If we saved one life today, then it was all worth it,” said Dave Powers, drivers’ education teacher at West Shamokin High School, when speaking during the closing remarks of the annual Safe Driving Day on April 24.
Planned months in advance by Powers and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), Safe Driving Day was a fun and education-filled day for all senior high students. This day encourages all students, and even faculty, to drive safely and to make the right decisions when getting in a vehicle.
[Read the complete roundup of area high school news from the Gazette's network of student news reporters on the School News pages in The Indiana Gazette and in the Student News section on The Indiana Gazette Online.]
With six group leaders — Mike Cornetti, Tom McClaine, T.J. Spencer, Curt Mertz, Joe O’Toole and Eric Moyer — students were broken up into groups and the day began. In the back parking lot of West Shamokin, different stations were set up for groups to stop at for about 30 to 40 minutes each. Stations were the Shannock Valley Car Club, PennDOT, a sobriety checkpoint, Vernon Hilyer as “Brandon’s Dad” and go-karts from the National Guard.
The Shannock Valley Car Club had several members in attendance along with four vintage vehicles. Students had a blast looking at the differences between the vintage cars and today’s cars.
A PennDOT worker spoke to students about the importance of understanding the weather conditions and the blind spots of trucks. All of the students were able to climb into the PennDOT truck and sit in the driver’s seat, seeing exactly what the driver sees when on the road.
This station really exposed the blind spots truck drivers have, allowing students to comprehend the importance of staying farther back while on the road.
Shaun Milkovich, of the Elderton Borough Police, conducted several sobriety checks, presenting the setup and the steps that are administered. Certain students wore “drunk goggles” and attempted to walk in a straight line and stand on one foot.
Vernon Hilyer, more commonly known as “Brandon’s Dad” spoke about the dangers of drunken driving and how it really does kill, just as it did his son, who died in 2008. Activities Hilyer had were throwing three different-sized balls to a partner and counting out 43 cents in change. Doesn’t sound that hard, right? Try it with “drunk goggles” on. Both activities were extremely difficult and were real eye-openers about the changes drinking makes to vision.
When asked if there was one thing that he would want kids to take away from the day, Mr. Hilyer said, “I want them to understand the reality of drunk driving and that it does kill. I try to change the thoughts of one child every day.”
The National Guard set up a go-kart track that students first went through with ease, with no restrictions. But on their second lap, they wore different levels of “drunk goggles,” one pair even being nighttime.
Some of the stations located inside the school were the Armstrong-Indiana-Clarion Drug and Alcohol Commission and Fred Catchpole, a paramedic for 37 years.
Courtney Hankinson, of the Drug and Alcohol Commission, told students the statistical dangers of distracted driving. For instance, 4,000 teens die every year from distracted driving and texting while driving is 23 times more dangerous than talking and driving.
Fred Catchpole told heart-wrenching stories of “close-to-home” deadly vehicle accidents. Jenna (Sitosky) Kensey was also there with Catchpole to tell her story of being hit by a drunk driver and her road to recovery. Kensey is the daughter of former West Shamokin social studies teacher Dave Sitosky. This was very close to home.
Safe Driving Day ended with Armstrong Country District Attorney Scott Andreassi, Sheriff Bill Rupert, state trooper Lt. Tom DuBovi and coroner Brian Myers speaking to all of the senior high students assembled in the auditorium.
They spoke in straightforward terms, saying accidents come from simple “bad decisions.”
Brian Myers showed the students an adult body bag, followed by a child’s body bag, which brought distraught faces to the audience.
But when Myers pulled out a baby body bag from his coat pocket, saying that he has to have this type of equipment, because “sadly, they do happen,” students were heartbroken.
The activities of the day were very eye-opening and really conveyed the dangers of distracted driving along with drunken driving. A big thank you to Powers, West Shamokin’s SADD chapter and all of the sponsors.
A Real-Life Novel Experience
The West Shamokin High School ninth-grade class has been growing in our writing skills since the beginning of the school year with the guidance of our teacher, Janine Lazor. She has filled our education with useful information that we will remember for a long time.
