Bianchi fixed gear with no brakes.

“I’ve tried to ride normal bikes,” Matricardi said., “and it just seems harder. I just wanted the one-ness of a fixed gear. The best thing about riding is going at fast speeds next to cars.”

With a fixed gear, riders are able to build momentum and keep it, while on a gear bicycle, the momentum is constantly falling.

LHS students find fun in fixed gear bikes

“Riding a normal bike is great,” Matricardi said, “but if you want a fun or unique experience, ride a fixed gear.”

Fixed gears are available in most bike stores, but for a cheaper and-more local fix, many riders go to the Ohio City Bicycle Co-op. The Co-op truly proves the state-ment, “don’t judge a book by its cover.” As you make your way down winding Ohio City twists and turns, a rusty, white, dome-shaped shed comes into view. Hoping to avoid lockjaw from the decrepit paint, you enter through

the small, oddly-placed door into a bicycle dreamland that puts Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium to shame. Not a spot in the shed remains empty. Bicycles fill the ceilings, sides, floors, and outside racks.

The Co-op is full of pleasant surprises, not only in the bicycles offered, but the staff of help-ful men that are as unique as the bicycle world they have created. The shop offers classes for repair, a Sunday morning bike ride, and even the opportunity to volunteer as an instructor for lowered prices on bicycles.

With the price of gas and the problems with the economy, bicy-cles are always an appealing meth-od of transportation. Fixed gears offer an alternative that is sure to keep Lakewood residents coming back for more.

Anatomy of a fixed gear

Cog:18-tooth connector of the chain and wheelPedal: Foot placement for rotating cog and spinning wheel with the chainChain: Connector of pedal and wheel

Photo by Evan Graves, Staff Photographer.

December 2008 31

Sports Sports

Sailing through life one friendship at a timeBy Lisa Kowalski, Staff Writer

Exciting. Grand. Splendid. Awe-some. Glorious. Call it what you like. Just don’t call it boring. At least not in front of Seniors Will Weible and Evan Graves, because to them, sailing is life.

Graves and Weible started sail-ing when they were eight years old. Both enrolled in the Sail Camp program at the Cleveland Yacht-ing Club. They now teach others to sail during the summer at CYC.

Graves and Weible joined forces with their third crewmember Ja-mie Lansdowne, a senior at St. Ignatius, about four years ago. Currently, they sail out of CYC in Will’s boat, “The Thistle,” a 17-foot, three-man, ath-letic dinghy.

Their season is about three months long, span-ning from late May to mid-August and consist-ing of nine or ten regat-tas (or races) of varying importance.

One of the most im-portant regattas of the season is Bay Week, held at Put-in-Bay, where Graves and Weible com-peted with more than 160 other junior sailors in eight separate classes, placing second in the Thistle class. They were also two boats away from going to the Junior Na-tional Championships.

The team does exceptionally well in the adult level of compe-tition. This past August, Weible drove 18 hours down to Pensaco-la, Florida so he and Graves could compete in the Thistle National Championships. After getting caught in tropical storm Eduardo, they were thrilled to learn that they had won first place in the 18-and-under age group.

A sailing race usually begins with a five-minute countdown to get to the starting line, through

which the boats sail to battle for their position. The best strategy is to sail into the wind, angling the sails at a 35-degree angle toward the wind. The objective of the race is to round a series of marks faster than anyone else.

Graves and Weible add that sail-ing is superior to motor boating because it is more “intellectually stimulating.”

Some useful skills that Graves and Weible have learned from sail-ing are geography, physics, and

Evan Graves and Will Weible sail on the waters of Put-in-Bay in one of their biggest regattas of the year, Junior Bay Week.Photo courtesy of Evan Graves.

geometry. The two also enjoy sailing be-

cause it allows them to be outside all the time instead of cooped up in a house somewhere being un-productive.

Sailing can also be considered a “green” sport, because a sailboat runs on pure wind power and pro-duces no pollution. This allows Graves and Weible to do what they love while helping the envi-ronment.

