Emily Coor’s Battle with Diabetes

PLUS:OCCUPY

WALL STREET

STRANGE TRENDS: PLANKING

SEASON OVERVIEWS: VOLLEYBALL &

FOOTBALL

Holiday 2011pgpost.org

contentsSenior Night 4

Lights of the Ozarks 9

Live Music in the Library 10

Majorettes Turn up the Heat 11

Occupy Wall Street 14

Strange Trends: Planking 16

NHS Angel Tree 17

FFA Grows Future Leaders 18

on the cover features

19 7

6

10

11 5

by Sidney Jaro

After nine years of school, and four high school years devoted to extracurricular activities, senior students finally receive appropriate recognition for their hard work and dedication. The much anticipated Senior Night is a ritual held on the last home game of the season. This year, the senior class of 2012 was in the spotlight. Senior Dalton Curts-inger says foot-ball is the only reason he likes school. “I’m definitely going to miss Friday night football games.” Curts-inger admitted.

When asked if he was hap-py with his last football season, se-nior Daniel Schrock stated, “Yes I’m satisfied! I couldn’t ask for a betterteam and group of friends.” Webb Pierson commented on what the team will be like next year without the graduating seniors. “The upcoming boys will do well because they are well put togeth-er,” says Pierson, “We have great guys to fill up leadership roles.” Although graduation is an event to look forward to, se-nior football players, as well as the rest of the seniors, are going to have a lot to miss.

4

Senior Night: A Final Farewell

photo by Shelley WilliamsSenior night captains Michael Bond, Weston Bar-tholomew, Dalton Curtsinger, and Daniel Schrock.

by Casey Wilken

A seemingly typical Wednesday morn-ing at Prairie Grove High School soon turned into pandemonium after a “Code Blue” lock-down was abruptly issued during 1st hour on October 26. Reports say that an individual was rumored to be carrying a gun across campus. The individual turned out to be free of firearms and posed no threat to the school. This did not prevent school personnel and students from taking extra precautions. Many students were able to let their par-ents know of the situation immediately using their cell phones. Sophomore Valarie Shepherd sent a particularly alarming text to her mother about the incident. “When some things happen, my mom is the first person I go to,” Shepherd reports, “If we were in danger, I would want her to know!” Shepherd was in one of the more dramatic emergency precau-tions going on in the school. “In Mr. Chandler’s first hour we were told to grab biology textbooks, huddle in the corner, and be ready to throw them,” she says. Sophomore John Whitley also sent an alarming text to his mother about the threat. “I was scared out of my mind and thought I was going to die,” says Whitley. “I really wanted my mom to know I loved her.”

However, while the name “Code Blue” was used during the in-cident, it is not actually an official school warning code. “There is no such thing as Code Blue,” says biology teacher Darren Chandler. “Code blue was the quickest way Bond could relay the severity of the situa-tion”. This instance was the first time the school was to use their new emergency situation policy, named ALiCE. The program was instruct-ed to all faculty by school resource officer Jeff O’Brien. According to ALiCE, faculty should not try to disarm the shooter, but to fight back instead for survival. “The idea of the new program is ‘time’ plus ‘dis-tance’ equals ‘safety’. The farther you are able to get from the threat, the better your chances for survival.” The new emergency program dif-fers from the former program, which consisted of staying in classrooms and hiding under desks. “This time we were taught not to be passive in these situations. People that take action have a higher rate of survival”. 5

C O D E B L U E

Sophomore Valerie Shepherd, left message, and Sophomore John Whitley, right message, texted their mothers quicky during the fear of a crisis.

by Becca Cole

On October 12th a group of around twenty people gathered on the Union lawn at the Univer-sity of Arkansas, candles in hand, to honor the lives that were brutally taken in the name of hate, and to talk about their own struggles with hate. The group hosting the event, P.R.I.D.E., which stands for “People Respecting Individual Differences and Equality”, has always been a

big supporter of equal rights. This year, the group was successful in bringing NoH8, a national cam-paign, which was founded in No-vember 2008 by photographer

Adam Bouska and partner Jeff Parshley, to Fayetteville, Ar-kansas. NoH8 is a form of silent protest against Proposition 8, which banned same sex mar-riage in the state of California.

People from all over Northwest Arkansas gathered at Hog Haus on Dickson Street to have their photo taken in support of the NoH8 cam-paign. Through the years the campaign has not only been a voice for those living in Cali-fornia, but also nationwide; bringing attention to Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and helping bring awareness to discrimination in the work place. In the pho-tos individuals wear all white with the NoH8 logo painted on their face and gray duck tape

across their mouth symbolizing their voices being silenced by Prop-osition 8. Members of P.R.I.D.E. at the University of Arkansas, and volunteers from The North-west Arkansas Center for Equality helped bring NoH8 to Arkansas, and helped to make sure things ran smoothly at the photo shoot.

The day before the vigil was National Coming-out Day in which P.R.I.D.E. set up a Coming-out infor-mation booth where they gave out free cupcakes, and balloons along with information about the group. The vigil was held in honor of Mat-thew Shepard and others who lost their lives because of hate crimes. Matthew Shepard was a student at the University of Wyoming back in 1998 who was murdered because of his sexual orientation. This act of hate and violence sparked a nationwide legislation to end hate and educate people on what the LGBT community is all about.

In September the equal rights campaign came to Eureka Springs after switching its original plans to go to Little Rock. The tour decided to switch route after learn-ing about a very unique situation in Eureka Springs. In 2007 Eureka Springs became the first city in Ar-

kansas to have a registry for do-mestic partnerships, and in 2010 Eureka Springs became the first and only city in Arkansas to provide city employee health insurance coverage for domestic partner-ship. This means that both same sex couples and traditional couples who are in a committed relation-ship but do not or cannot get mar-ried will be provided health care.