Not only has she taught us writing skills, but also important life lessons to help us develop into the next generation. From doing long essays to constantly studying the accurate information to prepare for the Keystone exams, we are thankful to have a fun, hardworking and busy class to get us ready for the future ahead of us.
At the beginning of the year, we started by examining the common literary terms and writing detailed definitions and examples for each of them. During our regularly assigned homework, projects and class work, we were expected to read at least one complex novel for each grading period.
One of our recurring writings that we have to complete based upon our independent novels are called “One Pagers.” The work incorporates a series of 10 questions that take at least a page or more to answer. This teaches us to give detailed answers using grammar and diction skills.
Our former student teacher, Mrs. Reynolds, introduced us to the wide and descriptive discussion of dog sledding and the famous Alaskan Iditarod race. In our opinion, this topic was one of the most challenging and informative projects of the year. Each of us enjoyed the lesson so much because none of us truly understood the sport of dog sledding. This gave us a chance to step out of our comfort zone. Throughout the chapter, all of us were assigned many graded worksheets, quizzes, essays and presentations.
One of the major projects the class completed was a visual presentation about a related topic on dog sledding. By the end of the assignment we completed ongoing pages of notes, hours of researching and endless time on the computers putting together creative and unique PowerPoints.
The highlight of this semester was corresponding with rookie Iditarod musher Steve Watkins. This assignment’s purpose was to improve our skills in friendly letter format. Each peer wrote a letter to Watkins that he would be carrying across Alaska during his journey.
In our letters, we had to incorporate information that we had gathered about the race and Watkins, as well as any questions we wanted to ask.
Watkins is a man of many talents such as football, basketball, tap dancing, dog sledding and mountain climbing, and he is a true American hero.
Watkins is a former United States Army captain who was deployed to Afghanistan twice and is now a 92 percent disabled veteran who wants to set a new record — Watkins set a goal to complete back-to-back adventures this year. The adventures he aimed to complete were finishing the 1,200-mile Iditarod Race and trying to summit Mount Everest, both as a rookie.
He is a native of Kansas, but now lives in Alaska. As a class, we made sure we gave him a special thank-you in our letters.
To keep up with what Watkins has been accomplishing, we wrote letters to him before the Iditarod started in Anchorage, Alaska. He promised to carry the letters with him on the trail to Nome, Alaska, during the Iditarod as it is an Iditarod tradition. He finished in 58th place after 12 days on the trail and was soon off to the airport to fly to Nepal, where Mount Everest is located.
While at the airport after the race, he answered all of our letters and the questions we had in three videos. Our classes then wrote back again wishing him luck for attempting to summit Mount Everest and asking any more questions that we had. He only had one week off between finishing the Iditarod and flying to Nepal.
As an Army veteran, Watkins explained to us in the videos that he came home from a conflict environment to nothing; which meant that there was no conflict where he lives and there is nothing but peace. He went on to say that the dog mushing that he fell in love with filled the nothingness that he was feeling.
He is an inspiration to not just some, but to all. The ninth-grade classes love to know more about him and they cannot wait to hear whether he has reached the summit or not. We have enjoyed learning about him and following his journey.
Watkins’ journey relates to the novel “Winterdance,” by Gary Paulsen, that we have been reading in class. It is a story about “the fine madness of running the Iditarod.”
An update on Watkins, who has been in Nepal training to be acclimatized to summit Mount Everest since March: He is still in Nepal, which was hit with a devastating earthquake on Saturday, but he is safe. His team members were helicoptered to base camp from Camp 1.
They expect to be evacuated, although they wanted to continue their climb. That is all of the news that we have at this time on Watkins.
PHOTO: Freshman members of Students Against Destructive Decisions at West Shamokin High School, from left, Kassidi Good, Gracie Byers, Ashley Cumberledge and Laney Johnston, helped to plan Safe Driving Day activities under the direction of their sponsor, Jennifer Montero. They spent the day selling T-shirts and baked goods to benefit their club. (West Shamokin High School photo)
PHOTO: Students in Janine Lazor’s ninth-grade English class at West Shamokin High School have been corresponding with Alaskan Iditarod racer Steve Watkins. (West Shamokin High School photo)
Planned months in advance by Powers and SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), Safe Driving Day was a fun and education-filled day for all senior high students. This day encourages all students, and even faculty, to drive safely and to make the right decisions when getting in a vehicle.