Sailing TermsAft: near the stern

Bow: front of boatDinghy: small sailboat under 21 feetJib: front sail of boatKnot: one nautical mile per hour

Mainsail: large sail attached to mastMast: vertical pole attached to the hull that holds up sailsPort: left side of boatStarboard: right side of boatStern: back of boatSpinmaker: large ballooning sail used when sailing in same direction as the wind.


SportsSports

Editor’s Corner:Jacob OttSports Editor

Bringin’ back the old days, oh the nostalgiaOn a crisp and cool Friday

night, everyone gathers at the nearby drive-in. The food comes out on shiny plates carried by acrobatic roller skaters. Sitting in your father’s brand new Olds-mobile Delta ’88, you see all your friends come rolling in the parking lot. They get out of their cars – all wearing their new letter sweaters. Sound like the typical Friday night in Lakewood?

Sadly, the answer is no. Stu-dents here weren’t around in the ’80s. In today’s world, you’ll prob-ably never see a letter sweater un-

less it’s in a museum display. This bothers me.

We have lost a part of American culture. The letter sweaters were what everyone wore back then. Whenever you think of shows like “Happy Days,” you picture every-one wearing letter sweaters, along with poodle skirts – these were just the norm.

I wish I could’ve seen the day when the hallways were lined with slick-haired, Red-Converse-wear-ing dudes with their letter sweat-ers. I wish I could’ve seen the long cardigans with the stripes and

stars on the sleeves designating let-ters and captain status. I’d want to know exactly how many letters everyone earned.

It is unimaginable how bulky leather jackets replaced sweaters. Sweaters are comfortable and just plain awesome. Letter jackets are only for the winter, and fashion-wise, sub-par.

The letter sweater is just another way to have sport spirit – another way to represent yourself and your team. Student athletes today already have to pay for the sport, uniform, and equipment. The cost

of a letter jacket is just too much. The honor of the jacket makes people want it, regardless of price, but if price is an issue, letter sweat-ers are the best alternative.

Still, I proudly wear my letter jacket. That jacket helps anyone appropriately represent his or her school. I respect the meaning of the letter jacket: showing pride in my sport. Until Geiger’s supplies letter sweaters, I’m stuck with my letter jacket.

Sports under review: Who’s world’s the strongest man?

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We’ve all seen them on ESPN2, the Euro-pean eight-foot mammoths whoses name are invariably a collaboration of Oo’s, Ah’s, and Zook’s. It’s quite common to see these ogres hurtling boulders, pulling planes, and lifting barrels full of who knows what.

This obscure sport first appeared in 1977, and has grown considerably ever since. The original idea was to find eight of the strongest men in the world to do these strange activities. As time passed, one man was pulled from each country, enlarging the sport, but still keeping the same difficulties.

This overwhelming popularity has thrusted this monstrous sport to new heights, like hav-ing competitions in Anaheim, the crown jewel of U.S. sports.

Men like Phil Phister participate in bone-cracking, back-breaking events like Mini Coo-per bench press, telephone pole lifting, and big rock carrying. Not many Joe the Plumbers can do even one Mini Cooper bench press.

Amidst the roid rages, barbaric screams, and pounds and pounds of chalk dust, the Times staff still believes this to be a sport. So more power to you, Magnus Ver Magnusson – keep throwing boulders and pulling jets.

YES NO

LHS SpeaksSusan Harreld (Math teacher) – “No, because

sports should be based on athleticism and tal-ent, not how grossly big you are.”

Lauren Rosul (Senior) – “No, it is not a sport to get into shape. You play sports to get into shape.”

Rachel Caja (Senior) – “Yes, because it’s a competitive activity that people can participate in and it is organized.”

T.J. Grane (Senior) – “Yes, because I’m the world’s strongest man.”

*Poll taken from 40 LHS students, 10 from each grade.

Staff Reports

December 2008 33

Sports Sports

Ranger ReportDecember Home Sports Schedule

Junior Reuben Buckner and Sophomore Kelly Zandy in action last season. Photos by Jacob Ott.

