Ponder High School Roar

Halloween: Where Did It Come From? By Allison Gordon Every Year on the night of October 31 children dress up in costumes and walk around door to door collecting candy and having fun. People go to parties, have bonfires or go to haunted houses, but have you ever wondered how it all began? All Hallows Eve, which changed to Hallowe’en which changed again to Halloween, originated from the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. In the Gaelic culture this festival is a celebra- tion of the end of the harvest season. On Samhain ancient pagans would take stock of supplies to store it and prepare for winter. They believed that on October 31 the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc, like causing a sickness or damage on the crops. To keep the trouble making spirits calm people dressed up in “ghostly” looking costumes, to appear dead. The practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holi- days goes back to the Middle Ages, originating from Ireland and Britain. The poor would go door to door and receive food in exchange for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day on November 2. This was known as Souling. In Britain, most Halloween traditions died out when Puritanism came into the 16th and 17th centuries, but games such as bobbing for apples, where you use your mouth to pick up apples from a large tub of water with floating apples, are proof of past rituals. It is said that if you cut the peel off an apple you caught and throw it over your left shoulder, into the water, that it would reveal the initials of your true love. Originally Jack-O-Lanterns were made from turnips and potatoes. The purpose of the Jack-O-Lantern came from the Irish Myth about “Stingy Jack”. Jack had played a couple tricks on the Devil and forced him to leave him alone and not claim his soul when he died. Well when he did die God would not allow such an unsavory soul into heaven and the Devil, keeping his word, did not claim his soul either and sent him into the night with only a burning coal to light the way. This Jack put into a carved out turnip and roams the earth still. People began to make their own Jack-O-Lanterns with scary faces to scare Jack and other evil away. So Ponder, get your costumes and masks; get your candy and bags, and play some games with your friends, because this is sure to be a wicked Halloween. MUAHAHAHA- HAAAAA!!!! Spanish Club Makes Dreams Come True By Noelia Scandoval Last May the Spanish Club raised money to sponsor a student named Yovani to go to school for a full year in Guatemala. He’s in 10th grade and his favorite subject is math and he likes to play soccer. He lives with his parents and 8 siblings in Tierra Linda, Guatemala. He decided to attend a free carpentry school, so the funds didn’t apply to him anymore. He did write a thank you note saying, “I am very happy and thankful for the donation even though I cannot use it. I hope you and your families are blessed by God for doing such a good deed. We will talk again soon, have a blessed life.”- Yovani Cota Bocel. The Spanish Club then decided to give the money to Aroldo Milton who is also in 10th grade. Aroldo lives with his mother and four siblings in San An- dres Semetabaj. His father passed away in 2007, and now his mother must work to support the family by making tortillas, washing clothes by hand, and cleaning private houses, but only earns about $2 a day for all this. Aroldo has a younger sister, Astrid, who was born with cerebral palsy and therefore his mother can only work three or four days a week because she has to take care of her. Aroldo doesn’t have his own bed and has to share will his siblings. The family eats rice, beans, tortillas, herbs, and pasta but they do not have enough food for everyone. The Spanish Club’s goal is to raise even more money to support another student. Claudia Marina is in 10th grade. She lives with her parents and two siblings in Panajachel. Her father works as a day laborer, and her mother sometimes works selling tortillas. Their work is not steady; however, and they struggle to cover the costs of the family’s needs. Her father makes about $5 a day while her mother makes about $4. Their meals are mostly rice, pasta, and beans. They live in a two bedroom home made of cement blocks. Spanish three wrote letters to these three students and sent pictures of themselves. Our PHS students described themselves and their lives in Ponder, and then asked the Guatemalan students about their lives and about their living environment. When they write back we are hoping to Skype chat with them. If you would like to contribute to help sponsor a stu- dent, donate money to Ms. Knitter in her room. As you can see, the Spanish club does a lot of good. We’d love to have you join us! Come to the next meeting and see how you can contribute to society. Ponder Students Assist DEA by Teryana Sledge On Saturday, September 27th, four of our very own Ponder High School students, Cristian Woolbright, Arianna Woolbright, Keegan Hobbs, and Austin Keen, assisted the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) in disposing of drugs at the 9th and final DEA National Prescription Drug- Take Back. The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications. They were the only students other than one Keller student to give up 5 hours of their Saturday to help the DEA with receiving and transferring over 15,000 pounds of prescription and over-the-counter drugs to trucks to be taken and destroyed. All of the students conducted themselves correctly and worked hard. It was part of a nation-wide cam- paign that the DEA has sponsored since 2005 to encourage the proper dis- posal of expired or unused prescription drugs, and this was the final year the DEA would be coordinating the event. From now on, the local law enforcement departments will be responsible for receiving and destroying these types of drugs themselves. We all are very proud of these students and sure that they will continue helping improve our community.

