Many people don't think of snow as

dangerous, but rather as a winter

wonderland for a white Christmas. In

reality, snow and the cold tempera-

tures of winter are deceptive killers,

meaning that many deaths

are indirectly caused by the

storm. Here are a few ex-

amples of the dangers of

winter:

Snow and Ice- Snow and ice

can cause roads to be-

come slippery, which will

cause tires to lose traction and the

driver to lose control of their vehi-

cle. To stay in control, drivers can

purchase snow chains for their

tires and reduce their speed. Snow

can also cause the roofs of houses

to collapse due to the immense

weight. Always make sure to re-

move snow from your roof to

avoid collapse. Be careful of black

ice on roads, which can cause driv-

ers to lose control and go off the

road into a ditch, pole, tree or into

oncoming traffic. Never walk on

ponds or lakes with ice on them

even if the ice looks thick enough.

Ice can be thin in some areas and

crack under your weight, causing

you to fall through.

Temperature- Prolonged exposure to

cold temperatures can cause hypo-

thermia or frostbite, especially in

infants and in the elderly. Always

wear a coat during the winter even

if you don't think you'll be

outside. Here is a list of

items you should always

keep in your car during the

winter months: blankets,

flares, a wind up radio, a

first aid kit, extra winter

clothes, jumper cables, an

ice scraper, dried food, emergency

tire sealant, flashlight (with extra

batteries), a collapsible shovel, and

a small tool kit. You never know if

you'll need them in an emergency.

Wind- Wind can cause blizzard-like

conditions such as drifts, wind

chills, and blindingly heavy snow.

Wind can also push vehicles off

the road and bury them in drifts

of snow if the driver falls uncon-

scious.

So remember friends, no matter how

excited you are for Christmas, always

drive carefully and be wary of road

conditions. If the news calls for poor

driving weather, stay home and don't

chance it. Your family would rather

you be safe rather than sorry this

Christmas.

The Dangers of Winter By Kaitlin Howard

Dragons Roar Christmas Corner Allie Flower

Dalton Morton

Joey Hutchinson

Alyssa Smith

Kara Koz

Megan Bean

Sam Flower

Vi Nguyen

Argos Jr. Sr. High School December 2012

Page 1

Dangers of

Winter

Page 2

Sunshine Dance

Page 3

Kayla’s Senior

Project

Page 4

Christmas Meals

Page 5

Service Learning

Pages 6 & 7

Minorities and

How They

Celebrate

Pages 8 & 9

Variety Show

2 3

This year for our dance, known as Sunshine, it was held on December 1st instead of in Febru-ary. We had a very enthusiastic deejay who got involved with the crowd. Half way through the dance, he blew one of the speakers because he had the bass up too loud. So until he got it fixed, we had a dance off in the middle of the dance floor. The people who were in the dance off were Erik Rodriguez, Ricky Rice, Chase Brown, and Kurt Zechiel. The winners of the dance off were Erik and Chase. Towards the end of the dance, we announced our Sun-shine princess, Alexis Hicks. She looked so beautiful in her dress and she had a great time as she was crowned. I gave two questionnaires out to two people who are in Sunshine.

Together, they both said it was overall a good dance. One of the girls said that they liked the dee-jay while the other one didn’t be-cause there were many problems. I asked them if there was a goal to how much money they wanted to reach, they both said there wasn’t one.

By: Jina Ewing

We had a special dance for Kayla Hendricks’ senior project in November. Her project was to help the Riley Chil-dren’s Hospital get toys for their toy room. In order to raise money and get toys, she held a dance. To get into the dance, you had to either pay $10.00 or donate a toy from the Riley’s toy room wish list. The reason why she had this dance was to collect toys for the patients who are at Riley. Riley’s policy is to never turn away a patient. “Riley has a severe lack of funding, especially for the toy room. I just wanted to make a difference in some of the kid’s lives who are going through such a rough time.” Kayla says. She held the dance on November 16th from 7-11 P.M. in gym 2. Kayla got this idea when she attended Riley Dance Marathons at Bremen High School. She recently had a family friend whose son was a patient there. “I plan to at-tend IPFW next fall for pediatric nursing, so I wanted to do something to benefit young kids,” Kayla says. Kayla collected about $450.00 that she took and went shopping for more toys. She collected a grand total of 587 toys. Her mom and she are scheduled to deliver the toys on December 15th. She said she is very excited

and hopes that she can interact with some of the patients. Her project exceeded way more than what she expected. Kayla’s goal was to get 400 toys but she got way more than that. “I want to thank all of the parents, teachers, students, and businesses that helped support my project. I couldn’t have done it without you all, so thank you so much!” Kayla says.

