Jenks Tribune Digital Issue 48 - July 10, 2020

FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020

JENKSTRIBUNE.COM

Jenks celebrates July 4 with successful Boom Fest

JENKS PUBLIC SCHOOLS BREAKS GROUND ON NEW SOCCER FACILITY SHEILA DILLS RE-ELECTED TO HOUSE DISTRICT 69 JENKS AREA STUDENTS SELECTED FOR OKLAHOMA STUDENTS ART INSTITUTE 807 East A Street Jenks, OK 74037

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New Jenks Soccer Facility On Target For January 2021 Opening

By Kyle Salomon Jenks High School boys and girls soccer is consistently one of the top programs in the state and soon they will have one of the top practice facilities in the state. Jenks Public Schools hosted an official ground-breaking ceremony June 29 at the Jenks High School Soccer Complex, where construction is underway for the new Jenks High School soccer facility.

Jenks Public Schools Executive Director of Construction and Community Services Jeff Beyer said the new facility has been a long-time coming. “The soccer programs have been growing for a number of years now,” Beyer said. “We are up to around 100 athletes right now when you combine both the boys and girls programs.

The original facility was built in 1984 and had gone through three add-on projects. We started the design process and eventually determined it would be more cost-effective to build a new facility rather than do a fourth add-on to the old building.”

The new building will be 8,600 square feet and feature new weight rooms and locker rooms for both the boys and girls programs. “The boys and girls locker rooms will be on separate sides of the building with a fullystocked weight room in the center,” Beyer said. “January of 2021 is the target date for completion right now.

We are watching construction pretty closely with COVID-19, but at this point, our construction partners are on schedule and they said they expect to remain on schedule.”

This project is Phase 2 of the upgrade to the Jenks High School Soccer Complex. Phase 1 was the installation of the new field turf with Phase 2 being the new building, a new parking lot and new fencing around the facility.

“This project will really complete this complex for our soccer programs,” Beyer said. “It will still mostly be used as a practice facility. The varsity teams will still play their home games at Allan Trimble Stadium, but the junior varsity teams might play several of their games out here.”

Nabholz Construction is the general contractor on the project and GH2 is the architect.

Pet Of The Week: Hashbrown

Hashbrown is a pit bull mix about three-four months old and she is ready for his “furever” home. Who needs some Hashbrown in their life?

To meet Hashbrown or any of our other adoptable animals, please call 918-299-6311 Option 8, or email animalcontrol@jenksok.org.

FRIDAY, JULY 10, 2020

JENKSTRIBUNE.COM

Boom Fest Overcomes Thunderstorm For Successful Night The 2020 Boom Fest faced its obstacles with the COVID-19 pandemic and the early evening thunderstorm Saturday, but the annual event was a big hit as many gathered to enjoy food, fun and fireworks in Jenks by the Arkansas River front. Photos/Kyle Salomon

Jenks City Wide Garage Sale scheduled for Saturday The annual Jenks City Wide Garage Sale has been scheduled to start at 7 a.m. Saturday. The original scheduled time was set for May, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was postponed.

Riverwalk Remains Popular Venue For July 4 Despite the Boom Fest being centered around the Oklahoma Aquarium in 2020 instead of the Riverwalk, many people still went to the Riverwalk Crossing in Jenks to celebrate July 4.

Photos/Kyle Salomon

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Jenks Sends Off Class Of 2020 The Right Way

By Kyle Salomon Jenks High School is one of the largest schools in the state of Oklahoma and June 26, it showed once again why it is one of the best high schools in this area of the country.

The third-largest high school in the state hosted not one, but two traditional graduation ceremonies Friday evening at the Mabee Center on the campus of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa.

Jenks Public Schools officials did not have to do this, but they made the decision to go through with the traditional commencement ceremonies, so the Jenks High School senior class of 2020 could have the chance to walk across the stage and hear their names called in front of family and friends.

It was not a requirement, but instead voluntary based on what each senior and his or her family decided was in the best interest for them. Students with last names that start with A through K participated in the first ceremony with students with the last names that start with L through Z participating in the night-capper event.

Each senior was allowed to have four guests of their choice in attendance and each unit was to sit at least six-feet away from the next closest unit to maintain safe social distancing. Also, each person in attendance was strongly suggested to wear masks, but they were not mandatory. Every person who entered the Mabee Center Friday had their temperature checked prior to entrance.

Sure, it was not like traditional graduation ceremonies of the past with the Mabee Center packed to the brim and everyone in your senior class on the floor with you, as you patiently wait your turn to go walk across the stage you have been looking forward to for 12 years.

However, instead of focusing on the negative, how about we focus on the positive that the school officials care enough about its senior class to sacrifice their time and energy to make this type of event happen in the safest way possible.

