Homecoming this year consisted of many activities. One event that took place was the homecoming football game. “The football game is always my favorite part about homecoming,” says Hailey Hohnecker ‘20. The theme for this year’s homecoming game was USA. Students dressed head to toe in their finest red, white, and blue clothes. Students gather around to watch football, but also to watch some cheers from the PA spirit squad.
A picture from the homecoming football game.Students dressed up in red, white, and blue for homecoming.
Football does not just have to be for boys, the girls can have their own chance on the field during the PA powderpuff football game. The powderpuff football game is a chance for Junior and Senior girls to play against each other in a game of flag football. “The powderpuff football game looks so fun, and I hope to play in it someday,” says Anjali Moothedan ’19.
Seniors during the powderpuff football game.The PA spirit squad.
Another main event during homecoming week is the dance. The dance was on Saturday night during homecoming week. At the dance, students could listen to music and dance with friends. “It was fun to get all dressed up with my friends,” says Maggie Murphy ’19.
Providence Academy’s homecoming has many other activities, that could be less memorable. “I forgot that we had donuts before school, but that was very fun,” says Maddie Kelly ’20. Some of the less memorable, but still fun activities include: theme days, pep rally, cross country homecoming run and much more.
Homecoming is a great way to bring back alumni, and bring the school together. Even if some activities were less memorable, overall the whole week was one to remember.
Wisdom, knowledge, right judgment, understanding, courage, piety, and fear of the Lord. These are the gifts of the Holy Spirit received at Confirmation. Many Providence Academy students went through the Confirmation process at Holy Name of Jesus, a Catholic church in Wayzata. To get confirmed at Holy Name, there were several guidelines to follow. One was attending CREW every first Sunday of the month for two years. At CREW teens listen to a talk, sing songs, and go to small group. Another is going on two retreats, or one retreat and participating in the Holy Name play (the Passion Play). Teens are required to attend Wednesday night talks with their sponsor several times in 10th grade. Students are required to pick a saint, write a paper on that saint, and write a letter of intent. In addition, the student has a short meeting with the leader to discuss the upcoming Confirmation.
The Saint Paul Basilica. Photo from visitstpaul.com.
I, and many other Providence Academy sophomores recently got confirmed on April 29th, 2017. We were confirmed at the St. Paul Basilica. Confirmation is a big step in a teen’s faith life: here are some quotes from Providence Academy sophomores after Confirmation.
“The best part was the feeling after the anointing with oil,” says Gabby Munger.
“I felt very relieved and rejuvenated in the faith,” says Joey Fafinski.
“I thought Holy Name prepared us very well,” says Caroline Mahowald.
“I think most of what we learned we already knew at PA; I strengthened my relationship with God and deepened my faith,” says Zach Giesler.
“Confirmation impacted my life, I received a special grace by which my faith has deepened and strengthened so I can share it with others,” says Lauren Owen.
Gabby Munger (right) and her sponsor, Katie Prom (left).
Lauren Owen with her uncle and her aunt (her sponsor).
Confirmation is a big step in the faith. If you are thinking about signing up for Confirmation, Holy Name is a great place to do it.
A diagram of swollen cheeks, a symptom of Mumps. Photo from tarrantcounty.com.
Recently at the University of Minnesota, there has been a Mumps outbreak. Six cases of the Mumps were reported on campus.
Mumps is “an extremely contagious viral infection of the salivary glands that most commonly affects children,” according to Medical News Today. Mumps can be spread most commonly by sneezing or coughing. The symptoms include a fever, swollen jaw, puffy cheeks, loss of appetite, and headaches. The older you are the more serious it gets. You have to wait for your immune system to get rid of it, because there is no treatment yet available. To prevent Mumps, the MMR (Measles, Mumps, and Rubella) vaccine is given to most children to make their body immune to the disease. I first heard about this outbreak from Mrs. Sheehan, my biology teacher. She told the class about the disease when we were learning about viruses. Mrs. Sheehan first heard about the disease on TV while watching the news. She also heard about it from listening to MPR, a news station, on the way to work.
“I was surprised because we don’t often hear about these diseases in the United States, but we have been hearing more and more lately about diseases we didn’t think would come back, but we do have more un-vaccinated people in the US due to immigrants and people that are scared of vaccines,” says Mrs. Sheehan.
Mrs. Sheehan has had experience with the disease. She had Mumps when she was five years old on Halloween, and she said she clearly remembers not being able to talk and being very sick. When Mrs. Sheehan got Mumps, they did not have a vaccine for it. At the time, the only vaccine that was available was the polio vaccine.
Photo of the MMR vaccine, from CNN news
Mumps can be a deadly disease, especially in adults so it is important that everyone works together to prevent it.