By: Jina Ewing

Alexis, our Sunshine Princess.

Having fun dancing the night away!

403 toys donated!!

Dancing for Riley’s!!!

5 4

Service learning activities are consid-

ered crucial parts of a student’s education

and connecting with people in the commu-

nity. Often, children who participate in ser-

vice learning activities will get more in-

volved with the community and usually

grow into active adults.

The objective of service learning is to

help children learn about social issues, de-

velop life skill, complete service projects

that benefit the community, and to celebrate

the accomplishments of the project. Service

learning is a type of teaching method which

combines academic instruction, meaningful

service, and critical thinking to solve a

problem.

The difference between a service

learning activity and a community service

activity is: service activities are integrated

into the curriculum and students engage in

structured reflection that will guide them

later in life.

The types of service activities in-

clude:

Direct Service- Requires personal

contact with the person in need,

usually the most rewarding due to

immediate positive feedback. Ex-

amples include working with a

senior citizens or small children.

Indirect Experience- Commonly

used in schools because they are

easily organized, centered in chan-

neling resources to the problem ra-

ther than working directly with

those in need. Examples include

food or toy drives and fundraisers.

Advocacy- Requires students to lend

their voices and talents to try and

eliminate problems of a certain

cause. Examples include presenta-

tions and distributing fliers.

Community-Based Research- Part-

nerships between, students, faculty

and members of the community to

get

involved in a community problem or

to create a social change.

Use winter break to get involved in a

service activity or start your own activities.

Go to a nursing home and spend time with

the elderly or go to a Boys’ and Girls’ Club

and get involved with the children there. It

would look great on a resume and would be

a great learning experience for you.

By Kaitlin Howard

Service Learning Activities

Christmas time is a very special time of year,

from spending time with your friends and family

to just eating that very special Christmas dinner.

Christmas has a different meaning to all of us. I

took the time to survey several individuals to see

what their favorite Christmas meal is and what

they like most about Christmas.

Joey Hutchinson

Joey said his favorite meal was lasagna. He said

he really liked it because his family doesn’t have

it that often. He also said that it is absolutely

amazing. His favorite thing about the Christmas

season is not being in school. He also likes being

around his family.

Henry Harrell

Henry said his favorite part of the Christmas

meal was rolls. He said he absolutely loves bread

and the rolls are just the bomb. He also said the

peanut butter chocolate chip cookies are in a

close second. He said his favorite time of the

Christmas season is just being around his family.

Kaitlin Howard

Kaitlin said her favorite thing to eat at dinner is

corn casserole. She said the reason it is her favor-

ite is because they have it twice a year, once is

for Thanksgiving and the second is Christmas.

Kaitlin’s favorite thing about Christmas is being

around her family. She says her family is not

normal so that’s why she likes being around

them.

Kainen Morgan

Kainen said his favorite part of his Christmas

meal is the honey glazed ham. He says he really

likes is just because it tastes good. He said he

likes just about everything else on the table. He

said his favorite thing about this time of the year

is stuffing himself and not feeling bad. He also

like being around my family.

Ms. Bloom

Ms. Bloom says her favorite holiday food is pe-

can pie. She enjoys spending time with family

and friend and celebrating the true meaning of

Christmas.

Abby Cohagan

Abby says her favorite part of the Christmas meal

is eating her brother’s homegrown turkey. She

says she likes it because her brother takes pride

in raising his turkeys. She says she also does not

have turkey all that often at home. She says she

likes being around her family. She also likes eat-

ing all the good food for a few weeks to come.

Favorite Christmas Meals By Abby Cohagan

6 7

Jewish

Jewish people celebrate Hanuk-kah, which is also known as the festival of lights. Like Christmas Hanukkah celebrates and com-memorates events that hap-pened in Jerusalem. Like Christ-mas, Hanukkah also has a story.

