Kara Dunn
SJHS Staff Writer

Valentine’s Day is a holiday that is celebrated throughout the world. It has never been confirmed as to where this holiday originated, but there are, however, many speculations. The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine that were martyred, but the real origin has never been confirmed.

Springville Junior High school is celebrating Valentines Day this year in a few different ways. The Service Learning class is creating Valentines that students can buy and give to other students. These Valentines will cost one dollar, and the service learning class will deliver them to the appropriate student during the students’ sixth period class.

Springville Junior High is also hosting a school dance for students at Springville Junior High. The dance will be February 11th from 7:00 to 9:00 and will be four dollars without their student I.D. and three with. Students are asked to wear best dress, but still follow the dress code found in the student handbook.

Hayde Blanco
SJHS Staff Writer

SJHS has a lot of hard working teachers. One of them is Mrs. Diane Bird, who teaches three classes: service learning, CTE, and sewing. She has been teaching here for one year and has loved it. Even though she is busy with school work she still has time for her family, pets and her big yard at home.

This year is Mrs. Bird’s fifth year teaching. Before coming to SJHS, she taught sewing, service learning, CTE, foods, child development and Interior Design at Provo High School. Before teaching, she helped with her husband’s business and has been busy raising four children.

Mrs. Bird may seem too busy, but she doesn’t let work stand in her way of doing things at home. She likes to cook, sew, hike and hang out with her kids. “My kids are my hobbies,” said Mrs. Bird. Mrs. Bird also likes to travel. She has been to places like Arizona, California, Hawaii, Canada and Europe. Her all-time favorite place to go is the Teton Mountains in Wyoming, and she loves the beach!

Students have nothing but good things to say about Mrs. Bird. Brittney Hooley, an eighth-grade student, said, “Mrs. Bird is a really good teacher. She takes time with you so you can understand what you are doing.” Another eighth grader, Laurelin Webb, said, “Mrs. Bird is a fun, easy-going teacher.”

Kara Dunn
SJHS Staff Writer

Christmas time is all about traditions, and one of the traditions held at Springville Junior High School is that the service learning class hosts a Christmas assembly. This year the assembly will be a Christmas Game Show.

“We’re going to have student council hosting, special judges, and people from the audience all interacting,” Katie Bair, a member of student council explained. “This is going to be a lot more interactive with the audience than usual,” Katie went onto say.

The assembly is full of surprises and lots of contests for the audience to get to be involved in. “Hopefully it will put everyone into a Christmassy mood.” Katie explained.

Spencer Duncan
SJHS Staff Writer

Springville Junior High just finished a food and clothing drive.  Natalie Shaw, Liz White, Taylor Martin, Shawnee Henderson, and Thalia Berriel, members of the service learning class, were in charge of the drive.

The drive went from Monday November 29 through Monday December 7.  The winning class gets a donut party from Reams in Springville.  According to Natalie Shaw, the party is used to encourage students to donate.

Mrs. Bird, service learning teacher, said, “The purpose of the drive is to help people less fortunate than us.”  Tyler Ercanbrack, a first period student in Mrs. Rebecca Murdock’s class, said “It helps other people.”

The food and clothing donations are being sent to the Food and Care Coalition.  Some of the shoes may go to Deseret Industries.

Jacob Buhler, Oscar Portillo and Jace Hartman sold stars during lunch.

Katya Wagstaff
SJHS Staff Writer

The first wish granted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation was for Christopher James Greicius in Arizona.  Since that time, Make-A-Wish has grown to become a non-profit organization that has granted wishes all over the world.  Springville Junior High students have helped grant the wish of Jessenia, a seven-year-old girl who has ALL leukemia.  Jessenia wishes to go to Disneyworld and meet all the Disney princesses.

Students in the service learning class at SJHS, taught by Mrs. Diane Bird, are in charge of the Make-A-Wish fundraiser for Jessenia.  During lunch, stars can be purchased for a dollar each.  Each student puts their name on the star and places it on the wall, showing that they have donated.  If students donate $1,000, an SHS Student Council member, Josh Buhler, will have half of his body shaved.  Though the stars were a dollar each, any amount of money given was appreciated.  These stars were sold November second through the ninth.

The service learning students in charge of this fundraiser are Jace Hartman, Oscar Portillo, and Jacob Buhler.  Jacob Buhler and Oscar Portillo both feel that they have a bond with Jessenia even though they haven’t met her.  A ninth-grade student who has helped sell stars, Cami Sumsion, said, “Even though I don’t know her, I’ve come to love her.”

SJHS students aren’t the only ones donating money for Jessenia’s wish, Springville High and Mapleton Junior High are helping out too.  SJHS hopes that Josh gets shaved, and everyone can’t wait to see Jessenia’s wish come true!

Hayde Blanco
SJHS Staff Writer

The annual Make-a-Wish Carnival was held at Springville High School on Monday, November 9 from 6 to 8:30. This carnival helped raise money to make Jessenia’s wish come true. Jessenia has ALL Leukemia, and her wish is to go to Disneyworld and meet all of the Disney princesses.