Mollie Evans9th GradeCross Country SoccerRugby

Nick Jackosky9th GradeCross CountryBasketballTrack

Underclassmen Uncovered

Mollie Evans runs cross country and plays soccer and rugby. She enjoys running, reading and hanging out with her friends. Her favorite song is “Baba O’Reilly” by The Who. Mollie wants to earn a varsity letter in cross country. Her favorite food is pizza. Her favorite class is AP U.S. History with Dr. Chucl Greanoff. Mollie’s favorite book is “Pride and Prejudice,” and her favorite sport in the Olympics is gymnastics.

Nick is runs varsity cross country and track distance and plays freshman basketball. He enjoys hanging out with his friends, listening to rock music and playing pick-up basketball games. His favorite class is AP U.S. History with Dr. Chuck Greanoff. Nick wants to letter in track and have a record over .500 in basketball at the end of the season. His favorite food is Eggo Waffles, and his favorite sports team is the Dallas Mavericks.

Photos & story by Alex Mezin, Staff Photographer.

Elyria, 7:30


SportsSports

Senior Chelsea Kovach is ex-tremely passionate about basket-ball. She has been playing since she was eight years old.

Her parents put her in different sports so she could see which one she liked. Basketball stuck.

In the third grade, she played on a co-ed basketball team for The Y. When she was younger, her favor-ite basketball player was Michael Jordan. Now it’s Cavs player Le-bron James. In eighth grade she realized that she loved the game. Chelsea plays point guard and shooting guard.

Her freshmen year in high school, she started junior varsity and also played some varsity. Chel-sea was a bit intimidated but still did her best. “I had a lot of fun and learned a lot.” Chelsea said.

Being able to play on the team with her older sister Kayla Kovach and her friends Jamie Wright, Erin Boyle and Nicole Niemi helped her relax and play the game she loves. It helped Chelsea gain experience and realize how she needed to im-prove to play at that level.

Chelsea’s older sister Kayla played for Lakewood all four years of high school. Kayla beat the scoring record of over a thousand points in a high school career, and now plays at IPFW.

Throughout the years, Chelsea watched her older sister and stud-ied how she handled situations she was given on the court. Kayla gave her pointers on how to im-prove. Chelsea had a blast playing with her sister. ” I felt like we had a connection on the court,” Chel-sea said.

The rest of her family helps her as well. They are always there to cheer her on at all her games. She also plays pick-up games with her brother Nick, who is a freshmen at the high school.

Chelsea’s parents put her in oth-er leagues during the offseason. She played in a league called SMAC

(Score More Athletic Club). She also played in the YMCA

league in Lakewood with some of the girls she knew and had played with before. In SMAC, she played against girls who were her age, but at The Y, she played against girls who were already in college. Some were already coaches of basketball teams. Observing how the college girls played, Chelsea learned how much work she would have to put into her game to play in college.

This upcoming season will be her last year play-ing in high school. She is very excited. She believes that her team will accomplish great things. Having returning players also will help the season.

“We have to work hard because we have a tough schedule, but I know we can do it,” she said.

Her face lighting up, she added, “It’s my last year. I just want to go out and have fun. It will be my last year playing with girls I’ve played with for a long time. I played with Jamie Wright since seventh grade and Erin Boyle since third grade.”

Chelsea tries to have a ball in her hand every day and shoot at least an hour a day. She also likes playing with guys and believes that it is a completely different game, faster-paced and more physical.

“Once a good play is made, you’re treated as one of their team-mates, rather than just a girl,” she said.

The way she prepares for games is by stretching and focusing on team goals. She also listens to mu-sic to help her relax.

She has already looked at col-leges and is thinking about apply-ing to Hiram and Wooster.

There are two quotes that have served as inspiration for Chelsea.

The first, “Great moments are born by great opportunities” is from the movie “Miracle.”