From the Kitchen of Shelby Cormier Recipe For: Super Spooky Spider Cookies October brings fall, sweaters, cocoa, and Ingredients: –my favorite- Halloween! What’s the best way to get into the Halloween spirit? 1 package of chocolate fudge cake mix Halloween treats! Nothing spices up the holiday more than a new recipe to try 1/2 cup of melted butter out. For a cute spider cookie recipe you will need: The first thing you will want 1 egg to do is in a large bowl, combine your cake mix, butter, and egg. The dough should be stiff. Shape the dough into 1 inch 1 can (16 oz) of chocolate frosting balls. Next, place the cake balls onto a baking sheet. Bake the balls at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until done. Let Black licorice the cake balls cool. If the cake balls are to round, flatten them down with your hands. You are going to want a flat Ret hot candies (or any other red, ball- pancake shape. Finally, spread a teaspoon of frosting over the bottom of a cookie. Place a 4 ½ inch licorice pieces on the shaped candy side of the cookie. The frosting will act as “glue”. The lico- rice will be the spider legs. Place another cookie on top of the frosting; it will be like a sandwich. To make eyes, put two dots of frosting on top of the “spider.” Stick 2 of the red hot candies (or any red ball candy) onto the frosting. If you followed this recipe, you should now have a cute new idea for some spooky Halloween treats this year. Fall Festival

By Kaylee Buell This year on the 11th of October, the whole Ponder school district will join together to fill the air with Halloween spirit. At the Fall Festival that Ponder throws yearly, there are fun games all over the football parking lot brought by all the grades, a haunted house put on by the high school drama class, raffles offered to everyone from each grade, and a silent auction in one of the school buildings. Whether you are with your little sibling who’s in elementary or with your best friend, Fall Festival is a blast with candy, cake, and, if you are willing to use your tickets on someone else, a “jail.” The Fall Festival is like a mini-Halloween to get your candy quota early, then get some more at Halloween. One booth, the Haunted House, put on by the drama department was quite the scream, whether they were dissecting someone, or luring you into the Devil’s Lair, you were never prepared for the next scare. Billy, a very popular stu- dent at the school said, “It was so loud!” Another popular booth was the Cake Walk, put on by the senior class, where you would test your luck to win some treats! Fall Festival this year was a hoot, even though the second half of the Ponder vs. Paradise football game stole some of the students and parents. Ponder Students Roll Up Their Sleeves and Give By Ally Gordon This past September we had our fall blood drive, which was a huge, mega, good success. With the 88 students that signed up to donate, we managed to give be- yond our goal of 55 units of blood. We ended up donating 70 units of blood, which is equivalent to all the blood in 7 people. This was enough to save 210 lives, good job Ponder! Good job to the NHS, many members worked the tables and gave blood. NHS member Elizabeth Richardson gives her opinion of the event, “Everything ran smoothly, and we donated a lot of blood.”

“It was fantastic. The students were Words of approval form Mr. well behaved and most came at Lankford, “I am super proud their designated time,” Mrs. Wal- of our students, they out did lum says, “Thank everyone so themselves. Let’s have another much. I am so proud of Ponder successful drive in the spring.” High School.”

