15 minute read
New Film Club
UPCOMING EVENTS
November Wed. - Fri. 27-29
Thanksgiving Break
December Wednesday 4
Curriculum Info Night Time: 6 p.m. Where: Auditorium and both gyms
NEW FILM CLUB IS STARTED AT FHN Freshmen Jessika Rogers and Makayla Hayes watch “The Ring” attentively. The club was started by Anjolina Blackwell and they meet on Thursdays to watch and discuss films. “I joined so I could watch a different type of movie, ones that I usually wouldn’t watch,” freshman DaNyla Creacy said. (Photo by Sam Waltkins)
The film club is a new group at FHN, recently founded through the joint efforts of social studies teacher Anastasia Hercules and senior Anjolina Blackwell. The club was created in order to watch movies and promote an appreciation for the art of film. The group has watched more than five movies so far.
“I’ve been in film clubs at other schools,” Hercules said. “This is the best one I’ve had. Everyone here is interested and they actually want to be here.” Hercules and Blackwell had discussed movies during school, and their shared interest bloomed into the film club. Starting out with roughly 10 people that regularly attended meetings, the film club took off.
The club chooses a genre for each month and watches a movie from that genre every Thursday after school in Hercules’ room. They started with horror movies to celebrate October’s spooky season, and then moved into a more light-hearted comedy genre for November. They plan on watching holiday-themed movies for December. “We get a variety of movies,” junior film club member Luis Hernandez said. “They pick ones that fit a mood.” Students start the meetings discussing what movies they watch and the plan for the upcoming
months. They have a large say in the decisions the club makes and are able to have a say in the way it works.
“It’s their club,” Hercules said. “They have a lot of films they’re passionate about, so we’ll try to work those in.”
Hercules tries to incorporate a wide range of movies within the genre, both for entertainment and enjoyment, but also to educate the students on the different types of films.
“Movies affect people,” Hercules said. “They draw you in and they’re an expression of people. (Brief by Ashlynn Perez)
LOCAL COFFEE STAND OPENS ON MAIN Main Street is home to a community of many local businesses and storefronts filled with antiques, clothes and coffee. Geries Shaheen, owner of a local coffee stand called St. Charles Coffee Co., wanted to join that in a different way.
“Every now and again we collaborate with different people in the community and we set up a [coffee booth],” Shaheen said. “A couple years ago we did it at the old post office down the street and it was a hit so we decided to do it again this year with [local restaurant] Tompkins on Main.”
Shaheen sends part of his proceeds to charities and at his most recent event his money was sent to an organization called Sparrow’s Nest STL. They are a teen maternity home for homeless, pregnant and parenting teen moms. It’s organizations like these that inspire Shaheen.
“All the time, we get surprises [donations] like the one Geries did,” Sparrow’s Nest director Elisa Zieg said. “We get surprised all the time with just this beautiful generosity for our own community.”
Geries began his business in 2017 as a hobby and has continued it since then. It started when he and his wife took a trip to his homeland of Israel. They saw many micro coffee shops and fell in love with the concept of a small menu which was the inspiration behind his establishment.
He offers one drink on the menu at each of his events and it comes as a latte or iced. In a recent event, Legends and Lanterns, it was a butterbeer latte, his most popular drink, inspired by the popular Harry Potter series. As to where to find him, he is always looking for inspiring venues and ways to collaborate with the community.
“A lot of places you go to you’ve got infinite choices,” Shaheen said. “It’s kind of a unique engagement.” (Brief by Justin Brewer) A cup of coffee sits on a plate with the logo of the new St. Charles Coffee Company above. The company was established in 2017 as a pop-up coffee shop in the St. Louis area and they pride themselves on donating profits to a charity of their choice. (Photo Illustration by Ella Manthey)
December Saturday 7
Breakfast with Santa Time: 8 a.m. Where: Commons
December December All Knighter Meeting Time: 6:30 p.m. - 8 p.m. Where: Commons Thursday Friday 12 13
Drama Trivia Night Time: 4 p.m. - 10 p.m. Where: Auditorium and
Senior Anjolina Blackwell reads from her script in preparation for the upcoming fall play. The show, Once Upon a Pandora’s Box, written by Monica Flory, will be performed by the FHN Masque Players on Nov. 21-23. (Photo by Alayna Furch)
DRAMA PREPARES THEIR SECOND PLAY
After putting on a production of the play “The Lion and Mouse Stories” earlier this year, the drama club is working on the show “Once Upon a Pandora’s Box” for their second fall play. The play will be shown from Nov. 21-23.
“Usually, productions take six to eight weeks to complete,” Kim Sulzner, drama teacher and director of the play, said. “These last two have been done in three to four.” Instead of having their traditional one fall play and one spring play, the drama club has opted for two fall plays. This was done in order to minimize expenses and save money for the spring play.