It’s no coincidence there have been more and more equal rights groups rallying in and among Northwest Arkansas. Arkansas is among the 35 states where it is perfectly legal to fire someone based on their sexual orientation, and even more states have little to no protection for those who strug-gle with sexual identity. In addi-tion, Arkansas is one in 18 states that has no hate crime laws re-garding sexual orientation or iden-tity, and one of four states that has no hate crime laws whatsoever.6

Equal Rights Campaigns Bring Equality to Northwest Arkansas

photos by Jackson LafarguePeople gathered on the Union lawn at the University of Arkansas to honor the lives of victums from hate crimes.

by Samantha Roper

Approximately ev-ery five minutes, some-one in Northwest Arkan-sas is in need of blood. To do their part to help this cause, Prairie Grove High School helps the Com-munity Blood Centers of the Ozarks by holding a blood drive twice a year in the high school library.

Students gave over 70 pints of blood, making the fall blood drive a big suc-cess. A little over 80 people signed up to donate. The library, where the event is housed, was a busy scene, with students and teachers alike giv-ing their time and veins to donate.

Even though the Community Blood Center needs as much blood as possi-ble, not everyone was able to donate. Donors must be at least 16 years old and weigh more than 110 pounds. In addition, the donor must have healthy blood to share. The donor may feel faint, lightheaded or dizzy during or after the donation process.

However, every donor needs to take precau-tions so symptoms don’t affect them. A good night’s sleep and drinking plenty of water is advised for donors. There are many perks to giving blood. Not only do you get the joy of giving life to your community, but giving a pint also gets you free food and a t-shirt. For the people that don’t give blood, one question remains on their minds, “Does it hurt?” Not according to high school li-brarian Jeanine Woods. Woods knows the hardships of having a short blood supply, having worked for the Red Cross in Korea.“It would hurt more to me if I didn’t give blood.” she remarks. 7

A Gushing Success

photos by Samantha Roper and Emily Cole

Top Left: Zak Galligan and Chad Battles wear the infa-mous blood drop costumes.

Top Right: Sammie Cameron and Danielle Smith give blood.

Bottom Left: Daniel Schrock braves the needle given by

Nurse Robbie.

PG Post Staff

Editors:

Emily Cole

Philip Shepherd

Assistant Editor:

Jackson Lafargue

Co-Editors:

Megan Gerwig

Sidney Jaro

Nikki Fant

Eli Rose

Samantha Roper

Business Manager:

Casey Wilken

Reporters:

McKenzie Evans

Rachel Hays

Bayli Bradley

Dillon Cates

Becca Cole

Jade Nixon

Payton Sapp

Joe Birmingham

Codie Wertens

Makayla Terry

Photographers:

Da-Eun Jung

Mary Jameson

Kyle Hunter

Graphic Designer:

Stephen Silva

by Makayla Terry Newspapers have taken a major hit from the economy. Causing many newspapers to stop or decrease production. This has also affected high school Journalism programs like PG Post. For the remainder of the school year, PGHS students will be able to read and learn about school happen-ings without paying for the materials. There are two options for the future of the newspaper here at PGHS. The first option would be to charge the students 50 cents per issue . The sen-cond option is to go completely online, since the cost of printing is the largest expense of the Journalism program.

Like many other high school newspapers in the area, the PG Post is professionally printed at the Arkan-sas Democrat Gazette headquar-ters in Springdale with 1,000 cop-ies of the PG Post printed per issue.

Approximately 100 copies go to the paper’s subscribers while the rest are passed out for free to the students and faculty of PGHS.“If we keep giving newspapers to students for free, we will be broke by Christmas,” says Jour-nalism instructor Andrea Parnell. “To subscribe to our news-paper this year, we charged $10, but next year this will likely increase,” says Parnell. The journalism staff worked feverishly to raise funds for the newspaper through ads and sub-scriptions. However, only $1,500 was raised, barely enough to cover printing. Other expenses included postage for mailing papers to sub-scribers, which costs $1.28 per is-sue, which added up quick. “We had to resort to merely hand delivering papers to some subscribers to save money”, Parnell adds. “It is definitely a costly endeavor, but well worth it”.

What Goes into the-Newspaper

9

by Philip Shepherd Saturday, November 19th was the annual unveiling of the famous Lights of the Ozarks at the historic downtown district of Fayetteville, Arkansas. The light-ing of the square was kicked off this year with the annual “Fayette-ville Unites with Holiday Lights” parade. Civic clubs, businesses, and organizations are represented in the parade with cars, floats, and characters. The parade was orga-nized by the Hospitality Manage-ment students from the University of Arkansas with help from the Fay-etteville Visitors Bureau who also helps make Lights of the Ozarks

a success each year. The parade ended with the guest of honor, Santa Claus himself. All proceeds raised from the parade, including vendor fees and donations, ben-efit the Fayetteville Animal Shelter. Located in the heart of downtown Fayetteville, the Town Square houses over 450,000 Christmas lights each year, attract-ing people from all over the area. These beloved holiday lights are strategically draped over trees, landscaping, and pathways, trans-forming the Fayetteville Square into an amazing array of Christ-mas lights. Each year, Fayetteville Parks and Recreation workers spend over 2,000 hours decorat-ing the Downtown Square with the lights. The romantic and breathtak-ing display of half a million twinkling lights is cherished by the locals and visitors that stroll or drive through the Lights of the Ozarks each year. Last year’s lighting event

Lights of the Ozarks Kicks Off Annual Tradition

was nearly a no-go when it was discovered that the city’s budget wouldn’t allow for the lights to be displayed. Thanks to the generosity of anonymous, last minute donors, the lights continued for another year. Fayetteville Parks and Main-tenance Superintendent Byron Humphry said last year’s Lights of the Ozarks festival was made pos-sible through a collaborative ap-proach. The Fayetteville Advertising and Promotions Commission do-nated about $18,000 to purchase a portion of the lights, while Wal-Mart provided a $10,000 grant to pur-chase 250,000 LED lights. Lights of the Ozarks has been around for more than 15 years and will con-tinue as long as funds and sup-port from the community are there.

