Merry Christmas!
Cardinal Gibbons High School - 1401 Edwards Mill Rd Raleigh, N.C. 27607
Volume 12, Issue 3 December 10, 2012
Phase one of Vision nears completion
Photo by Dan Jukic/Gibbons Media
Photo by Caleb Maloney/The Crusader
The new arts and athletics wing will open for use in January 2013, when Gibbons returns from Christmas break. Steel began to go up in April 2012 (left). Workers install landscaping, one of the final steps before completion, in front of the new fine arts rooms on Tuesday (right). Both images show the corner of the building from the new driveway.
Ellyson Williams Editor-in-Chief After years of planning and eleven months of construction, phase one of Building the Vision is coming to an end. What has been a construction site since January 2012 will be open for student use in January 2013 when students move into the new classrooms and facilities of the arts and athletics wing. According to Assistant Principal of Student Life Mike Curatolo, there will be a formal blessing by Bishop Michael Burbidge during the Catholic Schools Week Mass on January 31, after which he will tour the new building. A formal building dedication will take place during the first school Mass next September. According to Principal Jason Curtis, a large number of people helped plan the building. Some people chose architects, some chose contractors, and others focused on planning. The Leadership Team—a group of people formed from school faculty, staff and administration—really started the planning and figured out how the new building would reflect the mission statement of the school, according to Curtis. “[We] went through a process
and talked about how they wanted the building to feel,” said Curtis. Needs for the school were identified six or seven years ago. “We wanted the building to accommodate what we want to do in the future,” said Curtis. The need for an addition began with the needs of the students, many of whom stay on campus for activities or just to hang out long after school hours are over, according to Curtis. There seems to always be something happening on campus, and Building the Vision planners wanted to encourage that. “Space allows people to do things. It doesn’t make people do things,” said Curtis. And plenty of space is what students are going to get. Here’s a rundown of all the changes and additions in the new arts and athletics wing: •A multi-purpose room will be used for health/PE classes, and wrestling and even cheerleading practice, thanks to the high ceiling. •A new, much larger weight room. •An auxiliary gym, which has six basketball hoops and the possibility of the addition of bleachers later, although there will not be any to start with.
According to Curatolo, the auxiliary gym will be used for various practices, wrestling meets, intramurals, among other activities. •One of the main features of the new building is the extensive use of natural light. Large windows run down both sides of the wing and the new entry features glass from doors to ceiling. •LED lights will keep the building brightly illuminated but energy efficient at night. •The art and photography rooms, located next to each other, will also provide plenty of natural light to students thanks to windows spanning the length of the rooms. •In addition, the art room contains track lighting in the middle of the room to better illuminate displays for stilllife drawing. The art room will also have two new kilns. •A studio theater with a grid ceiling system, a metal grid which spans the entire theater and allows students to move safely above the theater in order to adjust lighting. This is a safer system than having students on ladders or catwalks. •The studio theater also allows versatility in the placement of the actors and audience during a show, thanks
to a floor that can be reconfigured depending on the needs of the show. “The idea is to have an intimate theater,” said Curatolo. The studio theater will be used for small plays, theatre classes, and the JV theater program. •The existing theater, now to be called the “main theater”, has been fitted with “airlocks”, an area between the external and internal doors which will reduce noise and light when people enter or exit the theater. •The new dance room is larger than the old one and has harlequin floors, which are designed to reduce dancer injury. •The new music rooms, one of which will be used for guitar and chorus classes, have acoustical tiles mixed into the ceiling that reduce echo and improve sound. The other music room will be used for percussion and band. Both feature the room-length windows, as well. •There will also be a fine arts courtyard where a band can set up and play, which will be used for various events. According to Curatolo, the courtyard will be used during football games to entertain the fans that have to walk by it to get to the field.
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Students express generosity through annual Christmas Toy Drive
Theology teacher Patrick While students are given an Marisa Casson Dmytriw’s sophomore theology class incredible opportunity to donate, they Design Editor broke a record, as well, donating also get to share in a classic Gibbons The Gibbons community $1,502 dollars worth of donations, the event. supported the 18th annual National highest amount ever to be collected by “There are so many aspects of Honor Society Christmas Toy and a single class. Dmytriw’s class also won the Christmas Toy Drive that I love. Clothing Drive in record-breaking the per-capita-collected with $46.94 But my favorite memory of last year’s fashion this year, collecting $24,154 dollars per student. drive was delivering the toys to the dollars worth of donations, more than Dmytriw said that the key to Hispanic Center. Seeing the grateful any previous Toy and Clothing Drive raising so much money was not about faces of the Center’s workers as we total in Gibbons history. pushing the completion aspect, but piled in with bags of presents made Each homeroom class adopts a about reminding the students that this our impact tangible in my mind,” said child, buying clothes and toys for him child’s Christmas depended on them. National Honor Society president or her in hopes of gifting a Christmas to “I just pushed the idea that this Karthik Sundaram, in an interview via remember. A total of 50 children from kid’s Christmas was depending on Facebook message. either the Diocese of Raleigh Hispanic us and it’s important to help those in NHS moderator and librarian Dale Family Center or the Charlie Gaddy need. What I do was have everyone Foushee is always overjoyed with the Children’s Center will receive the gifts sign up for an item or category to passion the students display for the that Gibbons community members hold everyone accountable which gave gifts they give. Photo courtesy of Dale Foushee purchased. everyone a sense of ownership. Each “My favorite part is when the NHS Homeroom classes adopted 48 day, when they brought in gifts, I had students bring items in and they are so Theology teacher Patrick Dmytriw’s (left) sophomore theology class contributed children, while, collectively, any faculty everyone do a show-and-tell, which got excited,” said Foushee. $1502, a record for most donations by and staff member without a first period people really excited,” said Dmytriw. a single class, with the help of NHS reps class adopted two children. like senior JB Collins (right). Check us out online at www.cghsnc.org/newspaper and follow us on Twitter @newspapercghsnc Page design by Executive News Editor Caleb Maloney