December
are preparing for
Many artists are releasing special holiday albums this year
McHenry MessengerM
McHenry lights the night during holiday event
Downtown McHenry celebrated the winter season in style with a Cocoa Crawl and Riverwalk holiday shoppingbefore Thanksgiving weekend
Ingraffia Features Editor
Annually in McHenry, there is a celebration downtown around the time fall transitions into winter Everyone
enjoys the atmosphere and holiday spirit in these jolly gatherings and events, because if you didn’t you'd have to be quite the Grinch
On Friday, Nov 22 townspeople participated in the Cocoa Crawl, where
you register for the event and receive a mug, then samples of a variety of hot cocoa and holiday treats are distributed from participating businesses downtown Stores and restaurants were also offering discounts or sales on merchandise and food
As you walk from shop to shop certain businesses greet you with magical scenes of the season in the store windows Certain characters and costumes catch customers' eyes but MCHS was also creating quite the crowd performing live music at Miller Point
“The cocoa walk had a nice, cozy, Christmas vibe to it ” Junior musician Sadie Sullivan says, “I just loved playing music for the community ” Community events like these bring exposure to new and old businesses while bringing attention to the talented, such as the performing high schoolers
“It's very nice, the things that the town has for everyone ” Sophomore Vocal Warrior Nick Smiesko says, “But it's also very nice to have the school represented in a way that not many people will always see like the choir and musical side of the school ” To continue the weekend of festivities at Veterans park, on Saturday Nov 23, kids were able to visit Santa and partake in other fun games, crafts, or even ride
Hitting the slopes
Ffion Curtain Online Managing Editor
Senior Maddy Weber walks into her lunch period and sees her friend Leah Wickenkamp sitting at a table with ‘Ski and Snowboard’ written on a piece of paper She wants to involve herself more with snowboarding so she decides to sign up for the club
Senior Leah Wickenkamp started this club with her love to snowboard She reached out to schools who already have a ski and snowboard club like Prairie Ridge and Huntley for advice on how to start up the club, so starting on Dec 4, the club will be meeting every Wednesday after school and travel to Alpine Valley via bus Students who join get a discount going to Alpine Valley
“After reaching out to Huntley and Prairie Ridge,” says Wickenkamp “I talked to our Activities Director Mitch Stengel about starting this club He then partnered me up with Mr Guardalabene ” Physical Education Teacher Jacob Guardalabene had the similar idea for starting up a ski and snowboard club since he stopped coaching wrestling
“I have been thinking about starting a ski club ever since I stopped coaching wrestling so I mentioned that to Mr Stengel last winter A few weeks later Mr Stengel told me that he had a student that came to him about starting a ski club That's when Leah and I started working together to get this club off the ground,” said Guardalabene
Realizing MCHS needed a club like this, Wickenkamp felt it was necessary to get the people who go to school here and like skiing and snowboarding to join
“I know that there’s a lot of students at our school that ski and snowboard, and so I knew that we were going to have a big community that wanted to do this,” says Wickenkamp
MCHS has had a ski and snowboard club that teachers that work here were in For whatever reason, it just stopped
“So starting this club back up, I hope that this carries on for a long time So once I graduate, there will be students that have the same passion to keep this going,” Wickenkamp said Guardalabene has been having fun with starting this club and working with students like Wickenkamp by starting it from scratch
“Alpine Valley has been great to work with,” says Guardalabene, “It has taken quite a bit of time to get the club started since we are starting it from scratch It’s been a lot of emails and paperwork, but we are close to starting the fun part and getting on the mountain ”
Guardalabene isn’t concerned with weather and travel since Alpine Valley has a snow making system and hopes for overnight temperatures below 29 degrees
“Alpine has a state of the art snow making system,” Guardalabene said “As long as the overnight temperatures get below 29F they can make snow So we are hoping for some cold overnight temps to get a good base down Once Alpine gets a good base then we are in pretty good shape until around March ”
Once all the ski and snowboard club kids make it to Alpine Valley, they all have a great time doing a hobby they love and all have in common Enjoying snacks and the snowfall, they also form bonds that will hopefully last forever
around the park in a horse drawn sleigh