Lights of the Ozarks is Fay-etteville’s most popular attrac-tion during the holiday season. However, it hasn’t always been as entertaining as it is today. For years, the lights have been some-thing to see, but when Fayette-ville stepped it up back in 2008, adding more lights and color to the old Post Of-fice building and trees surround-ing it, Fayetteville outdid herself. This improvement greatly increased the number of vis-itors to the square which soon gave way to the intro-duction of ven-

dors and services to the celebration. Recently added camel and pony rides, horse-drawn carriage rides, and vendors selling funnel cakes, corn dogs, and hot choco-late can be found at each corner. In addition, the square houses a num-ber of establishments to stop for dinner or a hot drink like Tiny Tim’s Pizza, Jammin’ Java Coffee House, Taste of Thai, Damgoode Pies, and Hugo’s Restaurant to name a few. The lights will remain on the square through Saturday December 31st.

photos by Philip ShepherdFayetteville’s annual Lights of the Ozarks is a desired destination for residents and tourists in the Northwest Arkansas area.

according to Shepherd.

The acts were selected through an interview and audition process, judged by both Lafar-gue and Shepherd. The first per-formance was that of Senior Kyle Ates, who had amazed everyone at last year’s talent show with his cover of 33 Miles’ “Hold On”. He was both excited and a little ner-vous to perform for his peers once again. However, the highly antici-pated performance did not disap-point, “It made me feel really good. It’s always fun when you can do what you love and enjoy and have everyone enjoy it with you,” Ates says. He admitted that he was more excited to perform his origi-nal songs, but he knew everyone would enjoy his cover of “Hold On” because it was familiar to them. “If I were given the chance, I would definitely do it again.” Ates said. There has been speculation about bringing other types of perfor-mances into the library, such as po-

by Mary Jameson

Live music is now being performed in the most unlikely of places: a high school library. Thanks to the help of seniors Phil-ip Shepherd and Jackson Lafar-gue, as well as librarian Jeanine Woods, Prairie Grove High School students now have an outlet to showcase their musical talents. The idea was originally intended to show off the talents of the seniors before they graduate, however, students of all grade levels are welcome to perform in the library. “Music in the library is a chance for students to per-form music for their peers,”

etry readings and standup comedy. However, Woods has said that it will strictly be limited to music to prevent it from becoming a “talent show”. The library was chosen for the lo-cation of the live music stage. “The library fosters a mellow, cozy, and welcoming setting that is perfect for live music”, Woods says. It is the only fitting environment for the students to perform their music. It

provides perfect acoustics and a wonderfully cozy and welcoming setting. The performers don’t have to worry about interrupting a class and the audience gets to experi-ence new sounds. Students are free to wander in the library during both lunches to watch and listen. “The library is usually packed at each performance,” Lafargue says. The students enjoy this new addi-tion to their lunches on Fridays. “It’s a great idea. Students can show-case their talent and feel famous for a day,” said Senior Leslie Peo-ples. “Every performer is unique in their own way,” said Woods. Junior Neil Luck is a prime example, with his recent performance featuring his unique style of guitar playing. “I expected surprise and hoped for interest,” confessed Luck.

Unfortunately, live music will not be performed in the library in the second semester. How-ever, if all is successful, hopefully the live music stage will make a comeback in the next few years.

10

Live Music in the Library

photo by Mary JamesonPrairie Grove Senior Landon Jordon performing during lunch for Music in the Library.

COME HANG OUT WITH US COOL

ELDERS

PRAIRIE GROVE SENIOR CENTER

479-846-2794

prairiegrovearkansas.org

by Casey Wilken

Prior to last year, the Prairie Grove March-ing Band did not have majorettes, otherwise known as “baton twirlers”. However, sophomore Viv Haney changed that. She successfully jump started the majorette program for the Prairie Grove High School Band. This year, sophomore Madi McMil-len joined Haney in twirl-ing for the band, thanks to a fascination with be-ing a majorette during her 8th grade year. “I would mess with her batons in class,” McMillen says. This year, how-ever, Haney and McMillen decided that they wanted to bring something new to the Prairie Grove High School Band: fire batons. The girls have done several mesmeriz-ing performances with the batons throughout the year, astonishing the crowd with their deftness and skill. Haney and McMillen have no concerns with twirling fire; they find it easy and fun. “We had a lot of help from our coach Mrs. Johnson”, Haney remarks. The Prairie Grove High School Band Director Gerry Nichols says, “I was surprised to see them twirl-

ing fire, but I believe it is a great contribution to our band program.” Being talented majorettes, Haney and McMillen twirl many different items. “As majorettes, we twirl knives, batons, and ribbons.” “My favorite is twirling knives,” says McMillen. It will be interest-ing to see what Haney and McMil-len will bring to the field next year.

11

Majorettes Turn up the Heat

photo by Da Eun JungSophomore Madison McMillen twirls the new fire baton for the first time infront of fans at Tiger Stadium.

Choir Spreads Holiday Cheer at Town Square

by Kenzie Evans For about 12 years, the Prairie Grove Choir and Honor Choir have been going to the square in downtown Fayetteville to spread some of Prairie Grove’s finest voices all throughout the beautifully lit streets. “Viewers love to hear beautiful voices and see

sweet faces singing,” choir direc-tor, Katie Young says, “We talked with a couple after we sang, and the man had just proposed to his girlfriend while we were singing!” Mrs. Young loves taking the choir there every December to help spread Christmas cheer.

