Student Council's Pennies for Patients Campaign
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Your #1 AJHS news source! 3rd Edition 2019 Student Council’s Pennies for Patients Campaign Student Council held their 3rd annual Pennies for Patients campaign during the month of March with each Social Studies classroom collecting change from students each day. At the end of collections, the school total collected for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society was over $4,200. Mr. Durand’s 5th period, seventh grade class raised the most money and earned an Olive Garden lunch. Mr. Kennedy’s eighth grade, 7th period came in second place and will receive a lunch provided by Dominos. Those two classes raised almost $900! The 9th grade class with the highest total was Mrs. Gates’ 8th period class, with over $270 as a whole. (Continued on p. 2) 2 The following week, Student Council totals the money for each grade level. Students then had the opportunity to compete against one another for a full-period lunch. This challenge, called Dollar Days, is where students can sabotage other grades by placing dollars to subtract from the grade total earned from the money. At the end of this 3 Day Dollar challenge - the winning grade was 9th Grade! In May, 9th graders enjoyed a full-period lunch outside. Student Council is so proud of the generosity of our students in every grade! And thank you to Social Studies teachers who helped with the daily counting of money for every class that contributed. Builders’ Club 2018-2019 by Sagan Brinkert With the end of the year fast approaching, so is the end of the year of Builders’ Club. But, it is not over yet! During the course of the year, the members of the Builder’s Club collected money for various charities, made projects for the Abington Police Officers and children at the Ronald McDonald House, made two trips to the Head Start Program at the Abington Administration Building, collected holiday toys for foster children, and much much more. At the March meeting, members of Builders’ Club participated in an activity to make cat toys for the Cat Tales cat adoption. The toys were constructed out of a wooden dowel and some colorful ribbon. Over one hundred cat toys were made during the meeting! (Continued on p. 3) 3 At the April Meeting, volunteers at Cat Tales were scheduled to bring cats to visit at the meeting, but unfortunately, were not able to come. Instead, students that attend the meeting will finalize their letters to the Abington Police department to be wrapped around chocolate bars and delivered in the coming weeks. The final meeting of Builders Club for the Year will take place in May. There will be a small party celebrating all the great work and service of the club with snacks brought in by members. If you or a friend of yours did not get the chance to join in on the fun service opportunities, that is okay. For seventh and eighth graders, there will be another chance to sign up for Builders’ Club at the start of the 2019-2020 school year. As for ninth graders, the Senior High offers a similar club called the Key Club. Current members of Builders’ Club, as well as students that are interested in helping the community, are encouraged to join at the start of their sophomore year. Keep in mind that all students are required fifty community service hours at the end of Senior Year, or fifteen a year from the freshmen year to senior year. Builders’ Club and Key Club are excellent opportunities to gain hours for your required hours for graduation. All in all, it has been an excellent year for Builders’ Club. Hopefully, in the years to come, the club, its members and the wonderful community service work will continue to grow and thrive. Cradles to Crayons On Saturday, May 4th, students of Abington Junior High volunteered their efforts at Cradles to Crayons located in East Falls. Cradles to Crayons is a non-profit organization which helps families who are struggling to pay for rent and groceries often cannot afford anything else. This organization collects basic items for children -an extra outfit for school, a backpack, shoes, pajamas, a coat for cold weather. Cradles to Crayons enables volunteers and donors to turn compassion into action and provide the essential items that children in struggling families need to thrive at school, to participate more fully in life, to just be a kid. Each Abington volunteer was asked to bring donations of good condition clothing – no holes, rips, or stains- ranging in sizes from baby to adult. Upon arrival AJHS students were put right to work. They made cards to encourages children who would be receiving these donations. Over 30 Abington volunteers worked together for the next two hours to weed through the bins upon bins of donations the organization received. The clothing was sorted by gender, size, type, and season so that care packages can be made for specific children and weather appropriate. All who attended worked hard, but had fun working to help others. This service learning opportunity is a great way for everyone to engage with the Cradles to Crayons mission and help those in need. 4 SMA Walk: An Opportunity for service hours by Mabel Cannady Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or SMA, is a very rare disease that is the number one genetic cause for infant deaths and is extremely dangerous. You can’t catch SMA like a cold, but you can be born with it. This disease is a physical illness, not a mental illness, and can sometimes be hard to believe it even exists. It affects the muscles in your body because of a mutation in the SMN1 gene. This gene gives your nerves a protein that helps control our muscles, but without this protein, nerves begin to die. Sometimes, the loss of nerves can stop people from eating, walking, and even breathing, not to mention the probability of catching illnesses and colds. Many children that are born with SMA use a wheelchair or a walker, but some of the stronger kids can walk for short periods of time, just like you and I. Even if these person can walk, they may have difficulty with holding pencils or bending down. The disease is still there, but it can be different for every person. Sadly, many people lose their lives to SMA because they are not strong enough or their body no longer works the way that it should.That is why we fight to find a cure for this life threatening disease. Luckily, scientists created a medicine, Spinraza, that can help improve the strength in a person with SMA. Spinraza is injected through the spinal cord by a Lumbar Puncture and works with the SMN2 gene to create more protein for your nerves. This can help the person with SMA to grow stronger and can even stop them from losing their strength. People who were losing their ability to walk and are treated with Spinraza may be able to keep walking. If you wish to learn more about SMA, Spinraza, and SMA breakthroughs, click on the website below! https://www.spinraza.com/en_us/home/taking/how-spinraza-works.html Spring Into Sports By Bryanna Bailkin Spring sports are now in play! Your school’s teams have been training and working hard to get ready for the upcoming season. Abington Junior High offers a variety of spring sports. The boys have an opportunity to play baseball, lacrosse, track, and tennis. Softball, lacrosse, and track are available for the girls to participate in. Spring sports are played after school at the Junior High and High School Fields. The players would love to have you come out and cheer them on. You can find Spring Sports Schedule on the Abington Junior High School website (https://www.abington.k12.pa.us/junior/athletics/athletic-schedules/). There are always late buses available if you decide to stay after school to cheer for your fellow students. Good luck to all of our sports teams during your spring season. Looking forward to seeing you at the games! 5 Spring Phever by Brendan Turner Spring has finally arrived in the Delaware Valley and the 2019 Major League Baseball season is upon us. Put me in, coach, I’m ready to play! Even though Gritty won the hearts and minds of Philadelphia Flyers fans throughout the region, it’s time for the Phillie Phanatic and the Fightin’ Phils to take center stage now that warmer weather has arrived. There are a number of new faces who joined the Phillies roster during the off season. In the infield, Jean Segura takes over at Shortstop after playing for the Seattle Mariners last season. In Left Field, Andrew McCutchen comes back to Pennsylvania after spending some time in The Bronx playing for the New York Yankees. Calling the shots behind the plate is veteran Catcher J.T. Realmuto who is eager to take in the sights and sounds of the Jersey Shore after spending some time in Miami. Finally, a guy from Las Vegas who played just down I-95 a ways that you might have heard of...in Right Field, Bryce Harper! Bryce Harper finally signed an historic 13-year free agent contract that will earn him somewhere in the neighborhood of $330 million dollars. The baseball fan world was on pins and needles during the entire off-season wondering where one of the most sought after free agents would land. The Phillies left town in early March for Spring Training in Clearwater, Florida with Harper still unsigned and rumors swirling that had him practically signing with a different team each day.