“The tree lighting is a good event because it really brings the people of McHenry together, and even potential neighboring towns ” Nick Smiesko says, “It’s a very joyous event ” Later on in the afternoon the MCHS Vocal Warriors lead everyone in carols before counting down and flipping the switch to showcase the thousands of twinkling lights in the park and around the downtown streets
“We've been Christmas people for years, we really do enjoy Christmas and the holidays ” Gary Basely says, “My favorite part is walking around town with all of the stuff the city does every holiday It’s nice because everybody clearly loves it ” Catherine and Gary Basely donated the tree that sits as the centerpiece of Veterans Park They have been growing it for around 20 years and since it started to grow beyond their desire, they decided to donate it to the city so that townspeople can enjoy it for the season “It's cold out here, but despite that factor I like to see everyone and all of this ” Gary Basely says Especially during this holiday season it's good for the community to come together and gather to lift the spirits
MCHS welcomes back Ski and Snowboard club, which took its first trip to Alpine Valley this week
Afton
Citizens from the McHenry area gathered to see both the tree lighting and the holiday festivities in town during the weekend before Thanksgiving | Photo by Afton Ingraffia
Analysis | It’s just an ad
Beth Brackmann A&E Editor
For the upcoming winter season
Coca-Cola released a new advertisement made entirely with AI This ad has created quite a stir online with mixed reactions, most being negative This one commercial could change the way AI is used in advertising forever
Every year the soda company CocaCola releases, or re-releases a winter/holiday themed advertisement This is something most don’t pay too much attention to but this year is different Upon its public release people on the app X, formerly Twitter, were quick to point out that the ad appeared to be done entirely with AI This was soon confirmed with a post made by X user Chris Barber Chris Barber, made a post on Nov, 15 confirming people's speculations of AI use by the major soda brand CocaCola In his post he confirmed that the “company” he works for, Silverside AI, were responsible for creating the AI ad, or at least a version of it Digging through the replies on the post, Barber replied to one mentioning that fact the video he posted was different than the one Coca-Cola posted due to the fact that Coca-Cola commissioned multiple AI companies to make different versions of the ad
Coca-Cola is facing backlash after releasing their new holiday advertisement made entirely with AI
Coca-Cola is feeding into AI use which in the long run could negatively affect the production of commercials They not only gave money to one AI group but to several Yes, AI is cost efficient and it does take little effort but that should not be the standard we create No matter how good the AI looks it’s still just a computer spewing out a jumble of pictures and videos, taking away jobs from real people Real people who get affected by losing their jobs, their income, everything they’ve worked for These may just be commercials now but what happens when it starts becoming TV shows, or movies? Where everything you watch
or consume is just AI When will people draw the line and put a stop to the corporate greed that AI is feeding into?
Companies are going to use AI no matter what, it’s just the way the industry is going, so why bother? What will happen in five years when everything
that the average person consumes is created by or with AI Thousands of people will lose their jobs, and creativity will be dead Now is the time to put a stop to the use of AI while we still can AI can be helpful when used correctly, but it is being used to override humans that’s
where the line needs to be drawn AI should not be a threat to a person’s livelihood and the fact it’s getting there is concerning It might just be a soda brand's commercial now but what if more companies start making their commercials this way, where will that leave us
TheMcHenryMessengerisMcHenryCommunityHigh School’sstudent-writtenand-editednewspaper Launchedin2019,TheMcHenryMessengeristhe student-runandstudent-editedschoolnewspaperat McHenryHighSchoolinMcHenry,Illinois
Studentjournalistshavetherighttoexercisefreedomof speechandthepressinhighschoolmedia The McHenryMessengerbenefitsfromtheserights Wehope tousethisplatformtoinformandengagethestudents andstaffofMcHenryHighSchoolaswellasitsbroader community
Asastudent-drivenpublication itisimportanttous thatwerepresenteverygroupwithinbothcampusesas wellasthebroaderMcHenrycommunity providinga platformforthemtotelltheirstories Weintendto provideaccesstoobjective,relevantinformationthat theyneedtoknow
Dominic Burnett Puzzlemaster
In one snippet of Coca-Cola’s recent holiday ad, detail-less monkeys sit in cold water and watch trucks with distorted wheels roll into a sweet, holiday town But it isn’t AI’s quality that’s so disturbing about this ad, which has become a kind of holiday tradition | Photo courtesy of: Coca-Cola