Senior Kyle Ates, agrees with Young. “It’s always fun to do something you love and enjoy,” Ates says, “It’s such an amazing experience when you get to share your love of music with others.” “Being able to sing with my friends and being able to see smiles on viewer’s faces is the best thing about being in choir,” sophomore Morgan Cary states. “Everyone in honor choir is a bless-ing to me,” junior Lori Dobbs adds. The positivity continues with Leslie Jones, a sophomore at PGHS, “I don’t think I could have grown in my music the way I have with a different director,”

she says, “singing is my life and I have Mrs. Young to thank for that!” A l t h o u g h everyone seems prepared, Aubrey Pesch, a sopho-more at Prairie Grove, admits that singing in pub-lic can be scary. But she says, by the middle of the first song, it is so much fun to see people’s faces and

how they react to your singing. The same opinion is also reflected by ju-nior Katlin Asbill and senior Steph-anie Blakemore. Both explained that they love to sing. “I’ve been in choir ever since seventh grade,” Blakemore explains, “it would feel weird if I dropped out of it now.”

photo by Mary JamesonPGHS Choir sings at the Fayetteville square.

1. Low- Just Like Christmas2. The Kinks- Father Christmas3. Sufjan Stevens- Put The Lights On The Tree4. Julian Casablancas- I Wish It Was Christmas Today5. The Raveonettes- Christmas In Cleveland6. Darker My Love- Snow Is Falling7. My Morning Jacket- X-Mas time is Here Again8. Bears- Merry Christmas To Me9. Vampire Weekend- Holiday10. Bright Eyes- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Christmas Music Playlist

Winter Weather Safety Tips

2. If your vehicle gets stuck:• Take your foot off the gas.

Spinning the tires will only dig them deeper.

• Turn your wheels side to side to push snow out of the way.

• Press gently on the gas to ease your car out.

• Keep a bag kitty litter, sand, or gravel in your car to pour on the snow to create trac-tion.

3. If you become stranded:• Make sure you know where

you are before leaving your car.

• Keep flashlights and possi-bly road flares in your car in situations like this to attract attention.

• Crack your car windows. Ice and heavy snow can seal a car shut.

• Make sure to keep warm. Run your car’s heater and engine at least 10 minutes every hour if you have enough gas. This keeps your car from freezing also.

With the winter season comes cold temperatures and icy roads, so the PG Post staff has some safety tips to keep your holiday season a safe one.

1. Driving on icy roads:• Drive more slowly, allow

plenty of room to stop.• Allow three times as much

room between yourself and another car than you would on a normal day.

• Brake easily. Braking quickly causes skidding on the ice.

• Make sure your headlights are on.

• Keep windshield and lights free of snow and ice.

• Don’t ever try to pass some-one.

• Don’t assume your vehicle can handle the weather con-ditions. Even 4-wheel drive vehicles have trouble.

1. Low- Just Like Christmas2. The Kinks- Father Christmas3. Sufjan Stevens- Put The Lights On The Tree4. Julian Casablancas- I Wish It Was Christmas Today5. The Raveonettes- Christmas In Cleveland6. Darker My Love- Snow Is Falling7. My Morning Jacket- X-Mas time is Here Again8. Bears- Merry Christmas To Me9. Vampire Weekend- Holiday10. Bright Eyes- Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

1. iPad II 2. iPhone 4S 3. Xbox 360 Kinect 4. Laptop 5. Call of Duty: MW3 6. New Car 7. Camera 8. House 9. Buckle Jeans 10. Big Screen TV

Christmas Music Playlist

Top 10 Gifts wanted by PGHS Students

Top 10 things to do on a Snowday

Holiday Favorites

1. Sleep2. Have a snowball fight

3. Play MW34. Have a movie mara-

thon5. Sled at Battlefield

Park6. Bake cookies

7. Make a snowman8. Take pictures

9. Drink hot chocolate10. Read a good book

The Commoners are Restless

by Jackson Lafargue

All throughout history, com-mon people have kept their ruling bodies in check through the power of revolutions, peaceful protests, and in some unfortunate (but nec-essary) instances, violence. It’s in the human nature—we know when we’re getting the run around. The months-old Occupy Wall Street movement is the latest of instances where people band together as a whole to stop unjust and inequality between them and their government.

In case you’re wonder-ing what exactly I’m talking about,

“Occupy Wall Street” or simply “The 99%” was conceived by the anti-consumerism magazine AdBusters. This past summer, the magazine suggested a September 17th ral-ly and march on Wall Street, and it caught on. Since the initial protest in September, the march has spread like wildfire across the United States with chapters popping up in many areas including Northwest Arkansas. Occupy Fayetteville has already gained a strong following in the

area as evidenced by the large turnout to the rally and march held on the town square October 15. People are mad, and the long-anticipated awakening of the general popu-lation is finally here.

To understand why this movement is hap-pening, it is necessary to provide a little back-ground information. The corporate tax rate was fairly low in the first half of the 20th century. Due to the labor movements of previous years, work weeks were reduced to a mere 40 hours. Reasonable vacation was allotted. Owning a three-bedroom home

was not out of reach. Nei-ther was owning a car or sending your child to college. Retirement was promised. The middle

class was what drove the coun-try forward and gave the country the reputation of prosperity. How-ever, with the Reagan administra-tion introducing “trickle-down eco-nomics”, things began to change.

Trickle-down economics is the idea that businesses and cor-porations will invest more money into the economic infrastructure if they are taxed less. This would, in theory, ultimately help out the middle and lower classes by cre-ating jobs and lowering prices on many consumer items. However, big business has been using the money for personal luxuries and gain, rather than creating jobs.

continued on page 15

photos by Philip ShepherdOccupy Fayetteville protesters marching in Fayetteville near the square and right on Highway 71 by the old Washington County Courthouse off Center Street.

