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Decmeber 2019
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Staff Editorial: Giving back with USPS Adopt-A-Letter Newspaper Staff
Every year USPS gets thousands of letters to Santa that are never read, and the kids never get their gift from Santa. Enter Operation Santa. USPS launched Operation Santa in 1912. According to the official site of the program, “Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock created Santa’s first mailroom—authorizing local postmasters to open up these letters for employees to read and respond.” The letters from the kids generally start to come on the 25th of November. The kids will be asking for
Frank’s letter to Santa and one of his two requested gifts. Photo by: Katelyn Gwennap
things such as toys, coats, shoes, etc. You can make their wish come true by adopting a letter and buying what they want from Santa for them. The gifts will be sent directly to the kids. All gifts have to be shipped by December 20th. Adopting a letter is free and all you have to do is pay for the present and shipping. So, in this spirit, and to put our money where our mouth is, our newspaper staff has decided to forego the typical “Secret Santa” and opt into #USPSOperationSanta. The Signal team will be adopting the letter of
Frank, a 4 year-old-boy. We as a team think that it is very important to give back to the community, and it’s a good thing to do. We strongly encourage you to give back to the community this season, to hopefully make a little Christmas Miracle come true for someone. In order to adopt a letter go to https://www.uspsoperationsanta.com/. Both individuals and teams can contribute. Happy Holidays from The Signal!
The Runza Student of the Week: Natalie Arnold Natalie Arnold receiving her Student of the week award from Runza. Photo by: Paxton DeVault
Kelsie Anderson Reporter
Senior Natalie Arnold won the Runza Student of the Week. “It was pretty exciting because it was something cool and different that not a of people get all the time, especially from TJ,” explained Arnold. According to the website Runza.com/student, some of the requirements included “balancing homework, school & community involvement, and one’s personal life.” The article also said, “Runza® Restaurants and KETV created a partnership to honor senior students for their achievements in the classroom and in the community & provide them a $500 scholarship for college.” “I feel good about earning the scholarship because anything would help with college,” Ar-
nold added. She plans on attending the College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Nebraska. Mrs. Carla Hartenhoff, TJ’s senior counselor, nominated Arnold for this award. “A lot of the time I have students that are very involved in a lot of different things and with Natalie,” said Hartenhoff.
“She was involved in student counseling, National Honor Society (NHS), sports, clubs, and organizations.” “She really represents all of the different options that students have at Thomas Jefferson high school, so she seemed like a very good option for me to nominate,” added Hartenhoff. There are no requirements for
nominations, however, for the nomination they want to know that students are high achieving, leaders in the classroom, participating in the athletic field, in clubs and organizations. They also want to see that the student is an epitome and has a lot of pride in their school. Together, Hartenhoff and
Arnold worked together for her nomination by gathering all the activities that she is involved in and making a paper that is sort of like her resume with making sure that it was thorough enough for the nomination. “Since I have been working here at TJ for the past 11 years, we’ve probably had three or four students earn the Runza Student of the Week,” Hartenhoff concluded. The scholarship from the Runza Student of the Week will give recognition to Arnold and she will be on the KETV channel where they will give her a 30 second commercial about the things that she has accomplished here at Thomas Jefferson High School.
News
Band and Orchestra students honored with recognition
The Signal Co Editors-in-Chief Emily Eikenberry Katelyn Gwennap
Copy Editor
Heather Giovannoni
Paginator
Emily Eikenberry
Staff
Kelsie Anderson Kayleigh Cooper Austin Hinrichs
Sophomore Daijanay Rodriguez was recently recognized as an Honor Band member for the BOCH Festival to be held at UNO on January 24-26. Here she performs with the marching band during football.
Adviser
Rob Lindquist Phone: 712-328-6493 Facebook: CBJacketJournalism Twitter: @TJHSJournalism Web: cbjacketjournlism.com Snapchat: tjhsjouralism
Photo by: Paxton DeVault
Kelsie Anderson Reporter Recently, several students auditioned for the Band, Orchestra, and Choir Honor (BOCH) Festival at the University of Nebraska - Omaha, and fiveband students made it, while two more were made alternates. Sophomore Ryan Hogueison and junior Emile Bostic were honored in the Wind Ensemble, and senior Madison Baxter and sophomores Daijanay Rodri-
guez and Alyssa Denman made the Honor Band. Alternates were Eleana Lemus and Helena Sifuentes, both freshmen. Also, this past Saturday, December 14th, five students auditioned for SWIBA Honor Band and two made it! Sophomore Eli Dross and junior Emile Bostic. “Eli and Emile auditioned last year and I am proud of the progress they have made since the audition last year,” said TJ Band Director Jessica Todd.