On Thursday, April 13th, the journalism class hosted the first ever PA Easter egg hunt. There were 16 eggs and 1 golden egg.
Members of the PAW; Leah Barron ’17, Clara McMillan ’19 and Helena Peppin ’20 planning their egg locations.
The PAW team wanted to celebrate Easter with the Upper and Middle school students. The team decided to put on an Easter egg hunt. There were many posts on the PAW regarding this egg hunt. The first article was giving the background about the Easter egg hunt, and how PA students could find out the location of an egg. It was stated in the first post titled, “First Annual PAW Easter Egg Hunt,” that students should check out some of the articles written this year and use those locations mentioned in the past articles to find the location of an egg.
“I think it was a great way to bring attention to the PAW,” says Zachary Giesler ‘19. There were 17 eggs hidden around Providence Academy. Each journalist hid two eggs, each egg they hid corresponded to one of their articles they published this year.
“I looked outside by the track at track practice, because I read Caroline Mahowald’s track article, called ‘On Your Marks, Get Set, Go,’ but I did not happen to find one,” says Hailey Hohenecker ’20.
Elliot Tomashko ’21 found the golden egg.
Last, but definitely not least, there was a golden egg hidden. There was a series of clues published to the PAW daily. The golden egg was hidden by the windows in the band room. The golden egg was not actually found until Wednesday, April 19th. Elliot Tomaschko ’21 found the egg. He and some of his friends put all the clues together, and they came to the conclusion it was either in the band room or choir room. “We all went into the band room and took sides of the room, I was looking near the windows and found the golden egg in a flower pot and it was full of candy,” says Elliot Tomaschko. Elliot mentioned that a lot of people did not know about the Easter egg hunt, and one thing the PAW team could do better next year is announce it more in advance.
“It was very fun, and I am going to look again next year,” says Elliot Tomaschko.
Interfaith Outreach and Community Partners (IOCP) is raising food and money from March 1st to March 31st. This is called their “Prevent Hunger Campaign,” in which they receive donations from food drives and fund drives in our community. Their goal is $150,000 and 100,000 pounds of food. It is great that Providence Academy agreed to hold a food drive to help support the IOCP initiative. Caroline Mahowald ’19 and I organized this food drive as a part of our duty as IOCP youth ambassadors. We applied to be youth ambassadors in the fall. Being an IOCP youth ambassador means that you help organize events for IOCP at your own school and community. So far, Caroline and I have organized a sleep out, which was held in December. You can read more about the sleep out in Caroline’s article titled “Winter Service Projects.” Our next project was the food drive. “I think its really great what Riley and Caroline are doing for IOCP considering all the people that IOCP helps,” says Lauren Wall ’19.
The first thing we did to start organizing the food drive was to start thinking of ideas at one of our youth ambassador meetings. Later, we typed up a google doc with all of our ideas and details included on it and sent it to the student council, and from there we went to Mr. Harman for approval.
After we got approval, we went to Chipotle (the one located in Plymouth) and spoke to the manager. We told her about the food drive and the Prevent Hunger Campaign. We got a call a couple days later from the Chipotle manager informing us that they had agreed to sponsor a lunch for the red class that wins. Chipotle is giving the winning class a “burrito by the box,” on April 3rd, which is the Monday we get back from spring break. A burrito by the box is about 30 burritos that all have the same toppings.
Then after we got the sponsoring confirmed with Chipotle, the next step was to get the word out. We went to Mrs. Gregg and she announced the food drive in the morning announcements and we put up bright posters around school. “It was kind of stressful to plan, but it payed off in the end, and it was great to be able to organize this food drive with Riley to help the Prevent Hunger Campaign,” says Caroline Mahowald ’19.
One of the food drive signs that was hung up around school.
The next thing we had to do was get boxes for each red period class in which they could place the food. We went to the Lunds and Byerlys in Minnetonka, and they agreed to donate boxes for our food drive. They were very generous and gave us as many boxes that could fit in Caroline’s car.
All of the boxes Lunds and Byerlys donated to us.Caroline’s car filled with boxes from Lunds and Byerlys.
The food drive started on Monday, March 13th and ended on March 17th. It was a competition between Upper School red period classes. Students and teachers could donate in two ways. They could donate by bringing items into school to place in their class box, or by donating money online. To donate online, there were links shared in the announcements. Once a student or teacher donated online, they wrote down the amount donated on a sheet beside their class box.
Some of the donations inside IOCP’s food shelf being weighed.
In the end, the Providence Academy Upper School raised 471 pounds and 70 dollars. The red period class that donated the most was Mr. Plucinski’s red period class. So, Mr. Plucinski’s red period class gets Chipotle for lunch on April 3rd. Thank you for donating!
