Winter 2012pgpost.org

in this issue:

Colors Day 2012

The End of the Internet

Book Reviews: The Perks of Being a

Wallflower and

Redeeming Love

Young LOVE:They Say It Never Lasts

on the cover

Water Conservation 8

SOPA 10

Small Town Fairytales 12

Concert Lineup 18

FCCLA goes to State 20

Colors Day 21

features

6

contents6 16

23

19

15

20

COME HANG OUT WITH US COOL ELDERS!

PRAIRIE GROVE SENIOR CENTER

479-846-2794

prairiegrovearkansas.org

Editors:

Emily Cole

Philip Shepherd

Assistant Editor:

Jackson Lafargue

Business Manager:

Casey Wilken

Co-Editors:

Megan Gerwig

Sidney Jaro

Nikki Fant

Eli Rose

Layout Designer:

Makayla Terry

Reporters:

McKenzie Evans

Rachel Hays

Bayli Bradley

Becca Cole

Jade Nixon

Payton Sapp

Cover Art:

Hayley Mitchell

Photographers:

Da-Eun Jung

Mary Jameson

STAFF

6 F E A T U R E

YOUNG LOVEthey say

it never lastsBy Casey Wilken

As the saying goes, young love never lasts, but Philip Shepherd and Hannah Neyens have proven the saying wrong.

Q: How did you first meet each other?

-We had known each other a little bit from grade school, but we first showed interest in each other when we went on the high school band trip to Florida during Spring break 2009.

Q: Who asked who out, and how?

-Philip asked me out at Prairie Grove Battlefield Park on May 25th, 2009. We were with a group of friends. We were all standing together then Philip said, “Oh Han-nah, I’ve been meaning to ask you, will you be my girlfriend?”

Q: What first caught your eye about each other?

-Hannah: His hairy legs, they really stood out to me…that was a joke.-Philip: Her looks?

Q: What was your first date like? What happened and where was your first date?

-Philip: I don’t really remember our first date, but most of our ear-

-The way I can talk to him about everything and he understands. We also don’t argue to often, we just tell each other our own views on something. Oh, and his hair.

Q: How long have you dated?

-Since May 25, 2009. It has been 2 years and 8 months.

Q: Do you plan on staying to-gether after high school?

-We hope… but we’ll see where life takes us. We are not going to stop each other from doing any-thing we each would want to do with our lives. Only sup-port each other.

Q: Hannah, what is your favorite thing about Philip?

ly dates involved being driven to places by Hannah’s grandmother.

Q: What is your favor-ite thing to do together?

-Hannah: Personally, my favorite thing is just talking to him about anything and everything. We can just sit down and talk for hours.-Philip: In the summer, my favor-ite thing to do with her is spend the day at my house swimming and eating together and just en-joying each other’s company.

Q: Have your dates changed? If they have changed, how?

-Yes, definitely. At first we had to be driven around. We both can drive now, so being able to go places and do things alone has really let us learn more about each other. Its been nice.

Q: How has your relation-ship changed over time?

-Hannah: We have definitely be-come a lot more ourselves around each other. At first everything was awkward, now nothing is.-Philip- It’s changed dramatically. We’re so much closer then we use to be, naturally. It’s to the point where I can’t imagine life without her.

By Makayla Terry

“Hey. I just wanted to tell you you look really pretty!” A simple textstarted a relationship that has last-ed over a year. Sophomores RachelHays and Logan Bartholomew, to-gether since November of 2010, tell usabout their relationship.

Q: How and when did you two meet?

Rachel: Well we’ve both gone to PG our whole lives, but I guess we“met” in my dad’s class; we both sat in the back. I thought he waspretty good lookin’ ;)Logan: Rachel sent me a text ask-ing to use my Junior High LettermanJacket for a half-time performance vs. Pea Ridge last year. Of course,being kind, I said yes. After a few weeks or so we kept talking andtexting each other throughout the days to get to know each other.

Q: What did you first no-tice about each other?

Rachel: What really caught my at-tention was how quiet he was. (I lovethat-it shows some humility; also I’m really curious and he wasmysterious because he didn’t talk much-I never knew just what he wasthinking) Whenever he did talk, it was gentlemanly, rather than mostguys our age whose conversations are usually offensive; he reallyimpressed me!Logan: The first thing I noticed about her was that she was a kind,genuine girl that loved God. On the physical appearance, I firstnoticed her eyes, gleaming and glistening in the sunlight.

Q: What’s the best part of your relationship?

Logan: The best part of our rela-tionship I would say is that God isinvolved in it. It’s not just the two of us; God is involved in ourrelationship every day as our love grows stronger. It’s pretty muchlike a triangle; she and I are the

two points at the bottom and thetwo points connect at the top where God is at in our relationship.We’re just getting closer and closer.

Q: What was your first date?

Rachel: Our first “date” was ac-tually before we were “dating.”November 12. We went with Nick and Lacey to Hunan’s and then to seeU n s t o p p a b l e .Logan: The very first date was one evening when her mom dropped us offat Olive Garden. It was funny, be-cause I was asked twice that night ifI would like some wine with my meal.

It was a fun go out experience, Iguess, but I am the type of guy that loves to stick to mama’s homecooked meals!

Q: What is your favor-ite thing to do together now?

