GIVING BACK

Students contribute to the community through charity events

GAVIN LADD REPORTER

Utica has its fair share of events made to raise money for charities, ranging from simple and generous donations to throwing pies around for the sake of fun. Before Christmas began, Utica started their Toys for Tots fundraiser, where classes competed to donate $60 in order to earn a movie day. Classes were also open to donate toys and extra money.

This year, Utica and 21 other schools partnered with Toys for Tots for a charity and donation drive. According to the official Marine Toys For Tots website, they have accumulated over 627 million toys and over $210 million dollars since the company was founded, and Utica High has contributed to that. Utica also had a coin stall event back in October, where students would bring coins to their first hour class and their teacher was not allowed to teach until they finished counting all of the coins. All of the money that was given to the teachers was donated to the Humane Society of Macomb.

Students wonder where all the fans have gone

TYLER WATFORD SPORTS EDITOR

With the start of winter sports it has become more common for there to be little to no students filling the bleachers.

Even when students fill the student section, not everyone is participating in the chants, and it’s just too quiet.

“Be there or be square,” junior Dylan Kelley said. “If you’re there in the student section, be loud.”

The whole point to a student section is to be loud for your team and support them.

There’s a clear difference in the number of students at girls games compared to boys games.

One game in particular that stands out for the girls is when they played against Anchor Bay game. Four students showed up.

“We have to support our lady Chieftains,” junior Riley Sangster said. “If you have the time, support the teams.”

There’s very few student who support our girls.

“Girls games are dead,” junior Landon Drew said. “We need some more people popping out for our ladies.”

The boys aren’t exempt from low fan turnout, as evidenced by their very first game at Port Huron. Only nine students showed up.

“I feel obligated to show up for the players,” junior Zeyad Yousef said.

Student turnout appears to be affected by location, who is playing, and how the team is doing.

“No students really come to our games,” junior Addison Stuehmer said, “but shout out to the few who still support us.”

Varsity basketball player Stuehmer appreciates the small number of students in the bleachers; teens screaming and being loud goes a long way and can affect the opposing team’s ability to perform.

“The student section most definitely affects the other team,” junior Nik Gojcaj said, “just with them being so loud.”

Others also appreciate the supportive student section.

“I love the student section; it brings lots of energy to the games,” junior Sebastian Soriano said. “They keep me going during the game.”

Problems in the student section arise when younger kids take seats, people don’t participate in themes, and others who don’t chant.

“It’s different depending on the sport,” Kelley said. “You can blend in at football games, but basketball is smaller.”

The Humane Society is an organization in Macomb that focuses on finding pets a home, using the community to get animals adopted into a new home. Utica High School teacher Suzanne Greenfield is a active volunteer and employee at the Macomb Humane Society.

“I support them because they are such a local organization and they work to get humane help to animals,” Greenfield said

The Humane Society of Macomb’s mission is “to help those who cannot speak for themselves and to provide humane care for unwanted, abused, and injured animals.”

“I originally started supporting the Humane Society as a senior project,” Greenfield said. “It was required for service hours, so I supported them with the students who had to participate.”

The Human Society is always open to volunteers and donations. According to the Utica website, UCS as a whole has done 200 charity drives this season.

Utica High School has done a Canned Food Drive, Villas of Shelby Senior Christmas Party, Kiwanis Food Drive, Adopt a Family, U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots, Macomb Charitable Foundation, Macomb County Children’s Giving Tree, Macomb Area Food Bank, Shelby Lions Meals, Assisted Living Supplies, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, and Charity Week for the Macomb Humane Society.

Utica High School is no stranger to giving back to the community. In Utica’s eyes, supporting each other is monumental and is an important part of what it means to be a Chieftain.

Teachers decorate their classrooms in all sorts of different ways. Some are scattered with bright pictures and posters, while others are more minimalist. Some even have strips of LED lights across the walls.

Others, however, decorate their classroom with the help of artistically talented students at Utica, such as seniors Zoey Lawrence, Sadie Heman, and Zoie Garrett, who are painting murals in teacher Melissa Kevonian’s classroom.

Room 235 previously had multiple unfinished murals on the walls.

“Previously, Mrs. Kevonian’s classroom had some murals started on there already,” Lawrence said. “Basically, what we’re doing is painting over them with what was originally intended. They were never finished because of COVID-19.”

The new murals will have the same general idea as the old, unfinished ones.

“It was actually mostly blank,” Heman said. “There were only a few sketches on it because the students never got to finish it. It was a very similar concept, it was also about literature.”

Lawrence’s mural depicts the 1949 dystopian novel “1984.”

“I’m working on a ‘1984’ themed mural,” Lawrence said. “It’s supposed to be a black and gray painting of an important character in the book. It has a bright red background that says ‘Big Brother is watching’ in big, bold letters.”

The other two students’ murals feature similarly famous works.

“The main part of the composition is about the books that she has taught in class. We have the dragon from ‘Beowulf’ and the map from ‘Lord of the Flies’,” Heman said.

The project began after a conversation with Kevonian.

“I recently was a part of last year’s musical, and I did a lot of the artwork for that,” Garrett said. “I was really interested in big mural paintings, and I currently have a friend in Mrs. Kevonian’s class. She heard Mrs. Kevonian talking about how she really wanted her murals redone, so I reached out because I was a previous student of hers. We discussed it, and we got together to repaint this mural for her.”

Lawrence joined the project after being approached by Heman and Garrett. “Zoie and Sadie were talking in my AP art class,” Lawrence said. “They were talking about how they get to paint this mural in Mrs. Kevonian’s, but they said they’re not really good at painting portraits of people. I told them that I’m good at painting people, so they let me join them since they had a lot to do already.”

The project is expected to take a while for the students to finish.

“We started it a few months ago and we’ve been going every Tuesday and Thursday,” Garrett said, “so we’ll probably be finished around a week or two from now. We’re pretty close to the deadline.”

Lawrence, Garrett, and Heman are enjoying the experience and opportunity.

“It’s been pretty fun,” Garrett said. “Some days have been harder than others because of motivation, but we usually leave feeling quite proud of ourselves.”

To an artist, having an opportunity like this is important.

“I like being able to paint this mural because I actually get to show off my work,” Lawrence said. “Not enough art is shown in classroom environments. A lot of classrooms are just blank, white rooms. I think it’s important to have some sort of art in the room to keep it different and not as boring for everyone.”

The project is important to Heman, as it makes up for something she had to miss out on in middle school.

“At my middle school, my art teacher would give students ceiling tiles from her classroom to paint,” Heman said. “I was going to do that, but because of the pandemic, my class never got to do it. I feel like this is sort of redemption from that.”

Lawrence believes Utica should consider adding more murals to their classrooms.

“I think Utica should add more murals, and that students should be the ones to do it,” Lawrence said. “I know that leaving a mark on the school is something most kids want to do. They want to have something to remember their time there.”

Singing in the snow

Choir classes perform in winter concert

ALESSANDRA IVANAJ REPORTER

On Dec. 17, the choir class held a winter concert in the auditorium with multiple school choirs to put on a show that they’ve been working on since the first day of school.

“We had sixth grade choir from five elementary schools,” choir teacher Lindsey Tycholiz-Mckiddy said, “and we had the Eppler’s choir in the concert.”

This concert was a team effort between Utica and the other schools.

“We had our own parts to sing,” junior Molly Collette said, “and some volunteered to sing with the kids from the elementary schools.”