Trust me, it would have been easier to say “congratulations and good luck” after the virtual graduation ceremony took place May 18, but that is not the type of people that run Jenks Public Schools.

Of course, there will be those who question whether it was right for Jenks Public Schools to have these graduation ceremonies, especially with the COVID-19 numbers on the rise, but I can tell you, this event was safe and done well.

I know this senior class has been through some unsettling times throughout the past three years with the Teacher Walkout of 2018, the Historic Arkansas River Flood of 2019 and now a pandemic in 2020, but I do hope when they look back on the year 2020 and their high school graduation, they consider everything that was going on and realize how special it was for their school to do what they did for them.

I would like to say well-done Jenks Public Schools. It would have been easy to call it a day after virtual graduation, but you did the opposite and gave the class of 2020 the graduation they earned.

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Dills Wins House District 69 Re-Election In Dominating Fashion

By Kyle Salomon

State House District 69 Representative Sheila Dills will have at least two more years in office after a landslide victory June 30 over challenger Angela Strohm in the Republican Primary Election. Dills took 62% of the vote, while Strohm had 38%.

House District 69 covers portions of Jenks, Bixby and south Tulsa.

This will be Dills’ second term in office, as she has served House District 69 the past two years after beating Democrat Andy Richardson in the November 2018 election. “I am really honored the people of House District 69 have re-elected me to continue to represent them,” Dills said. “When I was elected in 2018, I made three promises and that was to listen, to communicate and to lead and I plan on continuing that as long as I am serving the people of House District 69.”

Dills said she is ready to take on the next two years serving her district.

“When I look ahead, I want to be known as a strong conservative leader,” Dills said. “I want to exhibit integrity and statesmanship and have empathy for people. I think politicians have lost their way with having statesmanship. That is important to me. Hopefully, whenever I am at work, I am doing it in a way that is very statesman-like. I appreciate anyone, including politicians who exhibit that in their work.”

Dills added that there are two specific areas she wants to continue to work on in her next term.

“I have led the way with transparency and accountability,” Dills said. “I want to continue that. I want our rights and freedoms to be protected, but I also want to protect us from government spending our hard-earned tax dollars in wasteful ways. I learned very early in my term that we need to hold agencies more accountable. There needs to be more transparency. I had two bills that addressed these issues in my first term, and I am going to continue to push for that.”

Dills said education is something that is also vital for the state.

“Education is really important to me,” Dills said. “It is important to the district. I will always be working education-related issues. The one thing I am probably most known for at the capitol right now is my ability to bring people together. I am not a divisive person and it is because I listen to people. When I listen, people trust me, and they are usually willing to share with me whatever we need to overcome to achieve progress. Some people can do that, and some people can’t. It has helped me a lot because we have been able to bring some opposing sides together to work out legislation that really helped the state.”

Dills said one of the reasons she can connect with her constituents is her ability to listen. “It’s important for representatives to listen to their constituents,” Dills said. “That is important to me because I want to be the best representative that I can possibly be and whenever I am listening to people, that is how I am going to be the best possible representative I can be. When someone is not listening, they are not going to serve their people very well.”

Dills said she is blessed to serve House District 69. “I am so blessed to represent and live in an amazing house district,” Dills said. “The people are fantastic, and they have supported me from day one. I am so blessed in so many ways. It is just very touching to me. Today was amazing. We had so many supporters out in the district waving signs, they have volunteered, they have financially supported the campaign.

I just can’t thank them enough for the support they have given me, it has been absolutely overwhelming. The people in my house district are very special people. I may be a little partial, but I believe it is the best house district in the state of Oklahoma.”

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Jenks-Area Students Take Part In Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute Eighteen Jenks-area students recently joined a group of 270 young artists from Oklahoma for a week studying alongside renowned faculty and guest artists at the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute. Attendees were selected from more than 1,000 applicants during a competitive statewide audition process this past winter.

Each attendee studies one of the eight artistic disciplines, which are acting, chorus, creative writing, dance, drawing and painting, film and video, orchestra, and photography.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the OSAI could not take place at Quartz Mountain this year. Rather than canceling the program altogether, the organization created an online program called “OSAI at Home”. With more instructors than usual, and nightly presentations from renowned artists, such as Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre, students convened online for masterclasses with artisteducators in their field, workshopping and critiques, one-on-one lessons and opportunities to build community with other young artists.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Joy Hofmeister commended the Oklahoma Arts Institute's innovative online program. “In the face of uncertainty and change, the Oklahoma Arts Institute made a commitment to the state's most talented students that the show would, indeed, go on—despite the uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic," Hofmeister said. "OSAI's pivot to an online Summer Arts Institute has proven that where there's a will, there's a way. As a result, students across the state were able to learn and create under the tutelage of exceptional instructors and guest artists.”