Rachel: Usually when we spend time together, it includes a package oftollhouse cookie dough and a stack

of movies. We mostly talk-we talkabout everything. Sometimes I watch Logan and Jon (my little brother)play video games or toss a foot-ball around, which I think is reallycool that Logan doesn’t mind my little brother. We just enjoy any timewe have together and being around each other’s families. Both our momsare great cooks too, so that’s a plus.Logan: I would say our favorite thing doing together now is justseeing each other and talking; we love to see each other. We tell eachother everything which I think is very healthy for any relationship.

We love to sit around and joke with each other, talk about how weredoing, and talk about God and what he has done and is doing for us. Itmakes our relationship a lot easier as well as better having God init. It’s not just any or-dinary relationship.

Q: How long have you been together?

Rachel: We have been together since November 20, 2010. One year andthree months.Logan: We have been together for 1 year, 2 months, 3 days, and 48seconds to the dot! Just kidding, that would be too impressive for meto know. But probably around 1 year and 2 ½ to 3 months.

Q: What in your mind would be the perfect date?

Rachel: I just enjoy being with him! We like to play around, and laugha lot. We like to have fun. I think any time we have together that weget to spend with each other is “perfect”. We can be cleaning thekitchen or going bowling; it’s all the same to me as long as we aretogether and with people we love.Logan: The perfect date would be like any other one I think. It wouldbe quiet and peaceful and full of laughter. It would be a well cookedmeal, hopefully some smoked ribs or brisket, but like any other timewe’re together, just enjoying each other’s presence and thanking Godevery moment we’re together.

7F E A T U R E

Agape Love: A Love That Never Fails

8 N E W S

School Convserves Water, Saves Money

By Philip Shepherd

As a newcomer to Prairie Grove High School, sophomore English teacher Andrea Parnell was puzzled when she took her first trip into the high school’s ladies’ room. Parnell entered the restroom to find that someone had left the water running at one of the sinks. Naturally, she turned off the

installation of the aerators, com-plaints that the sinks don’t let out enough water have been voiced by students and faculty alike. “Every time I wash my hands, I feel like I’m not getting enough water,” says high school daytime custo-dian Wayne Whitmire, who is all too familiar with the high school bathrooms.

From a girl’s stand-point, an interesting view was expressed by sophomore student Rebecca Cole. “I hate them,” Cole said very blatantly. “Instead of only turning one of the sinks on, girls turn all of them on.” Could this mean that the school’s efforts to save and con-serve are being foiled? Only time will tell.

water conservation. “The natural gas company came in and did it for free,” says Woods. “They put aerators on all the sinks, and they even put them on the sprayer in the cafeteria kitchen.”

So why exactly did the school have these aerators in-stalled? “We’re wanting to cut down on the use of hot water in order to save energy,” explains Woods. “It also cuts down on the use of water in general, which also saves on the water bill.” By us-ing less water, the school saves money while at the same time, saving energy.However efficient they may be, these new “energy savers” aren’t favored by all. After the recent

water, only to be met with a high pitched voice asking her ever so politely to turn the water back on…embarrassment ensues. After the PG Post learned of the numerous cases of girls unnecessarily using water on a regular basis, it’s no wonder why Prairie Grove school officials made the decision to cut down on the school’s water usage. New spouts have been installed on the faucets in all of the bathrooms at the high school, which we learned, after speaking with Assistant Super-intendent Mr. Vol Woods, are referred to as “aerators”. Accord-ing to Mr. Woods, the natural gas company did its part in helping Prairie Grove achieve this goal of

Prairie Grove Puppies to Possibly Perish in Pound

By Rachel HaysPhotos by Emily Cole

It was love at first sight. Those big, green eyes were what got me. I knew we belonged to-gether. She was shy at first, but after I had been standing there a while, she gathered up all her cour-age and approached me. Cau-tiously, not wanting to startle her, I put my hand through the cage wire.

She pushed her soft nose against it and licked my fingers carefully,

almost as if to ask if I were going to take her with me, or if I would just be looking and leaving, choos-ing another animal instead. At that moment, I knew she was the one. I adopted her from the Fay-etteville Animal Shelter a few days before Christmas 2007, and she has been my best friend since. My kitten was fortunate. Ac-cording to the Humane Society, 6-8

million dogs and cats enter shelters each year, and of those, 3-4 million are euthanized. These numbers don’t even include animals that are in small facili-ties not ran by the Hu-mane Society, such as the Prairie Grove Ani-mal Shelter operated by the Prairie Grove Police Department, lo-cated by the waste wa-ter treatment facility on Ditmars Road. In 2011, the state of Arkansas enacted a law requir-ing that all animals be

spayed or neutered prior to adop-tion, which dramatically decreased

the adoption rate and caused an increase in the euthanization rate at the shelter. According to Officer Jeff O’Brien, 64 dogs and 60 cats were euthanized at Prairie Grove’s facility last year. “With the new adop-tion law, our adoption average has lowered to about one to two per month,” states O’Brien. He goes on to say that there are typically around

five animals at the ken-nel on average at any given time, though the pound can comfortably house 12 adult cats and 12-18 av-erage-sized dogs. The animals are held a minimum of five days, but typically each unclaimed animal is housed at the shelter for about a month in an effort to give them the best opportunity to be adopted. Officers, such as Sergeant Chris Workman, come to the kennel every day to clean it and feed and water the animals. Work-man says that he and many other officers have adopted animals them-selves because they get attached to them after seeing them ev-ery day. At the shelter, these animals are well taken care of and pro-vided for, but they can’t stay in the kennel forever. When asked how much it costs to adopt a pet, O’Brien replied, “The adoption fee for an animal that has

already been spayed or neutered is $10. If the animal you wish to adopt has not yet been spayed or neutered, the cost is $15. The ad-ditional $5 covers transportation of the animal to a local veterinarian of the person’s choice where it can be spayed or neutered. The person adopting the animal is then respon-sible to pay the veterinarian what-ever fees are associated with the spaying or neutering of the animal.” If you are in need of a furry friend, or have lost yours, contact the Prairie Grove Police Depart-ment at 479-846-3270 during nor-mal business hours, 8am to 5pm, to set up an appointment with an officer who can assist you in vei-wing the animals. You can also view the animals currently being held at the kennel online. They are listed for adoption on PetFinder, Craigslist, and the Prairie Grove Police Department Facebook page.