AL in the gutter after TJ wins
Other students who auditioned were freshmen Ryan Hogueison, Elena Lemus, and Abby Franks. “These students have been consistently having lessons with me,” said Todd. “And though some students didn’t reach their goal of making the honor band, they have gotten so close and leveled up their ability that will pay off immensely in their journey through music education.” Freshman Hailey Carlson has been accepted into her second Honor Orchestra of the year.
Emily Eikenberry Editor-in-Chief
The Thomas Jefferson bowling team kicked off their season on December 2nd, they came home with a win against city rival Abraham Lincoln. TJ girls Varsity team got 2724 pins beating both the boys and girls, followed by TJ boys with 2628 pins. Coach Diane Storey said, “We had ups and downs but we came through with the win.” The AL varsity boys got 2600 pins, followed by the varsity girls 2006 pins. Chandler Scott (452 pins) and Natalie Arnold (420 pins) were the top two bowlers of the meet. Chandler Scott a junior bowler said, “The meet went pretty good, everyone was nice and we all bowled good. A good way to start the season.” Following them were Emily Eikenberry (380 pins) and Josh Chavarria (438 pins). After the two individual games, the bowlers go into another format called Bakers. The girls came together to cement their win in the Bakers
She was accepted into the Iowa Junior Honors Orchestra back in November, and she has also been accepted into the BOCH Festival in their Honor Orchestra. Carlson is one of only eight violin players to be accepted into the BOCH orchestra. The BOCH Festival will be held at UNO on January 24 - 26, and the SWIBA Honor Band festival is January 20 in Atlantic, IA. Story updated to reflect Orchestra honors as well.
The Signal is a school-sponsored publication of Thomas Jefferson High School 2501 W. Broadway Council Bluffs Iowa 5150. The Signals office is located in the upper library. The signal is printed by OH-K FASTPRINT in Omaha, NE. The Signal is a school-sponsered-publication and therefore recognizes its responsibility to stay within the boundaries that the school administrators set. The Signal will therefore inform its readers using a high standard of . The Signal encourages readers to respond in the form of letters to the editor, which can be sent to room C128. The Signal’s editorial staff reserves the right to edit the letters for grammatical errors and to remove any profanity. The editors also reserve the right to exclude letters that are false in their statements or accusations. The Signal will not accept advertisements that promote activities illegal to minors. Advertising rates are available upon request. NSPA Members Publication IHSPA Members Publication
New Books in the TJ Library Kelsie Anderson Reporter
format, finishing with 947 pins. Their high game was a 241 (218, 147, 241, 165, 179). The boys had a big enough lead going into the Bakers format that they just had to hold off against the AL boys, finishing with 896 pins (195, 180, 163, 180, 178). The next meet is on Monday, December 9th at 3:00 at Thunderbowl.
Chandler Scott attempting to get a strike Photo provide by: Jessi Scott
TJ’s library will be getting some new books in the near future. “We just received our last shipment of the new books, so everything that we have is what we are expecting for the next month,” said Ms. Sam Exline, TJ’s librarian. A few of the new books are How Not to Ask a Boy to Prom, One Punch Man, My Hero Academia along with some new sportsbooks including series about star athletes. The new sportsbooks in the library are about Lebron James, Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods. The new books are always located on the bookshelf near the display case, it is usually updated if there is a certain book that has been checked out more than once. “We try to get new books two or three times a year,” said Exline. “Sometimes more than that in order to make sure that we have new books for students
to read because everybody likes to read something different.” Due to high demand, the new books are typically checked out right away when they first arrive at the library, so the shelf that holds all of the new books is always restocked as this happens. Most of the new books are requested by students so when a student requests a book they will either be able to check out the book or they will be put on hold. Ahold is where Exline will put the student’s name on the waiting list, and when the book is checked back in she will look at the list and notify the next student that the book is ready to be checked out. When books are put on hold by request from students, the hold will last for seven days. If a student does not check out the book during the seven days, the next student on the list will receive the book.