Features are a key element for small weeklies. Here, I covered a routine summer recreation program.
Taylor Martin puts a spin on the ball in foursquare, eliminating Tessa Gardinier from play. Also pictured are Payton Powers (right) and Ashley Gillen (left).
By Les Bowen for Genesee Country Express | July 28, 2011 | Original source
Each weekday morning this summer, as many as 125 school-age children meet at Nunda’s Kiwanis Park. For three hours, they enjoy a range of crafts, organized sports and games.
The published schedule, available at Nunda town and village offices, lists each day’s organized activity. On Monday, when the Express stopped by the pavilion at Kiwanis Park, more than a dozen participants were creating caterpillars and other bugs using cut up egg cartons and chenille stems — commonly referred to as pipe cleaners. Continue reading Recreation program brings Nunda kids together→
I received a call from a student participating in a sit-in at a local school, protesting the budget cuts and forced layoffs in their school district. I arrived shortly before the group disbanded. I was the only media official to cover the protest.
An estimated 175 students found their way to the field house at Wayland-Cohocton Central School Friday morning in a sit-in organized by several high school seniors. For the duration of two periods, protesters sent a message to local and state school officials.
By Les Bowen for Genesee Country Express | April 21, 2011 | Original source
Close to 200 high school students gathered at the Wayland-Cohocton field house at 8 a.m. Friday to send a message to local and state education officials.
Senior Eric Martell and a handful of his peers organized the sit-in to specifically protest the elimination of two positions in the high school and more broadly the cuts in education funding across the state. Continue reading Speaking out: Way-Co students protest staffing cuts→
This was my first exposure to youth in agriculture. I interviewed two sets of siblings in two parts of our coverage area about their experience raising livestock as part of FFA and 4-H.
By Les Bowen for Vernal Express | June 4, 2008
Joe Frost puts a bridle onto Silver, a 20-year-old pony belonging to his little sister, Jacelyn.
Most kids’ college funds are deposits in the bank. But for several families in the Uintah Basin, the college savings plan is a different kind of animal – or rather, a whole herd of animals.
“It’s a good deal for the kids,” said Lisa Frost. “It lets them see how money is spent.”
She and husband Shane and their family run more than 300 cattle on more than 850 acres in Randlett.
Two of their kids, Joe and Josh each own at least 10 animals in the herd. And if that isn’t enough work, they’ve worked through the last year with steer and pigs to get them ready for competitions in the Uintah Basin and elsewhere in the West. Continue reading Feeding the college fund→
After 45 years, East Carbon High School shuttered its doors. The decision by the school board came just a few weeks before graduation. My assignment was to catch the last days for students and faculty as they finished the school year. We’d already covered the decision from the board in an issue several weeks earlier. In this issue, another writer focused on the impacts to the small community of fewer than 2,000 residents who would be lose their high school and community center.
By Les Bowen for Sun Advocate | May 31, 2005 | Original sourceThe East Carbon High Class of 2005 cast off balloons in a ceremony as they graduate from the school which closed its doors last week. The graduation ceremony itself, which is always filled with bittersweet emotion, had even more than usual because of the fact that this is the last class that will ever graduate from the school. Next year, juniors and entering sophomores, along with junior high students will go to Carbon High and Mont Harmon.
East Carbon High School’s bells rang to dismiss class for the last time on Thursday. Graduation began at 1 p.m., and seniors at the ceremony spoke for more than just their class. This year’s Viking graduates will be the last at the 45-year-old high school.
“We’re not just here to celebrate our graduation, but the last day of East Carbon High,” said a tearful Samanth Madrid, senior class president.
Valedictorian Amanda Hepworth struggled as she approached the podium. The normally cliché remarks about change and moving on were more poignant as she applied them not only to the 17 in the class of 2005, but to the rest of the 120 students who attended East Carbon High this year. Continue reading Last ECH class bids farewell→