9N E W S

and many more. Basically, these bills would have turned Internet in the United States into a clone of “The Great Firewall of China”. The free sharing of files and in-formation that we take for grant-ed would have been taken away, and for all intents and purposes, would’ve “ended the Internet”. The bill was met with great resistance and strong opposition from the general Internet commu-nity. “SOPA is a direct violation of people’s freedom of knowledge and information as guaranteed under the first amendment” Internet group Anonymous says in one of their response videos. In addition to the majority of the users of the Internet, large websites and co rp o ra t i o n s , such as Google, Yahoo!, Face-book, Twitter, AOL, the M o z i l l a C o r -poration, Reddit, The Wikime-dia Foundation, and many more spoke out against the bill. The ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and

Reporters Without Bor-ders also voiced their con-cerns over SOPA and PIPA. January 18th marked a large victory for the opposi-tion when around 115,000 websites participated in “Internet Blackout Day”, in which numerous websites completely locked their web-sites, making them inacces-sible. Wikipedia was a no-table participant, displaying

by Jackson Lafargue

For a while, the Internet was in grave danger of being un-reasonably censored by the U.S. government. However, thanks to a few big websites, the Internet com-munity, and a strong will to keep the 1st amendment alive, the threat is no more (for now). A dangerous pair of bills, SOPA (Stop Online Pi-racy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) were being considered in congress until January 20th, when author of the two bills, Lamar Smith (R-TX), dropped the bill saying that he would put off the issue of piracy “until there is a wider agreement on a solution.” SOPA and PIPA were introduced to congress on October 26, 2011 by Smith and a committee of 12 co-sponsors, including Arkansas’s own republican representative Tim Griffin. Unlike the DMCA copyright act of 1998, which adopted a “no-tice and take down” approach, SOPA would have put content on the internet at the discretion of the U.S. Department of Justice and the entertainment industry in an at-tempt to stop piracy. Any site that even only linked to copyrighted ma-terial would be censored without question, which includes the bulk of sites on the web, including You-Tube, Twitter, Wikipedia, 4Chan,

a black screen on their site read-ing “Imagine a world without free knowledge” followed by a message from Wikipedia about the two bills. Google, although their site was still accessible, placed a black bar over their logo to raise awareness of the cons of censorship. Smaller sites and blogs were also able to “black out”, using a code that us-ers could paste into their source code provided by the website so-pastrike.com. The blackout was successful in that it made people aware of exactly how dangerous legislation like SOPA and PIPA are. On January 19th, the fed-eral government shut down the file

sharing sites MegaUpload and Mega-Video, claim-ing that the w e b s i t e s caused copy-right holders $5 million in

damages. T h i s c a m e at a

very turbulent time in the SOPA and PIPA legislation process, as more and more people were join-ing the opposition against the bill and the phones of congressmen were ringing off their hooks. In retaliation to this rash act, the Internet hacker group Anonymous success-fully hacked and temporar-ily shut down the websites of the Recording Industry As-sociation of America (RIAA), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and Uni-versal Music, all of which are re-sponsible for a large majority of

the popular music and movies that we know today. Other sites like the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI were temporarily shut down by Anonymous, among others. Says one of the Anony-mous twitter accounts, “For SOPA supporters, today was their black-out”. Finally after months of op-position and heartache, Lamar Smith withdrew the bills from con-gress on January 20th. The fight against unfair censorship was won, creating lots of buzz both on the web and around the world. Although the battle against SOPA and PIPA has been won with overwhelming support, the war is unfortunately not over. Legislators have tried to pass laws similar to SOPA in the past, and they will most likely keep trying to pass this kind of legislation. These legislators, we have now learned, are not elected to represent us, but to represent the best interests of the film and record-ing industries. Come 2012 elec-tions, please keep in mind the bills these legislators have supported and/or opposed. Please consider your choices carefully; who will rep-resent US, the people of the Unit-ed States of America, and not the highest bidder to their campaign.

10 O P I N I O N

By Jackson Lafargue

For years, Prairie Grove stu-dents have unsuccessfully attempt-ed to access their favorite sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube on the school network. Each time an attempt was made to access a blocked site, students were greeted with a generic gray screen with huge, blocky red letters reading “ACCESS DENIED.” Although most sites are still blocked, the network adminis-trators have changed up the block screen, adding an animated pic-ture file of Gandalf from the popular movie series Lord of the Rings with the message “YOU SHALL NOT PASS” darting across the screen. Although the new block screen offers up a little comic re-lief, students continue to ques-tion the school’s policy on blocking websites. According to network ad-ministrator Shawn Witt, one of the reasons why the network continues to be so restricted and monitored is because of the Children’s Inter-net Protection Act (CIPA) signed into law by congress 12 years ago.

