Hot Fair is Cool

Everywhere I looked during my three days at the fair I saw busy AV kids. Estephany Arias took my order and Zoë Triplett slathered the goodies on my baked potato as the AV Leadership class kept the potatoes coming at their booth. Sometimes there were up to four or five kids waiting on hungry customers looking for real food in a sea of cotton candy and funnel cakes. The FFA under Ag teacher Beth Swelha’s leadership took first place for a “Sunny Display” with their beautiful large showcase garden in the floral arts building. Every Ag class student was required to enter something in the fair. I admired Miranda Mabrey’s first place Sea Shell floral arrangement with ornamental sand pictures also Jose Orozco’s “Singing in the Rain”, Miguel Carillo’s “Good Morning” and Ana Guerrero’s “Pink on Parade” all floral first place ribbons. I asked Beth Swelha why there were so many blue ribbons for the junior entries and she explained to me that they are judged by the “Danish System”. This system measures entries against a set standard not against each other as in the blue, red, yellow and white ribbon system. If you hit the benchmarks you get a blue. Otto and Angus Fraser showed me their California breed meat rabbits. Terry Gowan asked Otto to show me a Rex rabbit because I said they looked like velvet balls. I found out that they feel just like velvet balls too. Otto explained to me that in 4H Showmanship is where the judges judge YOU and Showing is where they judge the rabbit or other animal. Fine arts under art teacher Nadia Berrigan were also well represented. In the big display cases I saw that Lily Leighton had a blue for her “altered book”. Nathan Schenck, Freddy Sanchez and Irving Jimenez all had blues for creative collages. Unicorn School saw blues for Bradlee Anastasiou’s Spider Puzzle, Quest Villegas “Sonic” and Anthoney Shields “Dragon”. On the Midway I greeted Lupita Espinoza and her friends by the ferris wheel as I waited for my turn. Everyone was looking good with very pulled together outfits and hairstyles plus carefully applied make-up. I savored moments like the one where I asked a young girl by the goat pens a question to which she replied, “I don’t know, I’m a pig person”. Several times I saw Rita Bates and her sister Polly moving purposefully through the crowds. I guess Rita and Polly are apple people while Otto and Angus are rabbit people. I aspire to be a goat person- it is only a matter of time before I become one. I saw one teen aged girl showering her goats' head with kisses and whispering in his ear. In fact I saw several goat whisperers. Cross species communication is always interesting to watch. I can understand goat kissing- they are so mischievous and smart that they are downright irrestible.

Alums Show They Care

Jill Rathe who was one of many who fanned out to search for a missing three-year-old girl this weekend. Jill spotted five AV Alums or current students also searching. John Paula was there and so was Anthony Dawson who works with the Mendocino Fire Dept., Sara Cahn Bennett of Navarro Vineyards, Matt Wilson and Eric McMath. What an overwhelmingly happy moment when she was found almost 24 hours after she went missing.  In other news Rosa Ferreyra has graduated from Sonoma State and works with battered and abused women in a shelter. Mimi DuVigneaus is teaching in an
American International School in Chennai (formerly Madras) India.

Our Own Funny Girl

Proud mom Cyndee Hollinger sent me this news, “A little over a week ago, Cassidy auditioned for, was called back and is now a member of Vassar's all woman, stand-up comedy and improv troupe called, ‘Indecent Exposure’! Not too shabby, considering she hasn't even been at school for a month yet. Here is a description of the troupe from Vassar's organization list. There is also a blurb in the current online issue of the Vassar newspaper, The Miscellany News. The article is titled 'Vassar Comedy night, Done
Right' "Indecent Exposure is Vassar College’s only all-female comedy troupe. Founded in 2004 by Heather Trobe, the group was created in response to a very serious lack of female comedians. Not only does it provide a space for women comedians to come together and share ideas, but also to create smart, unusual, innovative, and progressive shows. Debunking the myth that women cannot be funny, Indecent Exposure consistently performs stand-up, and their shows also include sketches, songs, and dance"

Panthers Take Two

On Tuesday both the varsity and jr. varsity volleyball teams were on the road again to meet the St. Vincent Mustangs of Petaluma. Both AV teams had to dig deep to fend off furious attacks by Mustang hitters. The JV team finally won a nail biter in three sets with an overtime 20-18victory. The Panther varsity team also had a very difficult match, but off held St. Vincent to win three sets to one. After nearly two weeks away the Panther teams were clearly glad to be competing again in the friendly confines of the AV gym, to take on the Warriors from Laytonville. The home crowd of noisy, supportive students, parents, and community fans really sparked both teams to convincing victories. Both teams won in straight
sets, dominating the visiting Warriors with solid passing, serving, and hitting. At this point in the season it is clear that the Panther JV and varsity are very competitive teams. While they may not have the tallest or strongest players in any given match, they certainly equal or exceed every opponent in hard driven competitive effort. The varsity team especially, has had to dig deep to wrench victories away from teams who were very close to winning. The many Anderson Valley fans have come to expect superior efforts from our Panther teams, but this season our local girls seem to be topping even those high standards of hard work and determination. The varsity record so far is 8-2, while the JV’s are 4-0. The next opportunity to catch the Panthers in action is this Thursday when
the Geyserville Bronchos visit Panthers’ Den at AV High.

Recycling Fashion

Mathis Weyrich and Christopher Espinoza students in Evette LaPaille’s class at AV Elementary decided do something to help the planet. After reading an article in Scholastic Magazine called “Recycling Fashion” they determined to collect Capri Sun packets and send them back to the factory to be made into fashionable school supplies. According a survey both boys did 80% of AVES students drink Capri Sun so there should be plenty of packets to collect. If they don’t go into the trash can they won’t end up in the soil. Mathis told me that “Plastic takes 5-10 years to break down
into soil even then it is not pure compared to banana peels that become can become soil in just 2 months. Christopher told me he wants more trees to grow and less trash on the ground where it can hurt animals (like getting tangled in plastic soda carry rings). If you have Capri Sun packets you can bring them to the AVES office where there is a box for collection. When they have 200 they will turn them in for a 2 cent rebate on each packet.

UTubed

The Advanced Media Class at AVHS taught by Jim Snyder has created a series of 30-second stop motion animation shorts. It takes 450 images to create 30 sec. of footage, which encourages brevity. Using clay, legos and found objects students exercised their creative muscles. To view the results type: avhsmedia into UTube. Next up time lapse movies. Also coming a fundraiser involving downloadable music from professional musicians- stay tuned.