This carnival had games like pie throwing, an ice cream eating contest, miniature golf, face painting, standing long jump, skateboard races and pin the tail on the devil. Springville Junior High’s service learning class had the chance to help out in some of the events. The events that service learning helped out were skateboard races and standing long jump. Participants sat on the skateboard and pushed off with plungers for the skateboard races. Then for the standing long jump people stood on a line and jumped as far as they could. The further participants jumped, the more candy they won.

Springville Junior High is hoping to raise $1,000 for Jessenia.  If they do, Josh Buhler, a member of the Springville High School student council, has volunteered to help motivate people to buying more stars by shaving half of his hair off. Mrs. Diane Bird, service learning and sewing teacher at SJHS, said, “It would really be nice to see Josh Buhler’s head shaven.” Haley Norman, a seventh grader here at Springville Junior High said that her favorite games were miniature golf and the face painting. Haley also said, “This was a really good way to earn money for Jessenia.”

Jessie Wimmer, an eighth grader in Service Learning, works on a fleece blanket for the Children’s Justice Center.

Morgan Bowser
SJHS Staff Writer

Service Learning is a class offered at SJHS that allows students to do service within and outside of the school. Once a semester students are required to do some sort of project that helps others. Kaity Hansen, Jehni McNeil, and Jessie Wimmer, all eighth graders, decided to make fleece blankets and donate them.

The girls tied about fourteen fleece blankets and donated them to The Dollhouse Boutique, where they were sold and one hundred percent of the profit was then donated to the Children’s Justice Center where children who have been abused can get the help they need.

According to Kaity Hansen, she wanted to do this project because she loves to sew so she thought it would be fun. Jehni McNeil said “it sounded like a really needed cause.”  Jessie Wimmer wanted to do it so they could raise money to help children.

Lily Girot busy working on the posters for the upcoming Halloween Dance.

Chelsea Ricks
SJHS Staff Writer

The Service Learning class is busy working on posters for the upcoming dance. The Halloween dance will be held on Thursday, October 29 at 7:00 p.m. The posters help make the dance more “colorful, make it sparkle and have the atmosphere,” said Liz White, a Sercive Learning student at SJHS.

The students in Service Learning make posters for every dance. The requirements for a good poster are: “They have to be neat, you have to take pride in your poster, and the posters have to do with the subject,” said, Cami Sumsion, a Service Learning student.

Students are allowed to dress up for the dance, but they have to follow the school ndress code. “The rules of the dress up dance are: students have to be modestly dressed, no blood and gore, and there can’t be masks or face paint,” said Mr. David Knudsen, vice principal at Springville Junior High School. Students also have to follow the rules of school, like any other dance.

Chelsea Ricks
SJHS Staff Writer

Last week at SJHS, the students showed their commitment to not getting involved with drugs. The Service Learning class gave out the dress up days and themes for the week.  Monday was spirit day, “Show your spirit by not doing drugs.” Students dressed up in their school colors to show their school spirit. Tuesday was hero day, “Be someone else’s hero, and don’t do drugs.” Wednesday was sports day, “Be athletic, not pathetic, and don’t do drugs.” Thursday was swap day, “Dress as your favorite teacher and your teachers will dress as you, swap drugs for education.” Friday was crazy day, “Go crazy on candy not drugs.”

Students at SJHS think it’s important to not do drugs because, “drugs can ruin your life,” said Cami Sumsion, Service Learning student at SJHS.   The students of Service Learning made Red Ribbon Week possible. They came with the days of the week and put up posters that said “Don’t Do Drugs” so students would realize that drugs are not good for them.

SJHS students dressed up as their heroes. Left to right: Sky Kawai dressed as Superman, Brandon Chambers dressed as Dwight Schrute from the Office, Anenia Tuttle dressed as her mom, Andalyn Hall dressed as Peter Pan.

Kara Dunn
SJHS Staff Writer

During the week of October 5th – October 9th, students at Springville Junior High celebrated being drug free with Red Ribbon Week. The Service Learning class picked a different theme for each day of the week so students and teachers could dress up and show their school spirit. On Tuesday, October 6th, Springville Junior High teachers and students dressed up as their favorite hero.

From Superman to their parents, students and teachers could be seen roaming the halls dressed as something they’re not, but looking up to someone else because they were living a drug free life.

“I think it’s good for students to be able to dress up and show who their hero is,” Jennifer Bate, a Service Learning student, said.

“I think we need to support Red Ribbon Week to show people that we can still be happy if we don’t do drugs,”  Madeline Alispach, a ninth grade student at Springville Junior High, said.  Madeline went on to say, “I also think that students need to dress up and show that they have pride in their school.”

Eighth graders Aleksandar Maccabee, Hunter Hamberlin, Jesse Martinsen, Tyler Sumsion, Deric Hardman and Duncan Hubbard dress up for Sports Day at SJHS.