15

Honda and Toyota, glob-al Japanese companies, also had great damage. In Thailand, they have manufacturers which make parts of an automobile but now, because of this dam-age, they had problems send-ing parts of an automobile to their North American factories. Now, Honda was informed that they cut

production by 50% their factory. Thailand is the largest rice producer in the country. The ex-tent of damage is very large as much as the largest rice producer. As a result, countries that eat on a diet of rice, like Korea, Japan, China will make a loss because of an increase in price of rice. The affects of Thailand’s flood are felt all over the world.

by Da Eun Jung

Thailand is suffer-ing from trouble because of an unprecedented massive flood. They have lots of problems like a lack of water, inflation rate up more than 4 percent, and massive damage to the rice industry. Thailand is the largest rice producer in the world. As Thailand grows, it is a big problem. However, damage due to flooding is not the only problem in Thailand. Lots of factories, which are foreign factories, are concentrated in around Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. Therefore, these factories also had great damage. Especially automobile and elec-tronic industry had severe damage. Thailand is the second most larg-est country to produce Hard Disk Drives (HDD). But because of this massive flood, most HDD factories had damage. As a result, experts say computers with HDD electronic products’ cost will increase more and more. One HDD manufacturer, Western Digital, shut down their factories in Thailand for a while. Most PC companies predict that problems with HDD will continue.

Thailand’s Massive Flood Destroys Industry

photo by the Associated PressHomes in Bangkok Thailand left in stagnet flood waters for days after the massive flood.

As a result, the economy is in a free fall. Unemployment is at a stagger-ing 9.1%. People are being evicted and foreclosed out of their homes. Homeless shelters are filling up. College education is mostly out of reach without student loans. Health care benefits are unaffordable and out of reach to many Americans. Many citizens will never be able to retire and will work for the rest of their lives for barely substantial wag-es. Keep in mind; this is AMERICA, (supposedly) the greatest country in the world. Why are we letting our people go hungry and perish? However, the American population is finally realizing that they’re getting the run around from big business and corrupt politi-cians. Enter the Occupy Wall Street

movement. It encourages people to shop locally, live consciously, and to only patronize local banks in hopes that they can reverse the damage done to the highly frac-tured system over the last 30 years.

The rally and march in Fay-etteville was powerful, featuring moving speeches, humorous (but true) poster messages, and one common bond of humanity The working class finally is waking up and realizing that we, as a country, are moving towards a plutocracy, and it’s time to unite as one to stop it from becoming an overwhelming re-ality. If big business and corrupt gov-ernment isn’t afraid, they should be.

Make Wall Street Pay. Signs like this one could be seen held high by protesters in downtown Fayetteville during the Occupy Fayetteville march.

The Commoners are Restless

story and photos by Philip Shepherd

Top left: Smith planking on a roof at Tiger Stadium.

Top right: Smith planking in the Janitor’s closet.

Bottom left: Smith planking on the Tiger in the entrance of PGHS.

Bottom left: Smith planking on the Secretary’s desk in the office.

Strange Trends: Planking “Planking”, a strange craze that has recently taken the world by storm, has made it’s way into Prai-rie Grove High School. What is planking, you ask? UrbanDictionary.com defines it as, “...the art of lying horizontally across any object or the ground with one’s arms by their sides, aiming to occur in daring/awk-ward situations or brotherly displays of core-strength.” However weird it may seem, planking has become in-creasingly popular among people of nearly all ages. Plankers can be found on top of signs, train tracks, fire hydrants, motorcycles, and even clotheslines. Planking was recently featured on NBC’s show “The Office.” Characters planked on top of desks and even in bathrooms. We caught students like Faith Smith planking in some creative spots around our very own high school.

Is there anything wrong with planking? Some claim that planking reveals a need for hobbies in today’s youth. Others argue that planking is innocent fun and does no harm. Of course, as the saying goes, it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. Unfortunately, someone did get hurt. One death due to planking has been reported since the craze’s start. A twenty-year-old Australian man, Acton Beale, plunged to his death after attempting to plank on a seven-story balcony rail-ing in Brisbane, Australia. Soon after, police became intolerant of the dangerous new fad. If you’re caught planking dangerously in Brisbane, Australia, you’re looking at up to $300 in fines; and in extreme cases, even jail time. Ironically, his death triggered a world wide spike in the number of people trying out planking for the first time. After his death, the number of plank-ing photos on social networking sites such as Twit-ter, Facebook, and Tumblr reached an all time high.

Planking: The art of planking is to lie horizontally across any object or the ground with their arms by their sides aiming to occur in

daring situation or a brotherly display of

core strength.

What is Planking? What’s the Issue?

by Emily Cole

The Angel Tree has been a tradition for the Prairie Grove High School’s National Honor Society for several years, but this year came as especially difficult for the club. “We’re now up to 108 members,” NHS sponsor Mary Cummings remarks. This alarm-ingly high number might not sound like a bad thing, but when there are only twenty-one angels on the tree, it becomes increas-ingly hard to divvy out angels. Each year, Cummings re-ceives names and wish lists of children in our school district from the elementary counselors. This year, because of low numbers, teachers from the high school pro-vided names of those who they

knew needed gifts. “The Angel Tree benefits children that are part of our school system or their sib-lings at home,” Cummings says. Members and Cummings are nervous about how the project will turn out this year, considering the low number of angels and the high number of members, but NHS officer Alex Khang feels otherwise. “This little kid is going to be so happy. I’m going to spend so much money on them!” Along with Khang’s gift, the child will be receiving one from five other individuals. The fact there are 108 members in the club means that about six or seven members will have to be assigned to each angel; That only guarantees the child an even better Christmas. The Angel Tree project usu-ally gets members very excited because it’s one of the few proj-ects they get involved in each year. Cummings has always enjoyed be-ing a part of the Angel Tree. She has been the NHS sponsor for four-teen years now and says NHS has been doing the project for over 20. So recently, when a group in EAST wanted to take on an Angel Tree

project, Cum-mings quickly reacted. “Angel Tree is our thing. It’s our big proj-ect every year,” Cummings says. When con-fronted about it, they were very nice about it and dropped the proj-ect immediately. A n g e l s range all the way from kindergar-ten to 15 years of age and can include a variety of gift options. With so many members, Cum-mings estimat-ed that mem-bers usually spend anywhere from $1500 to $2000 alto-gether on gifts.