[Read the complete roundup of area high school news from the Gazette's network of student news reporters on the School News pages in The Indiana Gazette and in the Student News section on The Indiana Gazette Online.]
With six group leaders — Mike Cornetti, Tom McClaine, T.J. Spencer, Curt Mertz, Joe O’Toole and Eric Moyer — students were broken up into groups and the day began. In the back parking lot of West Shamokin, different stations were set up for groups to stop at for about 30 to 40 minutes each. Stations were the Shannock Valley Car Club, PennDOT, a sobriety checkpoint, Vernon Hilyer as “Brandon’s Dad” and go-karts from the National Guard.
The Shannock Valley Car Club had several members in attendance along with four vintage vehicles. Students had a blast looking at the differences between the vintage cars and today’s cars.
A PennDOT worker spoke to students about the importance of understanding the weather conditions and the blind spots of trucks. All of the students were able to climb into the PennDOT truck and sit in the driver’s seat, seeing exactly what the driver sees when on the road.
This station really exposed the blind spots truck drivers have, allowing students to comprehend the importance of staying farther back while on the road.
Shaun Milkovich, of the Elderton Borough Police, conducted several sobriety checks, presenting the setup and the steps that are administered. Certain students wore “drunk goggles” and attempted to walk in a straight line and stand on one foot.
Vernon Hilyer, more commonly known as “Brandon’s Dad” spoke about the dangers of drunken driving and how it really does kill, just as it did his son, who died in 2008. Activities Hilyer had were throwing three different-sized balls to a partner and counting out 43 cents in change. Doesn’t sound that hard, right? Try it with “drunk goggles” on. Both activities were extremely difficult and were real eye-openers about the changes drinking makes to vision.
When asked if there was one thing that he would want kids to take away from the day, Mr. Hilyer said, “I want them to understand the reality of drunk driving and that it does kill. I try to change the thoughts of one child every day.”
The National Guard set up a go-kart track that students first went through with ease, with no restrictions. But on their second lap, they wore different levels of “drunk goggles,” one pair even being nighttime.
Some of the stations located inside the school were the Armstrong-Indiana-Clarion Drug and Alcohol Commission and Fred Catchpole, a paramedic for 37 years.
Courtney Hankinson, of the Drug and Alcohol Commission, told students the statistical dangers of distracted driving. For instance, 4,000 teens die every year from distracted driving and texting while driving is 23 times more dangerous than talking and driving.
Fred Catchpole told heart-wrenching stories of “close-to-home” deadly vehicle accidents. Jenna (Sitosky) Kensey was also there with Catchpole to tell her story of being hit by a drunk driver and her road to recovery. Kensey is the daughter of former West Shamokin social studies teacher Dave Sitosky. This was very close to home.
Safe Driving Day ended with Armstrong Country District Attorney Scott Andreassi, Sheriff Bill Rupert, state trooper Lt. Tom DuBovi and coroner Brian Myers speaking to all of the senior high students assembled in the auditorium.
They spoke in straightforward terms, saying accidents come from simple “bad decisions.”
Brian Myers showed the students an adult body bag, followed by a child’s body bag, which brought distraught faces to the audience.
But when Myers pulled out a baby body bag from his coat pocket, saying that he has to have this type of equipment, because “sadly, they do happen,” students were heartbroken.
The activities of the day were very eye-opening and really conveyed the dangers of distracted driving along with drunken driving. A big thank you to Powers, West Shamokin’s SADD chapter and all of the sponsors.
A Real-Life Novel Experience
The West Shamokin High School ninth-grade class has been growing in our writing skills since the beginning of the school year with the guidance of our teacher, Janine Lazor. She has filled our education with useful information that we will remember for a long time.