“Addams Family was really expensive,” Sulzner said. “We like to carry over a big enough balance to look into doing a musical every year and usually children’s shows bring in a lot of extra money.”
The general plot of “Once Upon a Pandora’s Box” revolves around two siblings in New York, Tabitha and Louis, played by Ashlynn Bozich and Collin Foster respectively, after opening a strange box. By opening the box, the siblings release five fairy tale villains. Together, they must figure out how to contain them.
“I feel like Sulzner knew what she was doing when she was casting,” Bozich said. “Tabitha has a really strained relationship with her mother, and I just lost my Mom, so I feel like I can really get into her.”
Auditions took place on Friday, Oct. 25. Sophomore Bryce James will play the role of Rumple, one of the five villains in the play.
“I think I am going to like this play more than ‘Lion and Mouse Stories’,” Bryce James said. “It is deeper than ‘Lion and Mouse Stories’, and I like the characters more.” (Brief by Aadhi Sathishkumar)
FHSD POLLS SUPPORT FOR NEW BOND ISSUE A flag waves next to FHN, which was founded in 1983. In the past couple years rumors have been going around about a new school that is going to be built. The school board acknowledged the possibility that they are going to build a new school close to the soccer field, tearing down the one standing. (Photo by Sarah Williams)
The Francis Howell School District (FHSD) has previously asked the community for more money by putting a tax levy proposition on the ballot. It has failed each time so the Board of Education is thinking of doing a different approach; a ‘No Tax Increase Bond’. Currently they are looking towards the community to see if this new option would pass if it’s put on the ballot.
“Thus far, the reaction has been very positive because we have explained what we’re looking at and why,” Patrick Lane, treasurer on the Board of Education said. “We have had some negative responses, but we feel like we’ve answered most of those questions.” A ‘No Tax Increase Bond’ is similar to a loan. The bond will allow the district to receive how much they asked for at small increments throughout several years. That will allow them to pay it off at a slower rate, and keep tax rates the same.
“If you don’t act on things now and you wait the costs are going to go up and it will be more expensive at a later date,” Chuck Dale-Derks, a parent in the district, said. “Then we put the district at risk of having a facility that has an emergency need.”
The district allowed architects to walk around all the buildings in FHSD and assess the repairs that are needed at each one and roughly how much it would cost. This showed some concerns for a couple buildings and how much longer they can last without repairs.
“We need to upgrade our facilities,” Janet Stiglich, a Director on the Board of Education, said. “We need to for the safety of all of our buildings, for the safety of our kids to bring some of our facilities into the 21st century [and] to make sure that we have a creative learning environment for all.” (Brief by Macy Cronin) $
RUN FOR WARMTH
Few things would make running in freezing temperatures worth it except maybe a nice cup of hot chocolate. That is the purpose of the Hot Chocolate Run, “America’s sweetest race”. “All finishers, from top to bottom, get hot chocolate, a medal and a care package,” Rana Shaker, a sophomore who will be competing in the race for the first time said. “You just have to finish the race.”
The race offers a five kilometer run and a 10 kilometer run. The St. Louis race is on Nov. 24 and set in Forest Park.
“I just want to stay on track with my running,” Shaker said. “Last year I stopped running after cross country, and that didn’t help me during track season. I just thought that by running [the race] my endurance will stay up and my speed will increase.”
Since the Hot Chocolate Run’s 2008 inaugural run in Chicago, it has had over 200,000 participants with runs in 24 cities from San Francisco to Charlotte. A 5k run is longer than three miles. That doesn’t scare Lilian Cash, another sophomore and first time Hot Chocolate Run racer.
“I’ll be doing the 5k because that’s what I’m used to,” Cash said. “I’m currently still going to [off-season] cross country practices. The past few months I’ve had consistent practice and I’ve already been doing 5ks so I’m pretty used to them.”
The frigid cold presents a change of environment compared to the races one would expect in the summer or spring, a change competitors will have to adapt to.
“The air is very thin so it’s harder to breathe and your heart constricts,” Shaker said. “What I do is wear a lot of layers, two layers of pants and three layers on top. It hurts your ears when the wind is whooshing, so I cover my ears.” (Story by Connor Peper)
FHNTODAY.COM | 11.20.19 | NEWS Senior Emma Temper and freshman Emma Landwehr passionately play their flutes in a performance of Freeze, the FHN’s marching band set. The marching band played at every home football game and performed at competitions. The band qualified for finals in the Sullivan Marching Festival. (Photo by Courtney Wortman) THat’s a wrap
FHN’s marching band season has ended after months of competitions
FHN’s marching band starts to thaw from their fall Freeze. The show took hundreds of hours of practice and many sleepless nights from students, but with hard work came the successes of the season.
“[The show was] about being a kid and having fun in the snow,” Stegeman said “You get in your overalls, right. You pad yourself up, put three layers of socks on because you know you are going to get wet. You are trying desperately to not get your body wet with the cold water of the snow. It’s about that, being a kid and going out having fun in the snow.”
