Key Club baskets make Thanksgiving Possible by McKayla Ivey

Every year, the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School’s (OHCHS) Key Club makes Thanksgiving baskets for those in our community who may not otherwise be able to afford a Thanksgiving dinner for their family.

The Key Club is a service organization that focuses mainly on children in our community. The current club advisor is Michael Vandemark, a teacher at OHCHS. When asked about how he felt about doing these baskets for the community he said, “It’s a very positive thing for the community.” Each family that receives a basket from the Key Club gets a direct phone call from Vandemark, informing them of the baskets that the families will be  receiving. The reactions from the families “are a little of both, it matters. Some people say yeah, or some people are very hesitant. It’s really mixed reactions, and most people are thankful.” explains Vandemark.

“The baskets include everything that a Thanksgiving dinner would from a turkey to cranberry sauce, and everything in between,” Vandemark explains. These baskets are given out to fifteen different families with children in our community, and these families are chosen by the principals in the elementary schools. The principals recognize the children in need, and refer them to the Key Club. Each basket is directly delivered, by students in the Key Club, to the homes of the families.

Along with the Thanksgiving baskets that the Key Club gives away, there are also many free dinners and lunches throughout our community. The third Friday in November at the Second Congregational Church in Norway there is a dinner. Thanksgiving day there is a free community dinner at the South Paris Fire Hall. There is also one at the Progress Center in Norway, and every Wednesday there is a free lunch at the Universal Church in Norway.

DECA craft fair continues on for its 40th year by Rebekah Fleck

In its 40th annual year, the DECA craft fair hosted by Oxford Hills DECA has grown from just 7 spaces for vendors to approximately 170 spaces with 142 vendors this year.

The Chairpeople of this event are Brennan Gillespie, Whitney Morse, and Cameron Letourneau.

The DECA Craft Fair will be taking  place on November 22nd, 2014 from 9:30am to 3:00 pm. During this event, there will be over 142 vendors selling their original crafts. There will also be a 50/50 raffle. To make this event more cheerful and less chaotic, the Chamber Choir will be traveling around the event singing Christmas carols.

The application process to be a vendor at the craft fair is pretty simple. Wendy Robichaud, teacher of Oxford Hills DECA says, “When we send out the applications, the first round of applications go to the returning vendors. They then have 2 weeks to get the application back to us, and after that we send applications to our waiting list.”

A waiting list of around 200 vendors. In order to get on the waiting list, people can call or email, and they will be added.

The DECA craft fair has been held at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High school (OHCHS) for 39 of its 40 years, with around 2,700 people in attendance this year.

Admission for the DECA craft fair is $1 dollar, with people 65+ and under 12 getting in for no cost. The money raised at this event will go towards Oxford Hills DECA’s conferences and activities.

Counselors Help Aspirations Lab Stay open for Another Year by Rebekah Fleck

For those who are not in high school, when you hear ‘Aspirations Lab’, you probably don’t know what that is. In years past, students can remember having access to the Aspirations Lab whenever they needed help with things such as college applications, studying for SAT’s, or doing things such as filling out the FAFSA. Things took a change for the Aspirations Lab this year when it’s lost it’s grant from F.A.M.E, causing it to lose it’s yearly Aspirations Lab coordinator, and leaving it useless.

Luckily for students, the Guidance Staff at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS) did not want the students to lose such a beneficial item. Because of this, the Guidance Staff decided to take the Aspirations Lab under their wing and make is accessible to students for 2 days during the week, Tuesdays and Fridays.

In the past years that the Aspirations Lab was open, it had one person in their that was in charge of running it, known as the Aspirations Lab Coordinator that was mentioned earlier. Because their was no funding for one, the Guidance Counselors, Rachel Paddock, Kevin O’Reilly, Amy Peterson, Stephanie Goss, and Nancy McClean now rotate running the Aspirations Lab on the days that it is open.

Paddock says that although it hasn’t seen a lot of action yet this year, she is confident that as things such as college and financial aid creep around the corner that the Aspirations Lab will see more students coming in.

Last year the Aspirations Lab coordinator was Sean Merz, who returned to OHCHS this year as a math teacher. He had a very good time running the Aspirations Lab. Merz says that he enjoyed helping students prepare for what they were planning to do after high school. He also enjoyed the fact that all of the students who walked through the doors of the Aspirations Lab were motivated in some way to learn how to do something.

Merz said, “I liked the environment of this Aspirations Lab as compared to a classroom because it was a lot more open, it was a lot more comfortable and it didn’t seem forced on any students.”