This blood drive was awesome PHS, so let’s make this spring blood drive, which is a hop, skip, and a jump away, a good one too! Alex Fedele By Teryana Sledge Ponder’s newest homecoming queen, Ms. Alex Fedele, is nothing short of being one of the most pleasant seniors to be around. It’s impossible to not be in a good mood when you are in her presence. Alex has gone to Ponder for nine years and all of those years have been nothing short of perfect. Throughout her years here, she has participated in Band, One Act Play, and the National Honor Society. Some of her best friends include fellow seniors, Hugo Aguilar and Eric Dearmin, and former Ponder High School student, Aly Stone. After high school, she plans to travel and become a flight -at tendant. When asked what one word describes, Alex responded stating that she is a realist. “Alex is a really great person to talk to; she’ll be honest and upfront with you about any situation. She is extremely trustworthy and an all-around amazing per- son.” Said a fellow bandmate, Shelby Cormier, when asked about Alex.

Antonio Alonzo By Danny Rivera Antonio Alonzo is one of the craziest senior in Ponder. You may know him by Tonos. He has only been in Ponder 2 years, but within that time he has been to state in bowling and played football. His best friends are Jordan Freeman, Dustin Ferguson, and Rachel Swafford. Jordan said “he is very hilarious, very great to be around, and such a nice guy.” Although Antonio has been here for a little he has made a small impact on us here. He can always make boring stuff into exciting projects. After he gradu- ates he plans to attend Princeton or Yale. He looks up to his father very much and considers him his hero. Shelby Greggerson By Shane Scott Shelby Greggerson or “Sheb” as her friends call her has been attending Ponder for 9 years now. She describes herself as very outgoing, and her best friends are: Karen Deleon, Madison Hunsucker, Morgan Pittman, Cheyenne Morris, and Bailey Brown. Her role model is her older sister, Erika. Erika has al- ways been there for Shelby and Shelby has always looked up to her. In high school Shelby has participated in Volleyball, and Track. In Junior High she participated in Basketball, while at an even younger age in elementary she played a little bit of softball. Shelby has been in student council for her last two years of high school, and she was also on the prom committee her junior year. Shelby was also nominated to be on the Football homecoming court both her ju- nior year and her senior year. After she graduates, Shelby plans to attend NCTC for two years to get her basics out of the way. When she has gotten her basics, she will transfer to a uni- versity and major in Kinesiology. She plans on being a personal health and fitness trainer to help other people succeed in their own personal goals.

Hugo Aguilar By David Eskandari and Ben Dankesreiter You’ve probably been in a hole for four years if you don’t know who Hugo Alex Aguilar is. Attending the Ponder school district for around ten years now, “Huggo” has been haunting the halls with his comical and enjoyable presence. Hugo has played as a receiver in Ponder’s Varsity football team for two years, he also has participated in the Ponder band for seven years; this year he is the captain of the drum line. In fact, Hugo is planning to attend UNT and be part of their marching band, or go to TWU to study to be an ER nurse. “If those don’t work out, I’m looking to become a music producer,” Hugo says. Hugo is always seen around friends. He’s got a role model; Justin Rippen- trop. “He’s such an outgoing and happy person, he’s got his life planned out,” Hugo says. When asking people that knew him well, these are some of the things people said about Hugo: Antonio says, “Hugo is a beautiful child and a great inspiration for me.” Carlos Sandoval notes that Hugo is very intellectual. Well there you have it folks! Hugo is an intellectual, who has a taste for good music and has many friends. This month in: Football:

Varsity: by Danny Rivera Your Ponder lions won 27-20 to win our homecoming game against Howe. Trey Dunlap rushed for a total of 119 yards, J.J ran for 56 yards. Brady Anderson had 2 rushing touchdowns and a 60 yard pass to Dunlap for a touch- down. Gabe Gomez rushed for 10 yards. The game was electrifying and a nail –bitter till the end.

Ponder played Tom Bean on their field and still came out with a win of 14-10. Brady Anderson left the first quarter due to an injury. Shane Scott came in and threw an amazing pass to Gabe Gomez for a 15 yard touch- down. Dunlap ran for 79 yards and J.J Torres rushed for 17 yards and made a touchdown.