The other is “The hard is what makes it great. If it was easy, ev-

Kovach shoots for successBy Amanda Perez, Staff Writer

Senior Chelsea Kovach in the East Gym. Photo by Woodard Photographic.

eryone would do it.” These words come from “A League of Their Own.”

Off and on the court, Chelsea tries to live by these quotes.

“Basketball is something that I look forward to every day,” she said. “There might be days that you don’t want to play, but you’re there because you love it.”

Amanda Parez is both a player and fan when it comes to basketball. She is a stu-dent in Mrs. Ballash’s Journalism class.

December 2008 35

Sports Sports

Only 45 seconds remain in the two-minute injury time-out allot-ted to wrestlers, and Travis Gal-lagher rushes to close the wound on CSU’s star wrestler’s nose. It’s the wrestler’s second injury stop-page, and the wound must be closed properly, for a third injury time-out would mean disqualifica-tion. Gallagher finishes the tape job, looks to the coach, and sends his patient back to the mat with a cool 30 seconds to spare.

For Gallagher, high-pressure situations like these are the high-lights ofbeing an athletic trainer. “I enjoy the challenge and know I’m good at my job,” he said.

Being an athletic trainer was not always Gallagher’s goal. He origi-nally went to school to be a physi-cal therapist.

As a kid, Gallagher regularly went with his mother to her physi-cal therapy appointments after she

broke her wrist. Getting used to the idea of helping people work out their injuries, Gal-lagher attended Ohio State Uni-versity for train-ing in physical therapy.

While at OSU, Gallagher heard of a job that required the same classes as his current profession, yet allowed him to be around the sports he loves. That job was

a t h l e t i c training.

Throughout his child-hood, Gallagher spent almost every day at Ester-brook Recreation Center in Cleveland, Ohio. There, he did everything from taking karate lessons, to getting his first job as a lifeguard, to even meeting his wife, Adora Marisol Gallagher. So it’s no surprise that after learning about athletic train-ing, he switched from physi-cal therapy.

In order to pursue his ca-reer, Gallagher transferred to Baldwin-Wallace College, where he earned his four-year undergraduate degree in sports medicine.

Next was passing the Na-tional Certification Exam, a three-part exam consist-ing of a written portion, a hands-on section, and an

Getting to know Lakewood’s painkiller

action-consequence section. The NCE has a 22 percent pass-

ing rate. Gallagher did it in two tries.

After he had received his cer-tificate, the next step was to get licensed, a “relatively easy test,” according to Gallagher.

He then attended graduate school under a graduate assistant-ship, meaning he worked while his schooling was paid for.

After college, Gallagher worked for Cleveland State University’s D-1 Wrestling team, a demanding job that required lots of time away from home on chartered buses.

“As much as I loved working at CSU, there’s no way I would want

By Jordan Congeni, Staff Writer

Athletic Trainer Gallagher smiling in the glory of Lakewood High. Photo by Jacob Ott, Sports Editor.

to do it now. My family comes first,” said Gallagher, who is the father of two daughters, Isabel (5) and Ainsley (3).

Next year, Gallagher will start teaching an Intro to Health Train-ing class that will be available to juniors and seniors. The course will consist of four main units: injury prevention, assessment, re-habilitation, and treatment. It will be 8th and 9th periods, and will re-quire after school commitment to sports events attendence to allow students to get a hands-on feeling for sports medicine.


Final WordChoosing black bean burgers over Big Macs:

By Rebecca McKinsey, Editor in Chief

There are many compassionate, giving people who give up the use of animal products in their daily lives in order to help the environment.

I am not one of those people. In fact, the environment was the last thing on my mind when I decided to become a vegan.

When I was little, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I thought helping sick animals be better again was the noblest job in the world. However, my low tolerance for needles, blood, and all things related soon made it clear that this particular goal would never be realized.

While my dream of being a vet died, my love for animals didn’t. Next came a barrage of pets, ranging from hermit crabs to fat orange goldfish. I soon discovered that it was a good thing I had decided not to become a veterinarian – I was physically unable to keep my little circus of pets alive. Now, my family does have two cats that have managed to stick around, but that’s only because I don’t feed them. I finally accepted the inevitable and stopped replacing my pets.