The law states that in order for schools to receive federal fund-ing for computer networks and other technology, they must adopt an in-ternet safety policy to block obscene content on the web. Schools that fall under CIPA’s umbrella must also adopt and enforce a policy to monitor the online activities of minors, which is an explanation for the disclaimer message students must agree to before logging in to Prairie Grove’s network. “I believe website block-ing is commonly misunderstood by many students and staff members” Witt says. “Sites are sometimes un-intentionally blocked by the filter, as more than 3.4 million websites were reported as inappropriate in 2011 by the filter.” Witt also remarks that teachers will ask to block sites that students are paying more at-tention to than their lessons. “If stu-dents happen to find a website that they feel should be unblocked, they should contact a teacher and ask to have it reviewed,” Witt recommends.

Prairie Grove High School stu-dents have mixed feelings on the is-

sue. “I don’t like it,” freshman Ba-leigh Bell says. “They should at least allow Facebook during the lunches, if anything.” Junior Brian Gadberry feels strongly about the issue saying “Prairie Grove tends to take the site blocking a little too far in some cases. Other people I know from outside of PGHS say that very few sites are blocked on theirnetwork”. Sophomore Becca Cole hates how she is not able to access sites for news or research. “Block-ing sites like Facebook and Twit-ter is clearly necessary, but sites like The Huffington Post and other news and information pages should not be blocked”, she says. “This is a public school. They should not be able to filter what goes into our minds”. Freshman Drew Spencer thinks that the firewall is “easily an annoyance”, but he sees the neces-sity in it. “The blocked search words are a little ridiculous though,” he says. “I was trying to search how to unlock layers in Photoshop, and “unlock” turned out to be a blockedsearch word. It was very frustrat-ing”. Junior Will Pohlman also sees

the necessity in the firewall, but also believes that it is restricting. “I understand why the school blocks game sites and other distracters to keep school time learning orient-ed,” Pohlman remarks. “But I think that perhaps the school has gone overboard on the blocking. Google anything about a subject you are learning at school and half the sites are blocked”. Senior Paige Blake-more is also concerned about the blocks. “There should be more web-sites available to students. YouTube has lots of educational content.” This is only one of the many changes that the network adminis-trators have made to the school com-puter system in recent years. “For starters, we upgraded the hardware and purchased more bandwidth from PGTelco,” Witt says. “We have also installed a campus-wide wire-less network to allow users to access the internet more easily.” In recent years, other major improvements have been made to the school com-puter network, including the school email’s migration to the current sys-tem powered by Gmail. A disclaimer was also added to the login screen, notifying whoever logs on to the net-work that their activity will be moni-tored using remote management.

11N E W S

Bond movie together.” After that first date, Jonathan and Mi-chael immediately be-gan to connect. The two lovebirds dated for nine months and were engaged for much of that time. Mrs. Warren laughed as she began to explain the night Jona-than proposed to her. “We dressed up and he took me to a very nice restaurant and in the restaurant park-ing lot, he blindfolded me.” While driving to the big surprise Mr. Warren had in store, the two came upon a tragic but hilarious conflict. On the way to Mt. Sequoyah where he planned on asking her for her hand in marriage, they passed a McDonalds that was on fire. There were po-liceman everywhere. “I had to take off the blindfold so

By Megan Gerwig

The young Michael Toney first met Jonathan Warren in an education class at the University of Arkansas fourteen years ago. “We were actually dating other people at the time! I even helped him plan a date with an-other girl,” Warren says. “When it got close to graduation and the end of carpooling, it made me sad to think that I would not hear his laugh every day,” Mrs. Warren sadly explained.But near the end of their time at college on April 24th, 1998, Jonathan War-ren took Michael Toney out on their first date. “It was a great first date,” Mrs. Warren exclaimed, “He went to get a haircut and then we went to see a James

Small Town Fairy Tales

By Rachel Hays

“Hi, my name is Sean Carney, and I love my wife!” were the firstwords I heard my fresh-man English teacher speak; a most intriguingstatement. I learned her name was Laura when she came to school tohelp her husband one morning. They would look at each other as if thewhole world hung only on the existence of one another. He spokedreamily about her often, and as freshmen this year can attest, hestill does. He pro-claimed unashamedly his love for her. The girls inour class marveled at this; it seemed surpris-ing to us that one day itmight be possible to find someone who would be as proud of us as Mr. Carney is of his wife. Over the course of our freshman year inEnglish, I thought, “I wonder what their story is?” So, given theopportunity, I asked.

Sean and Laura were both in their early 20s when they met at a weekendchurch conference in St. Louis in January of 2007 during a seminar onevangelism. Mutual friends introduced them (and may or may not havestrategically positioned them next to each oth-er). She caught hisattention immediately. He spent the rest of the weekend trying tofind every opportunity to be near her; he took note of her genuine

care for others, her individual sense of fun, and her intriguingbeauty. When the week-end was over, Sean con-vinced their mutualfriends to invite Lau-ra down to Fayetteville to “help with the churchplant” in which they were both participating. They spent time gettingto know each other with friends. Sean decided it was time to takethe next step in pursuing Laura. Being a little old-fashioned andwanting to honor her family, he called Lau-ra’s father and asked tohave coffee.