Merz had many cases last year where had the students not asked for help they would not have been able to pursue any of their dreams or pursue any of the things that they had wanted to do. Merz saw many students succeed and grow in the process of using the Aspirations lab. The Guidance Staff is hoping that was Merz saw last year will be the case this year as well, that many students will succeed, grow and be able to pursue their dreams.

High School attempts to break World Record by Shannon Kriger

As the students of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School filed into the gymnasium for the annual “Aspire Higher” day, there was excitement and much anticipation in the air. Although none of the students had known what the school administrators had up their sleeves at the time, the cameras placed in every corner of the gym was a clear indication that something out of the ordinary was about to take place.

All of the students found their way to a seat on the bleachers with their friends while the school’s staff threw college t-shirts into the crowds of undergraduates, in honor of the school day dedicated to encouraging students to consider their post-secondary education options.

Once the hype had calmed down, Mr. Moccia, the principal of OHCHS, became the center of attention.

“Today, we are going to break a world record”, Moccia announced.

With this being said, the students were inquisitive. Many children grow up reading and hearing about people that have made it into the Guinness Book of World Records, but making it into the infamous book is something that very few are capable of doing.

Moccia explained to the crowds of teens how the record was the most people doing sit-ups simultaneously. This record was last achieved by a company in Japan, who had broken it in the October of 2013 with 263 people doing one concurrent sit up.

Although the world record that the students of Oxford Hills were breaking wasn’t exactly the most prominent, the pupils were still enthusiastic. After all, how many people get to say that they made it into the Guinness Book of World Records?

The students that wanted to participate in breaking the world record made their way down to the gym’s hardwood floors where they all crowded around Moccia.

Moccia made clear that the students would all be doing 7 sit ups- one for each letter in “vikings”, which the group would spell out letter-by-letter after each sit up they performed.

With over 500 people on board, the cameramen prepared to video tape the scene.

Moccia stood with the microphone in the middle of the sea of high school students, and vocalized how many sit ups the crowd had done- all while spelling out “viking”.

The spacious room was filled with excitement as the students completed the 7 sit ups and broke the world record and cheered from enthusiasm.

With the incident caught on camera, it is to be sent to the Guinness Book of World Records and if all goes as planned, will be published in their next book and on their website.

Oxford Hills Football Anticipate Eastern Maine Class A Playoffs by Shannon Kriger

While a majority of the community is awaiting Halloween this coming Friday night, the Oxford Hills Varsity football team is preparing for their first appearance in Eastern Maine’s Class A football playoffs in nine years.

On Halloween night, the 5th-seeded Vikings will be taking on the 4th-seeded Bangor Rams for the second time in the past couple of weeks. Last Friday night, the Vikings played against the Rams in Bangor, winning the game with a final score of 18-0.

Although the Vikings vanquished the Rams just last week, they are approaching the game humbly and are expecting a game much different than the last.

Last Friday night, Bangor had a disadvantage when they rivaled Oxford Hills. The Rams were missing some of their starters due to a heavily disciplined locker room incident that occurred within the team.

Considering the absent athletes in the last game, the upcoming game is expected to be much closer.

The Vikings, who had ended their season at 4-4, are very confident in their team’s skills coming into this game. When it comes to the team’s proficiency on defense, they believe that they are one of the best in the state.

“We are very physical and fast”, Mark Soehren, the head coach of the Vikings, commented on his team’s dominance on the defensive end.

When questioned on what he was expecting for this Friday’s game, Coach Soehren responded, “It will be a game between two teams that run the ball almost all of the time. It will be very physical and hard fought.”

Come support the Oxford Hills Vikings in their first appearance in the Eastern Maine Playoffs in several years at Cameron Stadium in Bangor on Friday, October 31st at 7pm., October 31st at 7pm.

Aspire Higher Day Becomes More than a Parade by McKayla Ivey

Every year, the community of Oxford Hills gets together to march in the Aspire Higher day parade. The goal of the parade is to help kids become more aware of their opportunities after high school, especially post-secondary education. Kids from kindergarten all the way to seniors in highschool come together, led by the band, to march from the middle school to the high school. This year, instead of having the parade then returning to the normal schedule, the principal of Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS), Ted Moccia is planning out a whole day event.

The event will happen on October 22, 2014, and the school will start off with a regular schedule. The students will start their day as they would every day, but instead of going to second period the entire school will go to their CBA, which is like home room. Then when everyone is in their CBA, Moccia plans for our school to break a world record as a school and make it into the Guinness Book of World Records. He believes it will bring the school togetherand get a bigger sense of community, and that is what the whole day is about. After this, the school will go to the gym to listen to a motivational speaker, John Jenkins, who is a former mayor of Lewiston/Auburn.

