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COMMUNITY
May 8, 2013
SAMMAMISH REVIEW
Blackwell mural captures the spirit of the northwest By Lillian O’Rorke
Elizabeth Blackwell Elementary School is about to get a whole lot more colorful. For the last several months, students there have given up recess time to work on a mural of the Pacific Northwest, which is set to be unveiled May 17. Stretching across three large canvases, there are orcas, rain clouds, tents, figures flying kites and even a unicorn coming together to represent the region. “I think it’s a wonderful proj-
ect for our school, and I think our school definitely needs art,” said 9-year-old Katie Kotler. “I think it’s very important to express our feelings, and I think we really need just a lot of emotion in our school.” Led by the PTSA and parent volunteers, the bulk of the mural has been done by the students themselves. “There is just something about kid art and the way they apply paint, the way they think – that really, adults can’t duplicate,” said April Phillips, who
Photo by Lillian O’Rorke
The sea gets one more fish thanks to the handiwork of Courtney Coulson.
has two sons at Blackwell and has donated her artistic skills to the project. “And that’s a really special ability that they have, that somehow we lose it as we grow up. And to kind of catch that moment in time when they are free to express themselves and free with the brush strokes and the ideas and stuff, is really important.” Phillips designed the background, complete with the Seattle Skyline and Mount Rainer then had the children create the individual elements, like the rocket that shoots into the sky and the scuba diver who swims in Puget Sound. To do that she made a list of items that the students could choose to sign up for. Originally, Phillips said, she expected around 80 children, but ended up with more than 150 wanting to contribute to the mural. To accommodate them all, the elements were scaled down so that more of them could be fit in. “I want the kids to have ownership and pride when they come back years from now and say that ‘I designed that, and I painted it, and that’s my piece of this puzzle,” Phillips said. Much of the items that the children chose to work on reflected their interests. Second-grader Zoe Collins said that she added See MURAL, Page 9
Photo by Lillian O’Rorke
Adhya Kona creates a butterfly to flutter between pine trees and the monorail.
Plateau earns high marks at International DECA contest Eastlake High School sent 17 students to the DECA’s international competition April 24-27 in Anaheim, Calf. Of those, Natalie Hurd was a top 10 finals finalist in marketing management series and, along with Aneesha Nanda for retail merchandising series, was top 10 role play No. 1 in preliminary round. Top 20 preliminary qualifiers for finals included Ryan Wasserman, Haley Bates and Keara King for their entrepreneurship promotion project and Rachel Lang, Lauren Greenheck and Shabina Rayan for their financial literacy promotion project. Alaina Hartley, was a top 10 test taker in preliminary round and a top 10 role play No. 2 in preliminary round for apparel and accessories marketing. Eastlake also had several students qualify as preliminiary competitors. They were Guneev Lamba for human resources management series; Melissa Radecke for principles of marketing; Phi VoBa, Tang Song and Jakob Graf for advertising campaign event; Wasserman, Bates and King for entrepreneur-
ship promotion project; Lang, Greenheck and Shabina Rayan for financial literacy promotion project; Joanna Lu for business services operations research and Jordan Lim, Lauren Benveniste for chapter awards project. Skyline High School also had a strong showing at the national competition. Ali O’Daffer finished in the top 10 in the nation test. Finishing in the top 10 in the nation were Mike Seeley for professional selling; Jackson Peng for international business plan; Emily Rochford for entrepreneurship participating; Grace Wan for business law and ethics team decision making and Amy Yang for business law and ethics team decision making. Finishing in the top 20 in the nation were Meghan Poole for business services operations research; Arjun Narayan for hospitality and tourism operations research; Michelle Szeto for hospitality and tourism operations research; Abhishek Joshi for sports and entertainment operations research; Shaina Ma for entrepreneurship written and Sarika Ghangurde for entrepreneurship written.
Photo contributed by Brittanie Petersen
Eastlake students stop for a picture during DECA Day at Universal Studios.
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sports
May 8, 2013
SAMMAMISH REVIEW
Photo by Lillian O’Rorke
On her first pitch in the bottom of the fourth inning, Tia Hedman smacks a double.
Skyline ranked third despite 5-0 loss to Ballard By Lillian O’Rorke
After suffering a 6-5 loss at home to Skyline April 3, Ballard turn the tide April 30 by pulling a 5-0 win over the No. 3 ranked
plateau softball team. “It’s softball, and that’s part of the game,” said Ken Brooks, coach of the Skyline Spartans. “We expected ups and downs with only having 12 kids turn
With two outs in the bottom of the sixth, Riley Davidson steps up to bat. out.” Ballard took the lead 2-0 right off the bat, capitalizing on a pop-up in the infield in the first inning. Then, with two runners on base in the top of the third inning, Ballard scored three runs on an error in the outfield. The
Spartans batters were unable to answer back. “You’ve got to laugh or cry about it. I am going to chose to laugh about it right now,” Brooks said. “It’s just we’re young. It seems like every game that we’ve lost this year, we’ve done that –
Photo by Lillian O’Rorke
we had an error here or there, or two that’s let them back in the game.” At bat, the Spartans did manage to make contact with the ball, but attempt after attempt, See SKYLINE, Page 12
Eastlake ends season with tears, cheers and victory By Lillian O’Rorke
Despite the fact that the game’s outcome would not change their fate, the Eastlake Wolves stepped onto their home field determined May 2 and overwhelmed Roosevelt 7-2. With a 3-9 record going into its penultimate league game, the plateau softball team already knew that it would not be making an appearance in the post season. Before announcing the starting lineup, the Wolves honored their four seniors, Kristen Holec, Zoe March, Sophie Palenscar and Jessica Jorgensen. Palenscar cried as her coach handed her a bouquet of flowers. Tears wiped away, Eastlake took to the field. Freshman Julie Graf stepped to the mound and, one after another, struck out Roosevelt’s first three batters. “It was my first varsity start pitching, and it was really cool to be out there and spending time with my team,” Graf said. “It was just a really great experience to be part of this team, and I know we will have a really great future. I know we are all proud of
ourselves this year. We did have some great accomplishments, even though we are not going to make the playoffs.” Up at bat first, sophomore Olivia Palenscar hit a single. After a bunt by Abby Goux and another single by Corina Jones, Eastlake had the bases loaded with zero outs in the bottom of the first inning. Mikel Charles RBI’d Olivia Palenscar and Sophie Palenscar brought Goux home to give the Wolves a 2-0 lead. Through the next two innings, Graf continued to deliver strikes, while her team continued to earn runs. In the bottom of the third, March smacked one deep into the right field to bring both Elizabeth Tracy and Charles home, setting up the Wolves with a solid 5-0 lead. “The rest of the season I haven’t had, like, one game where I consistently had one great hit after another,” said March. “Since I knew that we weren’t going to districts anymore, kind of the pressure was off…and it was senior night. So I was just wanted to leave it all out on the field.”
late senior Sophie Palenscar as she completes her fifth-inning homerun. March went 3 for 3 that game. “I’ve been playing my whole life, 12 years,” she said. “It feels good to kind of end it, end the
season with some good hits.” The bottom of the fifth was fellow senior Sophie Palenscar’s time to shine. Before the game,
Photo by Lillian O’Rorke
the coach announced Sophie’s favorite softball memory as seeSee EASTLAKE, Page 11