The day finally came, and he drove to Jop-lin from Fayetteville to meether parents. Laura says that her father told a friend later that daythat he’d met his fu-ture son-in-law. Their first date was exploring acave at Devil’s Den, which is something they still enjoy doingtogether. When I asked Mr. Carney how long he

knew his wife before heknew he loved her, and if it was ‘love at first sight’, he wiselyreplied, “Love is not an all-or-nothing thing. It doesn’t happen allat once. Love grows over time. It is something we acted out as webecame more cer-tain of our compatibil-ity and God’s will.” He wasquick to add that he was head over heels for her.Mrs. Carney says that she knew he was the kind of man she wanted tomarry because he met her list of qualifica-tions for a good husband,which were 1) a lead-er 2) a man she could re-spect and 3) a man whowas pursuing God. She even confessed that she spent so much timethinking about him, she typed his name endless-ly into her computer atw o r k .

Mr. Carney re-counts the day he asked

Laura to marry him, saying, “Iwent up to Joplin one Fri-day, Laura’s ring shin-ing on my little fingeras I drove.” They had a picnic lunch next to a creek in the woods.Having exchanged many letters throughout their courtship, Sean had onemore letter to pres-ent. When they had fin-ished their meal, he openedthe letter and read it aloud. In it he declared his love and need forher, and asked Laura if she would be his “partner, friend, and loverfor the rest of his life”, to which she replied, “Okay”-something theystill laugh about.

They have been married for four and a half years. Their family hasrecently gone from two to three with the addition of their son, Alistar. Mr. Carney says that their perfect evening consists ofhaving dinner togeth-er and then taking a walk with their baby, talkingover their days and dreams. When asked what causes their relationshipto be so amazing, Mr. Car-ney stated, “We learned early on the value ofsaying ‘yes’ to each other; being ready and willing to serve eachother and to look out for one an-other’s best interests.” In a word,selflessness. He also said that they make sure to take time toencourage each other on a regular basis. Mr. and Mrs. Carney givethis advice to young love: “Be cautious. Be wise. Enjoy beingfriends. Get advice frompeople older than you. Save everything youcan for the right one; you will appreciate it when the time comes. Behonest with yourself: have high expectations and goals and stick tot h e m . ”

mr. and mrs. carneu

Bond movie together.” After that first date, Jonathan and Mi-chael immediately be-gan to connect. The two lovebirds dated for nine months and were engaged for much of that time. Mrs. Warren laughed as she began to explain the night Jona-than proposed to her. “We dressed up and he took me to a very nice restaurant and in the restaurant park-ing lot, he blindfolded me.” While driving to the big surprise Mr. Warren had in store, the two came upon a tragic but hilarious conflict. On the way to Mt. Sequoyah where he planned on asking her for her hand in marriage, they passed a McDonalds that was on fire. There were po-liceman everywhere. “I had to take off the blindfold so

they didn’t think I was being kidnapped by some guy in a suit!” Mrs. Warren exclaims. When the two fi-nally arrived at Mt. Sequoyah there was a group of drunken kids hanging around so it completely ru-ined his romantic plan. Having to think fast, Jonathan kept her blindfolded and took her to one of the houses for sale that the two had been looking at. He led her up to the front porch, blindfold still intact, and stopped.

“I could hear him get down on one knee so I took off the blindfold,” Mrs. War-ren explains, “when he asked ‘will you marry me?’, my answer was, ‘are you serious?’” She said yes though and the two still laugh about her initial re-sponse to the question. Two kids and 13 years later, the two are still happily in love. The Warrens still regularly go out on dates. “They usually consist of din-ner and a movie; for dinner, we usually try to go places we have never been to.” “We miss just get-ting to go places whenever we feel like it, but I guess the kids are worth the sacrifice!” Mrs. Warren jokingly adds.

The End

By Kenzie Evans

To many people, Disney’s mov-ie Cinderella is simply just afairytale—something that could never happen. The “perfect” guy and the“perfect” girl some-how finding each other and falling madly in loveand staying together for a hap-pily ever after is “crazy” and“obnoxious”. But to oth-ers—the movie Cinder-ella is something they relyon to push them to keep try-ing to find the “right” person.Young people everywhere search for a person that can make them happy;someone that shares com-mon hopes and dreams. Few people follow theirsearch due to heartbreak and the fear that things won’t be like theway it was for Cinder-ella. Or maybe even be-cause they get tired ofhearing “there are other fish in the sea.” But those who do followtheir search—like Di-anne and Eddie McClel-land—prove that love, cantruly last forever.

They were busy being young—living right next to eachother, riding bikes together all the way to Mineral Springs, andpainting their names all over the concrete. At age seven, both in thesecond grade, Dianne

Keene automatically knew her last name wouldeventually be McClel-land. Even in plays they would be paired together,like in the play Tom Thumb Wedding- Eddie escort-ed her down the aisle.They were both happy, both careless, and both, unknowingly startingtheir own fairytale together.Years went by, and by age 15—Eddie and Di-anne had their first car dateto see North to Alaska. That was only anoth-er spark to their alreadyextravagant relationship. Eddie carved their initials into every treehe saw, and was with Di-anne every second of ev-ery day. And eventually,Eddie escorted her as the football homecoming queen.

