Senior of the Month named
February’s senior of the month is Weston Lorenz. Weston is the son of Tony and Michelle Lorenz of Milford Center. He is a three year varsity letter winner in baseball and a two year letter winner in soccer. He has also been involved in basketball, Foreign Language Club and National Honor Society. He is employed at Mad River Mountain and is a volunteer at Memorial Health. After graduation he plans to attend Baldwin Wallace University where he will continue his baseball career and major in Sport Management. When asked what advice he has for the underclassmen, he replied, “Take advantage of as many activities, classes, and clubs as you can and push yourself to be better everyday. Make the most of the time you have because your senior year will be here faster than you realize.” (Photo submitted)
Panthers band together for a cure
By: Madeline Conroy
Two students at Fairbanks High School – Olivia Bellas and Abby Underhill – are holding a fundraiser for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, with their team name being Passionate Panthers for a Cure.
The fundraiser began January 16 and will continue until March 6. They are raising money for cancer research and patient care at the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is a national organization and the two students are working with the Ohio branch. This is teaching them how to organize a fundraiser and gaining them valuable leadership experience by learning skills in marketing, entrepreneurship, project management, and public speaking. Also, it is teaching them how to run a campaign and how to make an influence in the community.
The funds that they collect will benefit cancer patients around the globe, and they hope that they can make a lasting contribution to the landscape of cancer research and treatment.
Olivia and Abby are so excited to make an impact on their community and aim to create a positive example for other aspiring students who want to positively impact the world.
So far they have just accepted personal donations – and they are always open to donations – but at the Fairbanks Boys home game Feb. 14 they also hosted a 50/50 raffle to raise funds.
Also in the near future they will be working with Whit’s to do a flyer fundraiser. So if you bring in a flyer to Whit’s, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to their event. They are still planning this, so wait for future updates!
FCCLA celebrates kindness
By: Grace Koenig
For the past four years, Mrs. Falk and the FCCLA group at Fairbanks has been celebrating kindness for one week every year. This year, with the amazing help of sixteen committee members, FCCLA will once again be celebrating the spreading of this cheer and the brightening of everyone’s day. Their goal is to spread kindness throughout the hallways of school and to make it last year around. Kindness week also has a theme for each day of the week. This year, Monday is “FCCLA Member Appreciation Day” and extracurricular apparel day; Tuesday is “Staff Appreciation Day” and decades day; Wednesday is “It’s Cool To Be Kind… Random Act of Kindness” and Fairbanks apparel; Thursday is “Be Comfortable With Who You Are” and PJ day; and lastly, Friday is Valentine’s Day! Upperclassmen will be wearing red while the underclassmen will wear pink. Teachers may wear whichever one they choose. Staff and students both dress for these festive days and have a blast.
FFA members pursue state degrees
By: Linsey Eddy
Over the last month, upperclassmen members have been hard at work applying to earn their state FFA degrees, American FFA degrees, proficiency awards, and officer awards as recognition for their continuous hard work and success through their time in FFA.
Keagan Nicol earned a gold rating on his treasurer’s book, Linsey Eddy earned a silver rating on her reporter’s scrapbook, and Wyatt Rausch earned a bronze rating on his secretary’s book. Members will be fully recognized in May at the Ohio state FFA convention.
On Tuesday, February 11, Alex Blumenschein represented Fairbanks at the sub district public speaking contest, where he recited the FFA Creed and questions as a Career Development Event (CDE).
Other upcoming CDE’s include the State Greenhand Quiz, in which first year members have the opportunity to show off their knowledge of FFA trivia, and General Livestock and Dairy Judging, where participants can put themselves in the judge’s shoes in the show ring. The chapter has been very successful with these events in the past, and are hoping for the same in the upcoming season.
The chapter is also selling strawberries until Tuesday, February 18, as a fundraiser; make sure to find a Fairbanks FFA member and order fresh fruit as soon as possible.
Students begin 2020-2021 scheduling
By: Livvy Bellas
This month, Fairbanks High School students began scheduling for the upcoming school year.
For each grade, they were given a paper with the course offerings for next year along with explanations and advice from school counselor, Lisa Studenmund.
As always, Fairbanks offers a wide variety of courses in the fields of Math, Science, English, Social Studies, and Foreign Language.
There are also many electives, in order to appeal to every student’s unique interests. These include Agriculture, Art, Music, and Media classes. Some of the most interesting options include Animal and Plant Science, Sculpture, and Game Design.
In addition to these classes, Fairbanks also offers several additional electives that do not fit into any of those categories, including office worker, Project MORE, and the opportunity to take classes at Tolles Career and Technical Center.
Family and career classes are also an important part of the Fairbanks curriculum, with many financial studies, cooking, and other practical, life skills courses.
This year, Fairbanks added two new classes: Senior Capstone and an Internship, both of which are open to seniors. These would help seniors prepare for their lives outside of high school, helping them achieve their goals and establish a solid foundation for their future.
Fairbanks is excited to be able to offer so many courses to its students and is looking forward to the 2020-2021 school year!
Fairbanks battles flu season
By: Lexi Murray
It’s flu season, and this season has caused an all-time high absence rate at Fairbanks High School.
From January 17 to February 3rd, eleven of the largest recorded sick days had an average of 21 students absent due to illness. The largest number of students gone in one day accounted for fifteen percent of the student body on Tuesday, January 28th with 30 students sick.
Classrooms were affected by the mass amounts of students missing.
For example, one of Fairbanks’ math teachers chose not to teach something new for an upcoming test since about half of his class was gone. Instead it resulted in a general online course day so the absent students wouldn’t fall behind.
Fairbanks put into the daily announcements a list of ways students can avoid getting sick and the custodial staff used electrostatic disinfectant machines that kill 99.9% of bacteria.
Over the course of all this sickness, the administration looks at multiple components to determine if the sickness becomes drastic enough to close school.
In the event where many teachers get sick and cannot come into school, the district may have to consider closing.
Thankfully Fairbanks maintained a large substitute fill rate.
They also look at what other districts in the area are doing.
During the course of these two weeks, five districts closed due to illness. Fairbanks takes all this into account when looking into their students’ absences and further spread of the flu.
It is Fairbanks’ hope that their students recover well and are excited to get back to school.
NHS hosts dodgeball tournament
By: Megan Stallings
Once again, NHS held their yearly dodgeball tournament during the week leading up to winter homecoming. The week before, students formed their teams of five and paid a $25 fee. Ultimately, there were ten teams, and NHS raised $250 to help students who struggle to pay for sports fees. The championship game was held during the pep rally for the whole school to watch and cheer their friends on to victory. The final game was a tight match but freshman CJ Swartz, sophomores Ryker Beaty and Grant Rausch, and seniors Braxton Wilhelm and Jaeden Eickhoff eventually defeated their rivals.