Before I could completely admit defeat, however, I realized there was one more thing I could do for the animals I loved: stop eating them.

Now, I knew that if I was going to take this rather large step, I had to have reasons I could support. At first, they were personal – I didn’t want to have anything to do with a process that was hurting animals. I strongly disagreed with the way the meat industry – and the dairy industry, and the egg industry, and the fur and leather industries – work in today’s society.

The abuse that occurs in slaughterhouses, dairy farms, and commercial hatcheries across the nation extends not only to animals, but to the workers there as well – poor, uneducated people who may not be able to find work anywhere else. I was not foolish enough to believe that by giving up animal products, I could change this situation. However, at the same time, the decision to become a vegetarian – and later a vegan – was right for me because I couldn’t continue to go along with something I thought was wrong.

These facts are out there for anyone who wants to find them. I don’t need to continue outlining them here. However, as I have recently become more aware of what’s going

on with the environment, I’ve discovered a whole new set of statistics I’d never considered.

The amounts of water, land, and fossil fuels used by the meat industry today are extreme and still growing. In a time noted for its limited resources, this massive industry is responsible for much of the damage. Many of these trends can be found in the same carefully-researched book that inspired my non-carnivorous tendencies – “Fast Food Nation,” by Eric Schlosser.

When considering how to help the environment, the first thing that usually comes to mind is recycling. However, the effect that giving up animal products can have on the environment is surprising. A study conducted by the University of Chicago shows that a person can reduce more harmful greenhouse gas emissions by “going vegan” than by driving a hybrid car.

Another surprising number – according to Environmental Defense, if every person in the United States were to replace a chicken meal with veggies just once a week, the environmental effect would be equal to that of taking more than half a million cars off the road.

All things considered, I think the sacrifice that comes with being a vegan is very small when compared to the positive benefits. However, there will always be people who disagree. A good friend of mine once demanded with the sage wisdom that only a twenty-year-old can have, “You gave up hamburgers and ice cream just to help the Earth?”

Needless to say, he doesn’t recycle.I am frequently asked about my use of non-

edible animal products. I do not use anything made from fur or leather. For some people, this is as difficult to understand as my abstinence from meat and dairy. However, leather pants have never really been my thing, and I’ve never had any real desire for a coat made from the fur of dead rabbits. For me, at least, this aspect of veganism is much easer to deal with than the lack of fried chicken and yogurt in my diet.

I’ve seen the guilt factor pop up now and then as well. People say wistfully, “I would give up meat too, but it’s just so good.” For the people who would like to help animals and the environment but don’t know if they can live without the taste of meat, there are some very good alternatives. Now, I will admit that fake hot dogs are just gross. However, soy ice cream is actually pretty good, and I’m not being facetious when I say that one of the biggest factors in my decision concerning the college I’m going to attend may very well be the quality of the black bean burgers they serve.

Over the years, many people have felt the need to apologize to me for eating meat, but it’s really not necessary. Living with six people who in no way share my restraint when it comes to animal products has desensitized me a little. I won’t faint in horror or stand and leave the room if you unwrap a turkey sandwich in front of me, and I promise I’m not secretly thinking bad things about you if you’re enjoying your Big Mac.

While I’m more than willing to discuss my decision and share my reasons with anyone who asks, I’m very aware that being a vegan – or a vegetarian – isn’t for everyone. And I completely recognize that it’s possible to eat meat and still care about the environment. On the other hand, I firmly believe that the benefits of veganism are substantial. I highly recommend this way of life for those who disagree with the negative effects the meat industry has on animals, slaughterhouse workers, and the environment – the rewards are many if you’re able to survive without hamburgers, ice cream, and tight leather pants.

Something this appetizing can only be made from soy. Photo by Rebecca Mckinsey, Editor in Chief.

Impact on animals, the environment, and you

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