Jacob DeRosia
SJHS staff writer

Last week was Red Ribbon Week here at Springville Junior High, and school spirit is busting at the seams. On Thursday, October 7, 2009 the students of SJHS dressed up in their favorite sports uniforms to show they are, and will stay, drug free.

For the past week the students and teachers are dressing up to “swap drugs for education” these dress up days are meant to celebrate school spirit, but according to some students, it’s just an excuse to dress up for school.

Anywhere from skateboarders to football players, to even dancers, the students at SJHS love School dress up days. Whether an excuse to dress up at school or a way to show school spirit, dress up days are very popular here at Springville Junior High. Though very fun, Students are still required to follow the school dress code.

Seventh graders dressed up for Sports Day.

Mr. Mikesell, Tanner Gervais, and Mrs. Gleave, believe it or not.

Jack Setzer
SJHS Staff Writer

Thursday was crazy at SJHS! Students dressed like teachers, and teachers like students! What’s going on? Why, it’s Swap Day, part of Red Ribbon Week. Swap Day represents “Swapping Drugs for Education.” On this day, students were SUPPOSED to wear what the teachers wear, and vice versa. The Red Ribbon effort was organized by the Service Learning class.

Many students and teachers think Swap Day was a good idea, and therefore tried to participate. Hadley Roberts, a seventh grader at SJHS, said Swap Day is “Fun, because once you dress up like the teachers, it helps you know how the teachers feel.” Mrs. Diane Bird, Service Learning teacher at Springville Junior High, said Swap Day was “A great idea, because I [was able] to wear a tee shirt, jeans, and flip flops.”

Some people really dressed up. Mr. Trent Mikesell, one of the Springville Junior English teachers, wore purple skinny jeans. You could hardly tell Mrs. Corrin Gleave, math teacher, from one of her students. “I had absolute blast!” said Mrs. Gleave. “I think we should keep [Swap Day for Red Ribbon Week] every year.”

Mr. Mikesell and seventh-grader Indy McRae in Swap Day attire.

Student teacher Mrs. Murdock and seventh-grader Andalyn Hall.

Shawnee Henderson, Liz White, and Taylor Martin make a poster in Service Learning.

Jack Setzer
SJHS Staff Writer

Service Learning is a class that is all about doing service in the community and school.  Mrs. Diane Bird is the teacher. In a basement classroom at SJHS, the Service Learning class plans what to do and carry out their charitable plans. And they do it all because… they like doing service.

Mrs. Bird organizes her class by giving small groups of people different tasks, and boy, is there a lot to do! They make all the posters in the school, and they do announcements for all the school promotions. Also, they read to Third Graders at Brookside every Tuesday.

The Service Learning class also goes on special trips to the Humanitarian Center, the home for Senior Citizens and other service projects. They also “go to the forest service and help clean,” according to Cami Sumsion, one of Mrs. Bird’s students.

Students join the Service Learning class for different reasons. Some are on the student council, so joining is mandatory. Others like helping. When service learning student Oscar Portillo was asked why he joined, he replied, “This class is legit!”

Jeremy Schanderl
SJHS Staff Writer

Springville Junior High has been helping out kids living in Guatelmala by buying and selling “Yuda Bands.” Yuda means to help, and each band is sold for $7. When students purchase Yuda bands, it helps raise money for a child who needs an education in Guatemala.  One hundred and fifty Yuda bands can pay for one child’s schooling.

Each Yuda band is hand made by the kids who need schooling. They carve different designs into them plus each yuda band has a tag to go to a website to see the child that you are helping by buying a Yuda band. Each school usually sponsors 3-5 children. The selling of the Yuda bands is being organized by the service learning class during both lunches. Mrs. Crandall, the service learning teacher, said, “The best part of it all is that we sold enough to send three students to school next year.”

Kaydie Kerby
SJHS Staff Writer

The SJHS Service Learning class went on a field trip February 27 to the LDS Humanitarian Center. Humanitarian Center employees and volunteers put hygiene kits together for people all around the world. The students spent two and a half hours packing 3,000 sanitation kits. The kits had four toothbrushes, tube of tooth paste, two towels, two combs, and two bars of soap. Sanitation kits go to people who are homeless or have had a catastrophe in their area such as earthquakes, tornados, or hurricanes.

When our students went to Salt Lake City for the field trip they took ten quilts. Shelby Kendall was in charge of the quilt making. Mackenzie Morris and Amberly Austin where in charge of making sure all the students were on the buses and ready to go.

Every student learned something new or important when it came to service for other people. The Service Learning students had so much fun with the service that they performed.

“We had so much fun working at the Humanitarian Center,” Mrs. Kathryn Crandall, the service learning teacher, said. “Everyone loved doing the service and when it was time for the tour of the of the Humanitarian Center, no one wanted to quit working.”

Shelby Duke, a service learning student, said, “I learned all about the needs of other people all around the world. I learned that even though I’m only one person I can help many people have better lives.” Mackenzie Morris, another service learning student, said, “We made hygiene packets for people all over the world. We did it because it made us students feel like we were doing something good.”

Everybody that participated thought it was really fun to go and help out at the Humanitarian Center.