Not only has she taught us writing skills, but also important life lessons to help us develop into the next generation. From doing long essays to constantly studying the accurate information to prepare for the Keystone exams, we are thankful to have a fun, hardworking and busy class to get us ready for the future ahead of us.
At the beginning of the year, we started by examining the common literary terms and writing detailed definitions and examples for each of them. During our regularly assigned homework, projects and class work, we were expected to read at least one complex novel for each grading period.
One of our recurring writings that we have to complete based upon our independent novels are called “One Pagers.” The work incorporates a series of 10 questions that take at least a page or more to answer. This teaches us to give detailed answers using grammar and diction skills.
Our former student teacher, Mrs. Reynolds, introduced us to the wide and descriptive discussion of dog sledding and the famous Alaskan Iditarod race. In our opinion, this topic was one of the most challenging and informative projects of the year. Each of us enjoyed the lesson so much because none of us truly understood the sport of dog sledding. This gave us a chance to step out of our comfort zone. Throughout the chapter, all of us were assigned many graded worksheets, quizzes, essays and presentations.
One of the major projects the class completed was a visual presentation about a related topic on dog sledding. By the end of the assignment we completed ongoing pages of notes, hours of researching and endless time on the computers putting together creative and unique PowerPoints.
The highlight of this semester was corresponding with rookie Iditarod musher Steve Watkins. This assignment’s purpose was to improve our skills in friendly letter format. Each peer wrote a letter to Watkins that he would be carrying across Alaska during his journey.
In our letters, we had to incorporate information that we had gathered about the race and Watkins, as well as any questions we wanted to ask.
Watkins is a man of many talents such as football, basketball, tap dancing, dog sledding and mountain climbing, and he is a true American hero.
Watkins is a former United States Army captain who was deployed to Afghanistan twice and is now a 92 percent disabled veteran who wants to set a new record — Watkins set a goal to complete back-to-back adventures this year. The adventures he aimed to complete were finishing the 1,200-mile Iditarod Race and trying to summit Mount Everest, both as a rookie.
He is a native of Kansas, but now lives in Alaska. As a class, we made sure we gave him a special thank-you in our letters.
To keep up with what Watkins has been accomplishing, we wrote letters to him before the Iditarod started in Anchorage, Alaska. He promised to carry the letters with him on the trail to Nome, Alaska, during the Iditarod as it is an Iditarod tradition. He finished in 58th place after 12 days on the trail and was soon off to the airport to fly to Nepal, where Mount Everest is located.
While at the airport after the race, he answered all of our letters and the questions we had in three videos. Our classes then wrote back again wishing him luck for attempting to summit Mount Everest and asking any more questions that we had. He only had one week off between finishing the Iditarod and flying to Nepal.
As an Army veteran, Watkins explained to us in the videos that he came home from a conflict environment to nothing; which meant that there was no conflict where he lives and there is nothing but peace. He went on to say that the dog mushing that he fell in love with filled the nothingness that he was feeling.
He is an inspiration to not just some, but to all. The ninth-grade classes love to know more about him and they cannot wait to hear whether he has reached the summit or not. We have enjoyed learning about him and following his journey.
Watkins’ journey relates to the novel “Winterdance,” by Gary Paulsen, that we have been reading in class. It is a story about “the fine madness of running the Iditarod.”
An update on Watkins, who has been in Nepal training to be acclimatized to summit Mount Everest since March: He is still in Nepal, which was hit with a devastating earthquake on Saturday, but he is safe. His team members were helicoptered to base camp from Camp 1.
They expect to be evacuated, although they wanted to continue their climb. That is all of the news that we have at this time on Watkins.
PHOTO: Freshman members of Students Against Destructive Decisions at West Shamokin High School, from left, Kassidi Good, Gracie Byers, Ashley Cumberledge and Laney Johnston, helped to plan Safe Driving Day activities under the direction of their sponsor, Jennifer Montero. They spent the day selling T-shirts and baked goods to benefit their club. (West Shamokin High School photo)
PHOTO: Students in Janine Lazor’s ninth-grade English class at West Shamokin High School have been corresponding with Alaskan Iditarod racer Steve Watkins. (West Shamokin High School photo)
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