Angel Tree Tradition Continues

photo by Emily ColeSenior Webb Pierson helps NHS decorate the Angel Tree in Mrs. Cummings Chemistry classroom.

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by Rachel Hays

During the week of October 19 through October 22, 2011, stu-dents from every state across America poured into the heart of down-town Indianapolis, Indi-ana to attend the 84th National FFA Convention. Attendance this year was nearly 50,000 people, with National FFA mem-bership reaching 500,000 members this year.

During the week of convention, competi-tive career development events (CDEs) are held for state-winning teams and individuals with high hopes of going all the way to the top. Prairie Grove FFA has a long history of success, taking a state-winning team or individual to compete in the national contests almost every year for the past twenty years. This year, Prairie Grove’s Ag Commu-nications team, trained by Clint and Sarah Hale, got the chance to exhibit their talents, placing

10th overall. Team member Loren Gragg was recognized as the 2nd highest individual in the contest and received a $1,000 scholarship.

The competitive events are just the tip of the iceberg. Behind the scenes, in conference rooms seemingly far away from the action, delegates from every state make the important decisions needed to

keep the National FFA Organiza-tion functioning; most important of all, the choosing of the upcoming year’s National FFA Officer Team. This year, former Prairie Grove FFA President and current Arkansas State FFA Officer John Coffey rep-resented Arkansas as a delegate.

FFA Grows Future Leaders In addition to business and competition, the National FFA Or-ganization’s main goal during con-vention is to train new leaders for the future of agriculture and the future of our country. During ses-sions, whenever large numbers of attending FFA members gather in Conseco Field house, members lis-tened to seasoned keynote speak-ers encourage them in this year’s

theme: “I believe, We believe, We are FFA!” The target focus of the FFA’s idea of true leadership is serving others. Some of the key-note speakers this year included air force veteran Vernice “Flygirl” Ar-mour and Vietnam veteran and co-median Dave Roever. The students also had the opportunity to hear the retiring addresses of National FFA

Vice Presidents Tiffany Rodgers and Shannon Norris, as well as Na-tional FFA President Riley Pagett.

Aside from the serious ex-terior, National FFA Convention also boasts great entertainment, this year featuring 2011 CMT Music Award Winner and 2010 CMA Male Vocalist of the Year, Blake Shel-ton, as well as three-time Grammy

nominee and 2011 CMT award nominee for Group Video of the Year, Little Big Town and 2011 CMT award nominee for Duo Video of the Year, Steel Magnolia. Home-grown talent included this year’s National FFA Band and Cho-rus, and many hope-fuls ready to perform as National FFA Talent.

Prairie Grove FFA members attending the convention all have excellent reports, and are eager to earn the requirements enabling them to another op-portunity to attend next year. “I’m totally stoked about next year,” says Sophomore Jeana Mathias, “our team [nursery/ landscape] will have more experi-

ence by then, and hopefully we can move up from 2nd, win state, and rock Nationals!” When asked if she would recommend the trip to other FFA members, she replied without hesitation, “Absolutely! Conven-tion was an amazing experience, and anyone who can, should try to earn their work points and go!”

photo submittedFFA members attended the 84th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indian.

Q: What was the reason behind putting you in ICU? Why did you have to stay in the hospital for an entire week?A: They put me in ICU because my body was spilling ketones into my blood. When you have diabetes, your body constantly burns off sugar. But when you’re sick your body produces ketones*. If you don’t take insulin, those ketones start eating your muscle tissue. I had to stay in the hospital all week until the ketones were out of my blood.

Q: Are you glad to be back at school?A: I am so happy to be back in school! I missed everyone so much and I really missed chicken day! (Hospital food is TERRIBLE!!) I really appreciate everybody’s prayers too.

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Interviewed by Makayla Terry

Prairie Grove High School sopho-more Emily Coor, was in the ICU at Wash-ington Regional Hospital for the entire week of November 7th through November 11th. Coor is among the several Prairie Grove High School students living with diabetes as well as the millions of high school students in America with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Her friends and family are incredibly glad that she’s back in school and doing well. “I was extremely heartbroken,” says PGHS stu-dent Hailey Carothers. “I went up to the hospital and just about broke into tears. It was like she was on her death bed just about to die.” Carothers is one of Emily’s closest friends. “Even though she hated me in 4th grade, she is still my best friend and I’m just glad she’s okay.” expresses Carothers. “Hope-fully she won’t die again,” Carothers says, jokingly.

We asked Coor about her recent experience as well as her battle with diabetes.

Q: How did you feel when you were first diagnosed with dia-betes? How old were you?A: I was first diagnosed with diabetes when I was twelve. I was pretty scared at first because many of my family mem-bers have diabetes, and I’ve seen them take insulin injec-tions. The whole thought of shots really freak me out!

Q: Do you feel different than kids that don’t have diabetes?A: I don’t feel any different, and sometimes I use it to my ad-vantage! If someone has candy or something sweet that I like to eat, I usually will say something like, “Can I have a piece? My blood sugar is low.” That usually does the trick! It’s kind of evil, but what can I say, I’m a Ninja!