Unlike others, Eddie and Dianne ate apricots togetherinstead of going to a fancy res-taurant. And he carried her on hisshoulders a whole four blocks when she got tired instead of justmaking her walk the rest of the way. And from sev-en to seventeen, bothstill loved each oth-er just the same.Life went on, and time went by. Eddie was signed to play professionalbaseball with the St. Louis Cardi-nals, and the first thing he said toDianne—after asking her dad—was “we need to

go get a ring.” Even whileplaying baseball, he came by to see her as much as he could. And onDecember 8, 1964, he left for baseball camp—and not too long after,someone came to the door of her home with a huge beautiful package,and when she opened it she realized it was the gorgeous red coat withthe fur collar that she had been wanting for a long time, with a noteshowing that it was from Eddie. Once he got back—and both weresettled—they eventual-ly had two beautiful baby boys and one gorgeousbaby girl.

They are now 65, and still in love—47 years of marriage;and she’s still glad to see him when he comes home from a long day ofwork at Jack’s Barber Shop. So the shy, ath-letic guy and the outgoingentertainer made a life together that could never be mistaken withanything less than perfect.So for those who still believe that love is nothing but a mess- andanything but real—look at Eddie and Dianne. They made the seeminglyimpossible, possible; and haven’t given up yet. Their vows mean asmuch to them today as they did 47 years ago. And when they say “I loveyou” they say it full heartedly and with as much enthusiasm as theydid the first time. May-be they didn’t have glass slippers or carriagesmade from pumpkins like Cinderella did, but they had each other, andthat’s all they needed.

14E N T E R T A I N M E N T

Mrs. GaulinQ: What is the worst excuse you’ve ever gotten from a student?A: A student said she couldn’t write about her assigned book, but since her life was so interesting, she wrote about that instead. She expected me to give her credit for it!Q: What made you decide to be a teacher?A: I love literature and teenagers.Q: Would you quit your job if you won ten million dollars? Why or why not?A: I might quit for a year or two, but I’d be back, I love teaching, and it fills my life with a sense of purpose that money never could.Q: What is the worst fashion trend you’ve seen on students?A: I think saggy butt pants are the DUMBEST looking thing I’ve seen anyone wear. Watching someone actually have to hold up his pants makes me laugh out loud.Q: What were you like as a kid in school?A: I was a terrible student, but I was always a closet bookworm. I liked school… Just not the class part.Q: Was your dream job teaching? If so why? If not, why?A: Teaching would definitely be my dream job if only they would hire a secretary just for me who was also a professional essay grader.

Ms. MontgomeryQ: What is your favorite reality TV show? Why?A: Dog the Bounty Hunter, because I am planning for my next career.Q: Did you like or dislike high school? Why or why not?A: I loved it, because sports, dance, cattle showing, friends, boys and some of my classes were okay.Q: What is your favorite snack in class?

A: Diet Coke and smarties.Q: What was the most embarrassing moment in front of a class?A: I was reading a list of powder puff T-shirt names and I was reading two words on a shirt that made a “bad word.” I said it over and over! I never could hear it. The kids thought it was funny but one nice guy had to say, “Ms. Montgomery, stop speaking!” “Think!”…”Sofa king.”Q: What is the best class failure story?A: The last time I made seating chart a boy’s momma called because he had to sit by a bully! She wanted me to move the girl away from her son.Q: What is your favorite car? Why? A: My favorite car is a Honda Element because it’s cool and fast!

What You Don't Know About Your Teachers

15E N T E R T A I N M E N T

he works to break open her im-prisoned heart, Angel learns what it means to love, be loved, and to rise to the greater power that calls. Based off the Book of Ho-sea from the Old Testament, Riv-ers recreates a tragic love story with a fairytale happy ending. Mi-chael and Angel both show sur-prising strength and courage. “It is a heart-grabbing book that just pulls you inside until the very last page,” says senior Abby Addicks who has read the book three times now. This book is defi-nitely recommended to people of all ages who have a need to read.

By Nikki Fant

Francine Rivers’, page-turning love story Redeeming Love, is a novel centered around real, heart-breaking, honest emotion. Raised without a childhood and left motherless at age eight, Angel grows into adulthood as a beautiful yet broken harlot. The only thing she has to look forward to is the walk she is allowed to take three times a week. As always, the men stare. One man in particular took one glance at her and knew, as a sign from God, that she was to be his bride. After the hardships of getting her out of the prison she called work, Michael Hosea final-ly put the ring on her finger, but also a stone-cold heart guarded more fiercely than anything. As

Perks may be one of the best novels I’ve ever read. This is not because it tells you the meaning of life, or teaches you moral les-sons, but because it helps people get through a time in their lives that seems impossible. We all read for different reasons, sometimes it’s because it’s required, or maybe it’s because our friend told us about the book. But I always find that the best reads are the ones that you read not to get finished, but to escape from reality. The Perks of Being a Wallflower takes such a seemingly common child and makes him real. Charlie is the one on the sidelines, he is the one that no one ever notices, and in a way he is all of us. There will be times in all of our lives when we are pushed to the edge of the dance floor. Reading and understanding this book won’t prevent this from happening. What Perks does is it helps us deal with the situations we have at hand without breaking down. We see Charlie progress and grow throughout the book, his letters be-coming more descriptive, mature, and more personal as time passes.

By Becca Cole

In Stephen Chbosky’s com-ing of age novel The Perks of Be-ing a Wallflower, we join the main character, a freshman under the alias of Charlie, as he ventures into high school for the first time. A quiet, lonely teen, Charlie is unlike the others; he has no friends, no plans, and not an idea of what high school is going to be like. It seems it’s going to be another four years of misery, but then he meets Pat-rick. With Patrick comes the illustri-ous, beautiful Sam. And as Charlie dives deeper and deeper into high school, Patrick and Sam lead him deeper and deeper into the world of sex, drugs, and music. Told through letters written by Charlie to an anon-ymous recipient you view the world as Charlie sees it. You see the world through the eyes of a wallflower.