JV: By David Eskandari Tom Bean - Final Score: Lions, 36; Tomcats, 0 The JV Lions came out and played great against Tom Bean. It was a good home game for us. Anytime we can count on our defense to keep them out of the end zone, the night just goes much better. We had a lot of fire on our offense with a good, hard, run from Trey Ashmore and a solid run from Gar- rett Johnson. “Yeah, we’ve been doing pretty alright in the backfield,” says Johnson. The Lions were able to end the game with Caden McEwen running behind his offensive line taking in a touchdown to close the game.

Paradise - Final Score: Lions, 6; Panthers, 21

The Ponder Lions had their chances in a close, district opening game against the Paradise Panthers. “We were just shooting ourselves in the feet,” comments junior Jose Rivera, “But you better believe that we’re go- ing to beat Boyd.” Garrett Johnson punched in our lone score with a good, hard run, but we just came up short in the end. “We weren’t playing our hardest,” says freshman Ryland Waldo, “I think that showed in the end.” The JV Lions are looking forward to the next game in district at Boyd. Volleyball: JV and Varsity by Kaylee Buell Whitesboro: Bearcats Since the September Issue of the Ponder High School Roar, your Lady Lions have continued to work hard and prosper. In the most recent game against Whitesboro, your JV White lost against the Bearcats. Your JV Red also played Whitesboro, losing to the Bearcats in three games. Your Varsity Lady Lions battled it out against the Whitesboro Bearcats and lost with a score of 19-25 in the first game, 21-25 in the second, and 19-25 in the third game. This loss makes them 4-5 in district play. The leaders for the Varsity game were: Kaylee Buell with 10 kills, Josie Hunsucker with 9 assists, Rachel Swafford with 11 digs, Kaylee Buell and Lauren Pittman with 5 solo blocks each, and Morgan Melvin with 4 aces. Go Lady Lions!

Cross Country: JV and Varsity by Ben Montgomery Ponder Cross Country is coming to an end yet again, and so far it has been a good season. The Varsity team is com- posed of Dare Odunaiya, Sam Hutcherson, Blake Gibson, TJ Pullen, Luke Sparkman, and Brady Brockett. The JV team in- cludes Bobby Musacchio, Sam Norwood, Derek Shearer, and Major Green. There are three meets remaining, one of which is the Ponder meet (October 8, 2014). When asked about the meet Dare said that he is “excited”, and hopeful to take gold. Ponder Band Marches to New Heights By Elizabeth Richardson Since August 4th at 8 in the morning, the Ponder High School marching band has been hard at work preparing their 2014 UIL show “The Civil War.” The show starts off with the upbeat opener “Johnny Comes Marching Home” before slowing down for “Shenandoah.” Closing the show is the fast paced and technical “Battle Scene” which includes “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” This school year has marked a year full of changes for the band including a new director and a more advanced show to march and play. The show includes several general effects and better musicality than ever before. At the first football game of the season, the band premiered the first part of the show. Just three weeks later after hard work put into the early morning rehearsals that are held on Monday through Thursday and practice during class, the band marched the entire show at halftime for the first time. Sophomore band member David Eskandari says that “we’ve been improving and I can see us going places in the next few years.” For the 2014 marching competition season, the Ponder marching band will compete at two marching festi- vals and the Region 2 UIL marching competition. On October 4th the band competed at the Aubrey Marching Classic at Aubrey High School, the contest included bands from 2A, 3A, and 4A schools all competing for ten spots in the finals. Out of eighteen bands, the Ponder band ranked thirteenth and out of the 3A schools Ponder ranked seventh. Though this does not seem an overly impressive feat, the bands overall score was only two points less than the last band to qualify for finals and ranked two places better than the previous year. The following week the Ponder band had one wild time. Friday night just as always the band loaded up to head to the football game to cheer on the team and to get one last run through before competition the next morning. After two delays due to weather, the game went on and at half time the band took the field to run through the drill. As the show started it seemed that Mother Nature was determined to test the bands commitment and the wind picked up and it began to rain, but still the band marched on. The next morning the band headed to Princeton High School for the Sounds of Fall Marching Classic. This competition included band from schools anywhere from 1A to 6A and only seven bands marching in fi- nals. After the show, several good comments from other band directors as well as the judges were given. The judge’s comments and suggestions will be taken and worked on all week while the band gears up for their UIL competition on Saturday October 18th. The band will be marching at C.H. Collins stadium at 9am in UIL competition. Come out and support the marching lions as they work hard towards a division 1! Homecoming Festivities By Sterling Stinson