The following Jenks-area students attended OSAI at Home: -Jenks High School — Savannah Durham (Chorus); Mason Chow, Eli Gavrilko, Leviathan Lee, Roland Rice and Abby Vaughn (Film & Video); Alexis Gibson, Holly Hilst, Ryann Johnson, Regan Jones, Isaiah Medina Aguilar, Jakob Olsen and Oliver Robinson (Orchestra); Olivia Cropper and Audrey McGee (Photography) -Bixby High School — Toni Hopkins (Film & Video) -Metro Christian Academy — Scott Crowder (Acting) and Ryan Schlaud (Film & Video) Students at “OSAI at Home” received specialized instruction from university professors, such as award-winning poet Sasha Pimentel of the University of Texas at El Paso and actor-educator Daniel Spector of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Spector said that he did not give his students the "high school version" of his curriculum but taught his class at a collegiate level. Jenks and Orchestra student Ryann Johnson said he enjoyed learning more about music.

“My favorite part of ‘OSAI at Home’ was Maestro Tinkham's lectures about musicianship," Johnson said. “They were so interesting, and I learned so much. I have never had a teacher teach the way he did. His lectures were not only fascinating, but they were interactive and full of information. He gave me so much to think about, and I have no doubt that I have improved as a musician this week because of him.”

Jenks and Film and Video student Eli Gavrilko said he has become more confident following the program. “One of the most important things I've learned at OSAI was to be more confident in my work. I used to avoid doing work out of a fear that it would not meet the standards of quality I set for myself,” Gavrilko said. “OSAI taught me that bad work is still practice and some practice is better than no practice at all. That inspired me to go and pursue my personal projects, and, regardless of their final quality, feel proud about practicing the skills necessary to do what I'm passionate about.”

While working from home provided challenges to students and faculty alike, the students and faculty said they found that the “Quartz Mountain Magic”— the spirit of community and collaboration—could also exist online.

“One thing I learned from my time in OSAI was the importance of vulnerability. It's important not to avoid making mistakes, but instead to view them as an opportunity to improve,” said Jenks and Chorus student Savannah Durham. “I also just really enjoyed being surrounded by so many people who had a common interest in music.”

Participants said they particularly enjoyed the nightly guest-artist lectures and Q&A sessions, where the students had a chance to learn and interact with renowned artists. Hofmeister applauded the students' hard work and commitment to their art form. "I am so proud of these students. The fire inside them burns bright, and their courageous creativity will ensure a brighter future for the state of Oklahoma," Hofmeister said.

Through its partnership with the State of Oklahoma, as well as support from numerous private donors, the Arts Institute ensures that every student accepted to OSAI receives a full scholarship to attend.

Scholarships for Jenks-area students were provided by the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the Albert and Hete Barthelmes Foundation, the Anne and Henry Zarrow Scholars Fund, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the George Kaiser Family Foundation, the Koch Industries Scholars Fund, the Mervin Bovaird Foundation, the Public Service Company of Oklahoma Scholars Fund and the Williams Companies Scholars Fund.

Additional program support was provided by the Oklahoma Arts Council, the Jerome Westheimer Family Foundation, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, the Hearst Foundations, the Harris Foundation, the OKC Midtown Rotary Club and the Zarrow Foundations. This project was also supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Jenks Community Shows Support For Police Department

The Jenks Police Department is appreciated by its community it serves and recently, businesses, families and individual citizens have been showing their support with special gifts or donations to the Jenks police officers.

Here is the list of special things the Jenks community has recently done for the Jenks Police Department: Lisa Crain, wife of fallen Jenks Police Sgt. Brian Crain, baked Thank You Cookies for the Jenks police officers Mary Blair provided stuffed animals for Jenks police officers to pass out to children The Sellen family put together a picnic for the Jenks Police Department Stephanie Scharck donated cookies to the Jenks police officers Goodies were dropped off for the Jenks police officers from an unknown person George’s Pub provided meals for the Jenks police officers for two days and is selling T-shirts that support the Jenks Police Department Burn Co. delivered a meal to the Jenks police officers Chick-Fil-A brought tea to the Jenks Police Department Jenks Police officers participated in a July 4 parade in Elwood Park The Jenks Police Department took a July 4 group photo On Monday, area children came to the Jenks Police Department to deliver hand-written notes, pizza and homemade treats to the officers

Jenks Football Working In The Trenches Jenks football had its first camp of the summer with the Offensive/Defensive Line Camp this last week at Allan Trimble Stadium. Here are some sights from Tuesday evening’s session. Photos/Drew Bethell

Fireworks Light Up Sky On Independence Day

The annual firework show brought many people to the Jenks/south Tulsa area Saturday evening to celebrate the Fourth of July.

Photos/Kyle Salomon

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