Q: There are different types of diabetes. What type of diabe-tes do you have? Type 1 or Type 2?A: I have Type 1, which is usually passed on in the family. Type 1 also means your body can’t produce insulin, so I have to take insulin shots to control my blood sugar.

Q: What was it like in ICU?A: It was really exciting! They hooked up a bunch of medical junk to me. They left my room door open, so every night I would hear them yelling at the old man next door. Things like, “Get back in bed, sir!” or “Put your robe back on please!”

Q: In the beginning, why did you go to the hospital? What happened?A: I was sick the weekend before, so Monday I went to see my doctor and he knew that with all my symptoms, (high blood sugar, fever, and no appe-tite) that I had ketoacidosis*.

Student Feature: Emily Coor’s Battle

photo by Ms. Andrea ParnellEmily enjoying her first day back in Sophomore Eng-lish class after a one week stay in ICU in Washington Regional Hospital.

Editor’s notes:* ‘Diabetic ketoacidosis’ is a problem that occurs in individuals with diabetes. It occurs when the body cannot use sugar (or glucose) as a fuel source due to a lack in insulin in the body. It is a seri-ous condition that can lead to diabetic coma (prolonged unconsciousness) or even death.Source: NY Times* ‘Keytones’ are the remnants of an acid in the blood when the body burns its own fat. The presence of ketones in the bloodstream is a common complication of diabetes, which if left untreated can lead to ketoacidosis. Source: http://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-and-k

“It was like she was on her death bed just about to

die.”-Sophomore Hailey

first saw Emily Coorin the hospital.

by Eli Rose

The Prairie Grove Tiger football team had a successful sea-son this year. Our Tigers secured 8 wins with only 3 losses, as well as making it to the second round of the state playoffs. With only 6 Senior players returning to the team this year, this was a great feat. Due to the small number of seniors on the team, some were skeptical about the team’s 2011 season. Others, however, were optimistic and confi-dent in our team’s ability to succeed. The 2011 football sea-son included some big wins. Key match-ups against Farmington and Shiloh Christian were deemed most memorable as well as a controversial win against Mena in the first round of the playoffs. Beating Farmington is al-ways an accomplishment. The win against Farmington gave the team and the town high hopes for the playoffs. The Tigers se-cured a 28-21 victory for the fa-mous Battle of Highway 62. For Prairie Grove’s Home-coming game, they went up against Shiloh Christian, a team that has a reputation for being the best team in the 4A division, making them the team to beat.

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Football Season Comes to a Closejust say Mena got a little wound up. Senior player, Dalton Curt-singer explains the confrontation that broke out between that night on the feild; “All game long they had been playing dirty. When we lined up in victory formation, num-ber 77 jumped over the line and hit [sophmore] Jacob Storlie. Then someone tore off Weston Bar-tholomew’s helmet,” Curtsinger claims. “Everyone was tired of Me-na’s poor sportsmanship and we were just sticking up for our team-mates.” Our Tigers closed it out by scoring 47 points, with the Bearcats scoring a disappointing 27. In round two of the play-offs, the team wasn’t as successful. The Tigers took the 6 hour trip down to Malvern to play a rough and talent-ed squad. The Malvern Leopards triumphed, scoring 42 points while the Tigers scored 14, ending the team’s 2011 campaign. Malvern is currently competing in the state playoffs, and are looking to win it all. Despite a rough and un-fortunate ending, our team had an overall successful season this past year. As expected, the senior play-ers aren’t ready to say goodbye, but the junior stars are eager to take their place at the top. Junior players Winters and Bartholomew are expecting conference cham-pionships and state title rings next year, and look forward to a chance to say, “We told you so.”

games, two of which were away games. The season looked prom-ising when the winning streak continued for another two games, defeating Pea Ridge in a shut out with a final score of 13-0 and Gentry on their own field with yet another 42-7 away-game victory. Unfortunately, the winning streak came to an end with a 38-28 loss to Gravette, ending the regular sea-son record of 8-3, which granted

them a definite spot for the state playoffs, and better yet, the top number one seed in their division. The first round of the play-offs were underway on November 11, 2011 as Prairie Grove hosted the Mena Bearcats. The tigers did their jobs, made the plays, and were on their way to the second round of play-offs when an argu-ment broke out between the Ti-gers and the Bearcats. It was a physical game start to finish, but as the game neared its end, let’s

photo submitted by Deana BrownPrairie Grove Tigers battle the Malvern Leopards. The Leopards de-feated the Tigers 42-14.

Our Tigers wasted little time outplaying the Saints for a 34-14 win, securing the team for a trip to the playoffs. We asked Cooper Winters, the team’s quarterback, about how it felt to finally beat both teams his junior year. “It really felt great to win those games. We re-ally stepped it up this year, espe-cially since this was our last year to play Shiloh.” explains Cooper.

Weston Bartholomew stated, “It was amazing. Anytime we beat Farmington or Shiloh, it’s good, no matter what sport it is.” Coo-per and Bartholomew both gave astounding performances this season. Both third-year players earned the title “Frenzy Phe-nom”, the local player-of-the-week award awarded by 4029 News. Our team remained humble as they trekked to Berryville and pummeled the Bobcats 42-7, ex-tending their winning streak to 3

of us after one mistake, and you can’t let that happen at state.”

With the 2011 season at a close, the Lady Tigers are al-ready looking ahead and get-ting geared up for next season. “We are going to be un-stoppable next season!” Gragg excitedly exclaims.

Even though the girls’ goal was to be conference champs and ultimately state champs this season, they got a bigger, more rewarding prize.

“We may not have been state champions but we found what it took to become a state champion,” Senior Laken Mar-shall explains, “We pushed together and found champi-ons in ourselves and what it really means to be a family.”