After the school breaks the record, which Moccia has yet to decide what we are doing, the entirety of the high school will walk to the middle school through the nature trail, also known as the Viking Trail, which is 1.2 miles long, and connects the high school to the middle school. Then everyone, K-12, will line up and march in the parade back to the high school.

Moccia explained, “There will be a College Fair that will have between 70 and 80 representatives of colleges, universities and armed services, along with a non profit fair.” The colleges are there to represent themselves as a school and also to make high school kids aware that there are options out there. That there is life after high school, and that there are people willing to help them pursue their dreams. To make kids more aware, there will be the normal scholarship giveaways, which happen every single year. People from the community donate their money to show their support for our future. To go along with this, 237 T-shirt 93 different colleges from around the country will be given away. How we got the T-shirts is also a cool thing that Moccia did for the school. He sent out a letter to many different universities around the U.S. asking for T-shirt donations and telling them about our school and the Aspire Higher day.

The non-profit fair, established by Brewster Burns, an English teacher at OHCHS, will be going on at the same time as the College Fair. He explains, “It’s any area organization thats a non-profit, like food banks and the  co-op.” These businesses that are coming to the fair are strictly non-profit making businesses. “At this fair what they do is, they come in and set up a little table, a display, and then they will be seeing students between eleven o'clock and two o'clock, which is at the same time as the college fair.” Burns explained. The purpose for this fair is to set kids up with community service opportunities or even Senior Project opportunities.

We invite you to come and watch the parade on Wednesday, October 22 at 10am to support our students.

Maker Spaces Make their way to Oxford Hills by Rebekah Fleck

With experiential learning taking the limelight at the Middle School in Oxford Hills, it was only a matter of time before it made its way to the Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS).

Jennifer Lance, the Librarian at OHCHS, is hoping to make the Oxford Hills district more cutting edge by bringing Maker Spaces to the area. What is a Maker Space, you might ask? According to Lance it’s a place where kids can be creative and learn how to do something that they might not necessarily be able to do at home.

The Maker Space at OHCHS will be beginning around the last Monday in October, and will be happening the last Monday of every month. They will be known as Maker Mondays. During this time, kids will have the opportunity to do things such as design comic book shoes, making stationary, or carving pumpkins that were donated to the program by Pumpkin Land.

It will be just open to high school students as it gets off from its feet. But Lance is hopeful that by good word of mouth other libraries in the Community will begin incorporating Maker Spaces into their libraries.

Lance says, “So it’s giving them a chance, because that’s what libraries do, right? They share things in a free way so you can have an experience that you wouldn’t have before, and whether thats a book, or a cricut machine. Who's going to go buy a $350 cutting machine to use at home? Nobody. So for us to have it here means that lots of people can experience that, and that’s what we’re trying to do; find some things that run along that mode of introducing new concepts to people.”

Lance also says, “It definitely works; it’s a different way to learn and we want to make sure that we’re giving people not just one level. Sometimes people see libraries one way and we actually work a lot of different ways. Acrossed the country a lot of school libraries are trying to have a Maker Space.”

Maker Spaces are becoming quite popular around the United States, and the state of Maine. In the building of a new high school in Portland the architect designed in a Maker Space into the Library.

The Camden library lets students check out Maker kits, where students can actually check out a kit and do a project at home or on their own time. Lance is hoping to have Maker Kits at OHCHS as well.

Jennifer is hoping that the Maker Space at OHCHS will give students a chance to take a break from regular learning and do something fun that you could take something away from, like a new skill.

Lady Vikings Softball Dominate Messalonskee In First Round Of Playoffs by Shannon Kriger

  As the Lady Vikings softball team of Oxford Hills took on the Messalonskee Eagles in their first playoff game on Wednesday, June 11th, they had victory on their minds.

    The Lady Vikings dominated the Eagles and easily won the game with a final score of 15-3.

    The Eagles had kept up with the Vikings up until the fourth quarter, when Oxford Hills scored off an error.  The Vikings kept their momentum rolling into the fifth inning and were a force to be reckoned with at bat. In this inning, the Vikings scored five more runs in hopes of shutting down the other team.

    The sixth inning was even more successful for the Lady Vikings. They brought in another eight runs in that one inning, setting the score to 15-3, mercy ruling the Messalonskee Eagles in the bottom of the sixth.

    Lady Vikings that really contributed to their triumphant victory were Annika Kahkonen, Crystal West, Kayleigh Knox, Erin Morton, and Anna Winslow, each of which got on base in the fifth and sixth innings due to tremendous swings.