Each new marching band season jumps off to a rocky start, but this one was especially hard for them because of the intricacy that the show held.
“This year was a hard show, you got ‘how big are those ramps out there’ that people are sliding down and you got kids dancing,” senior drum major Grace Sickendick said. “You are teaching nerds how to dance. I love them, I’m a nerd, I am a super nerd, but only a couple of these kids have a dance background or a sports background, so it’s a lot to put into one season.” Throughout the season the band went on overnight trips and spent over 50 continuous hours with one another.
“[Iowa] was a hard competition,” Sickendick said. “We had to compete at the buttcrack of dawn, but you know, it’s fun. As exhausting as it is from being together, you are able to go ‘Alright I don’t need to think about school right now, this is my band family.’”
This season gave lots of opportunities for seniors. Senior Matthew Juhlin, despite this being only his second year in band, was placed in the position of drum major due to all his hard work.
“It means a lot [to be a drum major],” Juhlin said. “It means that Mr. Stegeman trusts me enough to put me in that position despite not knowing me all that well, but I’m really glad he did because it has given me so many opportunities to push as hard as I can.” Marching band ended their season off with performing at St. Louis Super-Regional BOA, Bands of America, where they competed against bands in their class, or bands similar in their size.
“I was extremely happy [at finding out FHN placed 11th in their class],” Juhlin said. “I wasn’t entirely sure how the run had gone after performing, but it was great to feel that it had been a really good last competition run.” UPCOMING SHOWS Nov. 26 Choir/Jazz Concert at FHC January* Knight Pride Trivia Night Feb. 1 Missouri State Jazz Festival *Date not confirmed by Macy Cronin macycronin03@gmail.com
F H N T O D A Y
P R E S E N T S MORE INFO Check out FHN’S Nerd Culture coverage here: bit.ly/FHNnerdculture
NERD CULTURE
Find popular nerdy movies and books from Harry Potter to Napoleon Dynamite.
Learn how to dress like a modern nerd from students at FHN
Watch an in-depth tutorial of how to play Dungeons and Dragons.
Test your nerdy knowledge with a quiz on popular nerd culture.
Learn about local businesses, ‘The Fantasy Shop’ and ‘The Collector’s Store.’ Learn about card games that FHN community members play and love.
Find all this and more on FHNTODAY.COM
We take theDENTS out of ACCIDENTS
America’s Plumbing Experts
since 1935
GO KNIGHTS!
Athletic Booster Club
rotoRooter.com Serving the Community for over 80 years
4532 South Saint Peters Parkway Saint Peters, MO 63304 (636) 928-0082 Harvestowneautobody.com
Basye’s
6180 Mid Rivers Mall Dr, Saint Peters, MO 63304
Open Monday through saturday from 6am-10pm
Closed on Sunday
celebrating more than 25 years in business Locally-owned Experienced
(636)939-3666
4091 N. St. Peters Parkway, St. Charles, MO
Helping you keep most of what you’ve earned since 1966. BOOK YOUR APPOINTMENT TODAY! 25% off New Clients Now Hiring TAX PRO’S
$25 Airbrush
$25 Manicures, Gel or Dip, By Appointment
Buy 5 tans get 2 FREE
$10 off any unlimited month, any level
2434 Hwy K O’Fallon, MO 63368
809 E Pearce Blvd Wentzville, MO 63385
Fax: (636) 441-1040 Email: sederburg1040@taxteam1040.com Twitter: @SederburgTaxAce Facebook.com/SederburgTaxTeam
636-928-1040 www.TaxTeam1040.com
WOODCREST DENTAL
12301 Olive Blvd. Creve Coeur, MO 63141 (314) 579-6166 DrMWilsonDDS@gmail.com www.woodcrestdental.com Madelyn G. Wilson D.D.S
In the FHN studio, junior Brandon Bridgeman smiles as he shows off his style on Oct. 28. Bridgeman enjoys wearing fashion pieces of people he likes, like Tyler the Creator. An important piece in his outfits would be his dads hat that he wears everyday. “I can express myself through my clothing,” Bridgeman said. “I wouldn’t add anything because I like how I dress already.”
Sophomore Cierra Brown poses to show off her unique style in the FHN studio on Oct. 24. Brown shops at Savers, Hot Topic and Zumies in person but shops at Dollskill and Demonica online. Brown described her experience wearing unique clothing as isolating since nobody else dresses like her. “I get most of my ‘out there’ pieces online and then my regular clothing from thrift stores, like Savers,” said Brown.
Junior Kyle Helton shows off his fashion style on Oct. 25 in the FHN studio. Helton likes to shop at places like Zumies or Spencers because they have unique items. Helton shops online more because he can find certain items he is looking for or certain brands. “I like looking different than others but I don’t like to be the center of attention,” said Helton. (Photos by Ryan Ginn)