Homecoming: the main event of almost every town in Texas with a football team. Everyone who spent even part of their junior high or high school experience in Texas knows what to ex- pect the whole week leading up to Homecoming. Preparation for the dance, buying or mak- ing mums, dressing up in strange outfits for spirit week, and sometimes even parades take place that week. But they can’t even begin to compare to the day of. The whole town seems charged with an extra excitement, as the halls fill with the jingle of the tiny cow bells on ev- eryone’s (overly large) mums, trying to one up each other with the sheer size of their spirited adornments. The students and parents gather in the parking lot to tailgate and enjoy seeing people from their community they might not have seen in a while.

Even with the standard set by our imaginations, Ponder Homecoming did not disappoint. The evening started almost as soon as the bell rang. Students rushed home to prepare for the festivities, whether they were going to do their spirit face paint for the game, their hair and makeup for the dance, or making burgers and hot dogs for tailgating, they all had a major part in the Homecoming festivities.

The Juniors put on a tailgate fundraiser, setting up in the football parking lot and selling burgers, chips and drinks pregame. Once everyone had had their fill of the food (and sup- ported this year’s Prom) they made their way over to the football stadium stands. The football stadium filled up with Ponderonians decked out in red, white and grey to support our Lions.

The cheers during the game were deafening, but they were nothing compared to the roars when our Homecoming Court stepped out on to the field at halftime to find out which of the three seniors would be crowned Homecoming Queen. The three nominees were Madison Hunsucker, in a beautiful, floor-length light blue dress; Shelby Greggerson, looking stun- ning in an asymmetrical white and silver gown; and finally, Alex Fedele, in a stunning, short dark blue ensemble. After introducing the court and their dates, the moment had come to announce who would be this year’s Homecoming Queen. Alex Fedele was crowned queen by last year’s Homecoming Queen, Meredith Vedral. The band provided background music while the nominees were called up and the queen was crowned, and performed their UIL Marching Show entitled The Civil War.

After the game and band show were over, all of the high school students went over to the High School Cafeteria for the Homecoming Dance, sponsored by the Sophomore class. The dance had a great atmosphere of fun, friends, and school spirit. The students danced, social- ized and supported next year’s prom from the end of the game until almost midnight! Once the dance was over, sadly so was Homecoming. Luckily for all of us though, Homecom- ing does come every year. The Ben Den Rave Damsey Hi, my name is Rave Damsey and today we will be talking about money. I made my money by selling my luscious locks on the Black Market. Maybe it was luck or maybe it was Maybelline, but either way I became rich. Soon my money started disappearing as did my hair. Credit card debt soon consumed my life. Then I became a millionaire in two years through unspecified “work”. Billy here wasn’t so lucky. He went to the store and used a credit card to buy three candy bars. A week later, he had no candy bars and crippling credit card debt. Billy could have avoided all of this by buying a car with cash. That’s all for this week, and re- member: Money isn’t only important, Money Matters! Now listen to my daughter talk on and on about how money wise she is, and try not to be distracted by all of her hand movements. The Elephant Story If this doesn’t bring a tear to your eyes you must have a heart made of stone. In 1986, Peter Davies was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Louisiana State University. On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed dis- tressed, so Peter approached it very carefully. He got down on one knee, inspected the elephant’s foot, and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it. As carefully and as gently as he could, Peter worked the wood out with his knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot. The elephant turned to face the man and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense mo- ments. Peter stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned and walked away. Peter never forgot that elephant or the events of that day. Twenty years later, Peter was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son. As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Peter and his son Cameron were standing. The large bull elephant stared at Peter, lifted it front foot off the ground, then put it down. The elephant did that several times then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at the man. Remembering the encounter in 1986, Peter could not help wondering if this was the same elephant. Peter summoned up his courage, climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Peter’s legs and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly. Probably wasn’t the same elephant.