Book Love

is watched first, the book only en-hancing what you’ve just seen. Several authors have had the opportunity to write their own screenplays or direct their movies. Stephen Chbosky, author of Perks of Being a Wallflower, directed and wrote the screenplay for the movie version of his book which is set to come out later this year. “When the author writes the screenplays, he/she knows how to best present the scene since it was a picture in their minds first,” Addicks comments. Some think that it would be best for authors to supervise while screen-writers write the screenplays, which is how most movies are made. “The author knows everything about the characters and how things look and play out, but the screen-writers help change the book into a movie,” says Swearingen.

cial Network. 2012 has several book-based movies lined up in-cluding first of the highly antici-pated Hunger Games trilogy, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2, and the cult classic The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

The long time argument against books being turned into movies is

that it somehow ruins the book. “When I read the book first and the movie isn’t up to par, it’s usu-ally because they change a scene too drastically or cut out an impor-tant one altogether,” says Addicks. The trend seems to be that if the movie trails off from the original plot in the book, those who have read it will dislike the movie. It seems to be the opposite when the movie

16 E N T E R T A I N M E N T

By Emily Cole

People just don’t like to read anymore. It’s a sad epidemic plaguing most of the young people of our generation. The movie indus-try seems to have taken over the eyes and ears of our young people.“A movie is a whole lot more enter-taining and faster to get through,” says freshmen Andrew Plauger. Senior, and avid reader, Allysa Swearingen disagrees. “I usually like books better because you can imagine each person and detail just the way you want.” In a recent survey of 100 students and faculty, 54% answered that they prefer mov-ies over books. “Movies can bring out emotions while also filling in the visual blanks your imagination can’t picture,” says senior Abby Addicks.What so many movie-goers don’t realize is that most movies pro-duced over the last few decades are based on books. In 2010, 50% of the top grossing movies were based on books, including The Twi-light Saga: Eclipse, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One, and The So-

Youth Abandons Books

17

o u t w i t h t h e o l d , in with the new

Tosh.OWalking Dead

Modern FamilyTwo and a Half Men

House

AlcatrazHouse of Lies

The FirmTouchSmash

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part IITransformers: Dark of the Moon

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part IThe Hangover Part 2

Pirates of the Carribean: On Stranger Tides

The Hunger Games: Release date: March 23The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part II:

Release date: November 16The Hobbit: Release date: December 13

Men in Black 3: Release date: May 25The Three Stooges: Release date: April 13

Adele- Rolling In The DeepLady Gaga- Born This Way

Foo Fighters- WalkLinkin Park- Waiting for the End

Jake Owen- Barefoot Blue Jean NightLady Antebellum- Just a Kiss

Waka Flocka Flame- No HandsNelly- Just A Dream

Van Halen- A Different Kind of Truth

The Fray- Scars and Stories

Nicki Minaj- Pink Friday

Adam Lambert- Trespassing

Andrew Bird- Break It Yourself

2 0 1 1 2012Vs.

2.16: Loretta LynnWalton Arts Center

Fayetteville, AR

2.26: Jeff DunhamBOK CenterTulsa, OK

3.11: RadioheadSprint Center

Kansas City, MO

4.17-4.22:Mary PoppinsWalton Arts Center

F’ville, AR

4.28: The Black KeysBOK CenterTulsa, OK

3.10: Zac Brown BandVerizon Arena

Little Rock, AR

3.18: Edward Sharpe Cain’s Ballroom

Tulsa, OK

5.1: Van HalenBOK CenterTulsa, OK

3.10: The Avett BrothersDrury UniversitySpringfield, MO

3.1: Jimmy BuffettVerizon Arena

Little Rock, AR

5.31-6.3: Wakarusa Music Festival

Ozark, AR

3.12: Fun.Juanita’s

Little Rock, AR

Spring Concert & Event Calendarfo r N o r t hw e s t A r k a n s a s & s u r r o u n d i n g a r e a s

Gary Stout--The whole crowd thought Gary was a superstar when they gave him a stand-ing ovation.

First Place Winner Kyle Hunter. That’s pretty much it about him, he wasn’t much of a talker.

Third Place Winner Stephen Silva. Plays his original song “Broken Earth” with his acoustic named Rosyln.

Second Place Winner Kyle Ates. Swept the crowd away with his very own song “Standing in the Rain.”

Talent Show

2012

20 S P O R T S

Cat Scratch Fever: Cheer Wins State

By Bayli Bradley

After months of rigor-ous practice, dozens of much needed late night practices, and a few arguments on Twitter, the Prairie Grove High School Competitive Cheer Squad made their biggest dream come true: becoming state champions.

The girls competed in three preliminary competi-tions before going to the state championship. They traveled to Rogers High School, Pea Ridge High School, and Gen-try High School, placing first in all three competitions. In ad-dition to placing first, the girls also received the over-all cham-pion award for the all-girl divi-sion at the Gentry competition.

On Thursday, January 26th, the Senior High Competi-tive Cheer squad was presented to the school board in the form of a group luncheon. This al-lowed the girls a chance to de-scribe to the school board their positive experience competing as well as a change to express their thanks for the opportunity to compete. Now that the school board knows the girls can ex-cel at competitions, the Prairie Grove cheer squad will con-tinue to compete in the future.

ing with such a talented group of girls.” Orr has been the high school cheer coach for a number of years. “I just wish we would’ve done it sooner!” she says.