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Lady Tigers to Raise Standards Next Season

by Megan Gerwig

The Prairie Grove Lady Ti-ger volleyball team has had a sea-son of ups and downs for 2011. With a final record of 7 wins and 8 loss-es, head coach Hannah McDonald wasn’t disappointed. “I think we had more close calls than any team has ever experienced in a season.”

During the season, the Lady Tigers went into four nail-biting five-game-matches, los-ing by two points in all of them. “We felt robbed of our hard work,” Junior Ashton Tidmore states, “If we had pushed ourselves above our limits, I believe we could have taken anyone down.”

Despite those loses, the team breezed their way through the first match-up in the district tour-nament, defeating Berryville in a three-game-match, which earned them the golden ticket to state.

Once in Jonesboro for the state competition, the girls were up against the Bruins of Pu-laski Academy and faced a heart-breaking loss which bumped them out of the state tourna-ment far earlier than anticipated.

“We played well when we had our heads in the game, but we just weren’t mentally there,” Junior Loren Gragg explains, “We had so much potential to beat that team, but we let them take advantage

Above: Lady Tigers Vol-leyball team huddle up before the State Vol-leyballe game against Pulaski Academy.

Left: The team ready to hit the road to Jonesboro.

Below: Caleigh Moyer and Megan Gerwig wait-ing for the serve.Photos by Karen Gerwig.

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by Bayli Bradley

The night of October 7th, 2011 was a big night in the small town of Prairie Grove. Not only was it homecoming at Tiger Sta-dium, but the football players were getting ready for their second big-gest game of the year: The game against the Shiloh Christian Saints.

At kickoff the Tigers were ready to sack the Saints. The Prairie Grove Tigers played an incredible game the whole time. At halftime the score was 21-7 with the Tigers taking the lead. They had scored not one but two more touchdowns by the end of the game. Quarter-back Cooper Winters threw two touchdown passes, one to Landon West, and one to Weston Bar-tholomew. We averaged six yards a play on offense. Full-back Daniel Schrock ran three touch-downs dur-ing the game.

W h e n time had run out, the Saints

Tigers Shatter Saints 42 Straight Conference Win

by Payton Sapp

This past season, an-other deserving Prairie Grove High School athlete was chosen for 4029’s Player of the Week Award. Junior Cooper Winters was nominated for Player of the Week and was voted “Frenzy Phenom” by his community. “I felt proud and humbled to be nomi-nated.” says the junior quarterback. It was a big deal for a stu-dent from our small town school to be nominated, much less, win an athletic award of such significance. Cooper was the second Senior

High player to win the title of Frenzy Phenom, after fellow Junior Weston Bartholomew took home the title just a few weeks before. “It felt prettyawesome to win, says Cooper. “It re-ally showed the small-town support.” Cooper competed against other senior high football play-ers from much larger schools for the title, which made winning that much more of an achievement. “I honestly didn’t think I would win,” Cooper admits. “I thought it would be Tucker because he goes to a huge school.” It just goes to show that bigger isn’t always better. Prior to winning the award, the Tigers had won the long an-ticipated game against the Shiloh Saints. “Shiloh obviously isn’t the team they used to be,” Cooper ex-plains. “It felt great to beat them, but let’s move on to the next game now.”

Cooper Winters wins 40/29 Football Frezny

just couldn’t keep up with the Ti-gers. The final score ended up being 34-14 with the Tigers tak-ing the victory. By winning the game that Friday night, the Prai-rie Grove Tigers broke the Shiloh Saints winning streak in confer-ence games. Beforehand, Shiloh had won 42 conference games in a row, but the Tigers broke that win-ning streak by beating them. The Tigers didn’t just beat the Saints though, they slaughtered them. “Shiloh obviously isn’t the team they used to be,” Winters stated. Head football coach Danny Abshi-er felt a mixture of confidence and nervousness going into this game. One player that really stood out to him was Dalton Faulk. “He was tea-rin’ it up! ten tackles, an intercep-tion, a sack, and knocked a pass down,” Abshier raved. In general, Abshier felt good about the over-all performance of the Shiloh game. “We’ve improved; Less big penal-ties and more big plays. We are still improving. Our best is yet to come!”

photo by Shelly WilliamsColby Elkins breaks through for a Tiger victory 34-14.

photo Shelley Williams

by Eli Rose

Jeff Frerking, a Ju-nior at Prairie Grove High School, is the only return-ing runner to this year’s senior high cross country team. Meaning, the team has only one shot to medal at this year’s conference championship meet. With only one chance to suc-ceed, that’s no easy task.

“19 minutes and 59 seconds at Shiloh,” as stated by Frerking, was his best running time. “It was the five-kilometer con-ference championship,” he explains, “I scored 9th place and medaled.” For those who are unfamil-iar, a kilometer is equal to about a half of a mile which makes a 5 k run a little over three miles.

Frerking comes from a family of runners, and has been running lon-ger than he can remember. To the surprise of most of his peers, he is quite the athlete. “I play basketball, and have also done Martial Arts since I was six years old,” Frerking explains. “I have a green belt in Shotokan Martial arts.”

Mr. Darren Chandler, the high school Biology teacher dou-bles as the senior and junior high

cross country coach. He has been the coach for the past 4 years, and plans to continue coaching for at least a few more years. “Jeff is ded-icated and self-disciplined,” Chan-dler says, “He runs outside of times when I ask him to, and is always looking to get better running times.”

In addition to being the lone runner, Frerking’s hair style helps

make him stand out in the crowd. He is one of the only Prairie Grove High School students sporting a stylish mullet hairstyle. What’s his secret to maintaining head-hair perfection? “I comb it the same way every day and it just stays that way.” Couldn’t have said it better, Jeff.

The Chosen One

photo by Stephanie FrerkingJeff Frerking running the 5K State Cham-pionship race at Harrison.