Around 200 BC, Jews in the land of Israel were under the rule of the Syrian king, but were still al-lowed to follow their own reli-gious beliefs. However, a new king named Antiochus IV came to power. Antiochus forbade the Jews from practicing their reli-gion, killed many of them, and desecrated the Temple in Jerusa-lem by placing an altar to the Greek god Zeus inside it. Matta-thias, a Jewish priest, objected to the cruel edicts of Antiochus, and along with his five sons Jochan-an, Simeon, Eleazar, Jonathan, and Judah, he decided to fight back. Led by Judah (known as “The Hammer”), they led the Jewish people in a revolt, using clever strategy and guerrilla-style warfare to defeat Antiochus’ much larger army. Flush with vic-

tory, the Jews returned to find their Temple dirty and desecrated, with pots of consecrated olive oil bro-ken everywhere. Working together, they cleaned and rededicated the Temple (“Hanukkah” means “dedication” in Hebrew). They lit the holy fire in the Temple meno-rah (a many-branched candela-brum and symbol of Judaism). However, although the flame was supposed to burn continuously, they were dismayed to find that

there was only enough oil to fuel the flame for one day! Miraculous-ly, the oil lasted for eight full days, and gave the Jews time to proper-ly prepare more oil. This is often referred to as the miracle of Ha-nukkah. Since then, Jews the world over have celebrated this occasion by lighting the Hanukkah candles in a menorah over the course of eight days. Starting with one candle on the first night, and ending with eight on the eighth, the ceremony involves the saying or singing of a blessing while the candles are lit by the helper can-dle, or “Shamash.” Traditionally, the illuminated menorah is placed

in windows so that passerby may be reminded of the Hanukkah story.

Hindu Hindu people celebrate Diwali, al-so referred to as festival of lights, and it is also called Deepavali. There is also a festival called Pan-chen Ganapati, which is a five –faced elephant God; this entails five days of gift-giving and festivi-ties within the home, especially for the children. This home festival lasts from December 21 through December 25 and can include out-ings, picnics, feasts, exchange of cards and gifts with relatives, friends and business associates. Each day has a different color. De-cember 21st is yellow, the 22nd is blue, the 23rd is red, the 24th is green and the 25th is orange.

Minorities and Islam Muslims celebrate Eid al-Fitr. Eid-al-fitr is the first day of the Islamic month of Shawwal; it marks the end of Ramadan which is a month of fasting and prayer. Eid-al-fitr means the “Festival of Breaking the Fast”. People dress in their finest clothes, adorn their homes with lights and decoration, give treats to children and enjoy visits with friends and family. A sense of generosity and gratitude color these festivities although charity and good deeds are always important in Islam. As the month draws to a close Muslims are obligated to share their blessings by feeding the poor and making contri-butions to mosques.

African-Americans

Candles in a Kinara are lit for each day of the cel-

ebration. A black candle is lit on the first day; it

symbolizes the people. To the left of the black

candle are three red candles representing their

struggles. To the right of the black candles are the

green candles which represent hope and the fu-

ture. The candles are lit from left to right for each

day of the celebration.

How They Celebrate

9 8

Variety Show this

year was held on

November 2nd and

November 3rd both

starting at 7:30.

When asked about

how Variety Show

went in the end,

Mrs. Burroughs

said, “It went very

well. All acts were

prepared and we

had a great variety

of acts this year.

The tech theater

class did an excel-

lent job of running

lights, sound, and

being the back stage

crew.”

When asked about

the turnout and her

own favorite part

about Variety Show

Mrs. Burroughs

commented, “Based

on the gate receipts,

Variety Show had

about 750 people

who came to watch

the show and see

all the acts.” On the

question of her fa-

vorite part of the

show she stated,

“My favorite part

was seeing lots of

students who had

never been involved

in a special act

participate This

year. The growth

they experience

from the time they

audition to the ac-

tual show is very

valuable in their

development at mu-

sicians.”

This year’s Variety

Show judges were

Josh Overmyer, an

Argos graduate,

and Mr. Clayton

Quantz, and Mr.

Bryan Albright.

On the next page

are some pictures

from Variety Show

acts.

Variety Show By Gabrielle Bennett