    Kayleigh Knox, leading her team by being four for four at bat, comments on her prodigious job in the game, saying, “I knew how important this game was to our team, and if we lost, then our season was over. We had to leave it all on the field, and I was determined to help bring my team to the second round of playoffs- all of the girls were.”

The Lady Vikings are taking on the Cony Rams next in their journey throughout the playoffs. The Rams are the #1 seeded team in the Eastern Maine Class A softball tournament.

The last time the Lady Vikings faced the Cony Rams was in the regular season, barely losing to Cony in a hard fought, tension filled game.

Coach Goddard, the Lady Vikings softball coach, is hoping to get even further in the playoffs and blow the Cony Rams out of the water.

    When questioned on the Viking’s game against the Rams, Goddard declared “We have came way too far to just give in to the #1 seeded team. The girls have consistently proved that they deserve to be at the top of the tournament, and I have no doubt in my mind that my team will leave it all on the field in Cony.”

Lady Viking Softball Progress To Playoff Tournament by Shannon Kriger

Hard work is not a foreign characteristic to the Lady Viking softball team of Oxford Hills this season. Being the #4 seeded team in Eastern Maine Class A, this talented group of girls have really set the bar high for themselves this year.

After losing in the second round of playoffs last year, the team is aiming for a very successful post-season.

The team had a strong regular season with winning 12 out of their 16 games; a record that was an improvement compared to years prior.

Although the Lady Vikings had only played the #1 seeded Cony team once this season and had lost to them, they forced the game into extra innings and gave them a run for their money.

In the first round of Eastern Maine Class A playoffs this year, the Vikings are taking on the #5 seeded team, Messalonskee. In the regular season, Oxford Hills had split with Messalonskee, winning one game against them and losing the other.

When questioned on what her prediction for the outcome of the playoff tournament is, Coach Goddard responded, “It really depends on how we play in the moment. We will travel far in the tournament if the girls work hard and play as a team.”

The team has been succeeded this year offensively by Shannon Fillebrown, Myriah Lausier, and Anna Winslow, who each possess a batting average of over .450.

Senior Crystal West has kept the team strong on defense with her solid pitching skills, along with Annika Kahkonen, the team’s valued catcher that is always active behind the home plate.

Coach Goddard believes that it is the team’s experience that sets them apart from their opponents, stating, “A lot of these girls have been playing softball since they could walk, and I easily see their passion for the game every time they on the field. I’m looking forward to seeing these girls put their hard work to use in the playoffs.”

Come support the Lady Vikings as they take on the Messalonskee Eagles on Thursday, June 9th at 4:00 pm at the Gouin complex.

OHCHS Teacher “Loves” a Widely Hated Fictional Character by Chelsea Rugg

Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School (OHCHS) teacher, Brewster Burns, teaches the book The Stranger by Albert Camus to sophomores and claims to “love” the controversial main character, Meursault. The character is an existentialist/absurdist and rejects religion and society; things that most people in society today embrace. Most students exposed to the book develop a deep hatred for Meursault, so why does Burns say he “loves” him? After teaching the book for 25 years, he has come to know the character extremely well. Burns says that Meursault “calls into question why do we care about the things we care about, and the answer to the question why do we care about the things we care about is usually we care about them because other people think we should care about them.” According to Burns this question is important because “we are victims of a vast sentimental conspiracy that tells us what we should care about and what’s awesome about him is he just totally rejects all of those things. He refuses to feel the way he’s told he should feel about things and instead he just feels the way he does and doesn’t give in.” Burns doesn’t exactly believe that Meursault has everything all figured out but he does believe that he has “some things right” even though he is a “godless atheist. He says he thinks “religion and philosophy are both fascinating” and he likes “the idea of trying to figure out the best way to live to be the happiest you can be and different philosophies and religions offer different things.” He appreciates that Meursault knows not to give in to society. Criticism of the book pointed out by Burns is that it “seems to condone violence,” which he doesn’t think is the point of the book. The violence is meant to show that he lives a life “removed from societal expectations.” Burns believes that anyone can successfully remove themselves from giving in to society can live a “slightly better life.” Burns also braves the book in his classroom because he loves Meursault and likes to see the students show emotions toward such an old character because it shows how “timeless” the book is if kids today can still feel towards a character conceived so long ago. There is a scene in the book when Meursault sits on his balcony smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee all day long, not considering the past or the future or worrying about anything, just watching people below him. Burns claims that he tries to channel Meursault in this scene in the summer because “really doing nothing, not worrying about all the things you were supposed to have done but didn’t and being able to really enjoy the moment is really beautiful sometimes especially in the summer.” That is why Burns says that he loves him.