When school began, competitive cheer practice was held every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday night, adding up to four hours of practice a week. “Some nights we practiced even longer if we thought we needed it,” explains sophomore cheerleader Valarie Shepherd. These girls were in it, to win it.

Senior squad captain, Gely Vafakos, expressed her thoughts on the team’s suc-cess, “It feels great!” she says. “It’s amazing to know we won our very first competitions. Considering the obstacles we overcame, it’s a miracle.”

This journey, making it all the way to the State Champion-ship in Hot Springs, AR, involved a large amount of practice in or-der to become a reality. The first practice began in the summer of 2011 and in just the first two days, over 14 hours of practice time had been put in by the girls. “I’m so proud of them, it’s been a great experience.” says head cheer coach Vanessa Orr. “The girls have amazed me, with this being their first year to com-pete. I’m so honored to be work-

FCCLA headed to STATEFour Prairie Grove High School FCCLA students will be attending the state convention March 1st in Conway, Ar-kansas. These students participated at the district one FCCLA STAR events competition on December 7th and won first place. Patrick Jordan and Olivia Disney will compete in the applied technology category for their cy-ber bullying presentation. Kendra Happy’s competeing in career investigation. Hannah Neyens competing with her completley handmade dress in the fashion construc-tion competition. Pictured from left to right: Patrick Jor-don, Hannah Neyens, Kendra Happy, and Olivia Disney.

thankful that my senior class voted for me,” said senior maid Brooke Barnett. “It’s a great memory and it really means a lot!” Little did Brooke know that she would soon be crowned queen of Colors Day by her peers. All the girls were extremely excited to have been a part of the court, and the crowd seemed to share the

excitement. “This is what I’ve dreamt of since I was a little kid in the stands at the pep ral-lies,” said junior maid Megan Gerwig. “I was so excited to be on the court, and having my boyfriend as an escort was definitely a bonus!” As is Prairie Grove tradition, encouraging speeches were given by senior boys basketball players Delton Rhodes and Chad Battles. The boys were joined by senior girls basketball player Yazmine Drissi,

who represented her homeland by beginning her speech to the students in French, a language not familiar to most Prairie Grove High School stu-dents. High school girls basketball coach, Kevin Froud, along with the

boys’ coach, Steve Edminston, also stood up before the crowd and said

a positive word about the players and asked for the crowd’s support. The evening ceremony for Colors Day began at 6:00 p.m. Once again the maids put on their best and were once again introduced, and es-corted for the full house audience that had arrived for the event. “I felt like there was a smile permanently stuck on my face the whole time because of all the pictures I took,” joked Gerwig. “But it was well worth it!”. The night end-ed with great wins for both the Senior High girls and boys basketball team, making colors day a success for all.

21

Colors Day in a Nutshell

By Sidney Jaro

On Friday, January 20th, Prai-rie Grove High School celebrated yet another successful Colors Day Cele-bration. This year’s festivities went off without a hitch and were just as excit-ing as ever. As usual, the ritual started off bright and early with a practice pep rally for the intermediate students at 9:00 a.m. giving Colors Day maids and escorts a chance to rehearse the ceremony before the final coronation in the afternoon. After a second, pep rally, and two high school basketball games, a combined 5 hours of Colors Day festivities had been celebrated. The senior high cheer and pom squads made sure to get the crowd going for the introduction of the Colors Day maids at both of the pep rallies. Our 2012 Color’s Day maids were freshmen, Valarie Baguio, and Taylor Spinks, followed by sopho-

more maids Sarah Gauldin and Emily Coore, continuing with junior maids Megan Gerwig, and Neysa Martin, and ending with senior maids Brooke Barnett, Jade Nixon, and Savan-nah Black. As always, the girls were dressed formally for the occasion and were escorted by members of the senior high boys basketball team.

The three senior maids, all of whom had previously been on either Home-coming or Colors Day court in pre-vious years, agreed that it was “an honor” to be chosen again by their senior class. “I was super excited and

S P O R T S

E N T E R T A I N M E N T

22

By Philip Shepherd

To the surprise of most, it is now possible to hear live jazz music right here at our high school in the form of an excit-ing social event simply referred to as, “The Jazz Band Dance”.

On Saturday, February 25th at 7:00 pm in the Prairie Grove High School cafeteria, the Prairie Grove High School Jazz Band will be hosting a spectacular all ages live music event complete with delicious food and drinks, familiar faces, and of course, live music. “There’s not a lot of live music in Prairie Grove,” says High School Jazz Band Director, Neal Moss, who is proud to be splashing Prai-

rie Grove with a hint of musical cul-ture. “It’s a chance for us to show off the Jazz Band in an environ-ment that Prairie Grove doesn’t see a whole lot of,” explains Moss. “I think it’s going to help bring about a sense of community and expose a lot more people to the jazz style.”

Last year was the first year that this jazz event was offered to the public and it proved to be a well worthy endeavor. “Last year at The Jazz Band Dance, we had every-body from age seven to age 70,” says Moss. “It’s good to expose ev-erybody to it.” According to Moss, last year’s dance drew a crowd of over 160 people, a number ex-pected to be greatly exceeded this year. “We had a lot of people show up last year that grew up with this

style of music,” tells Moss. “This is a style of music that a lot of people in Prairie Grove are familiar with.”

Moss also stresses, “A lot of people have concerns that it’s just a high school event; [how-ever] it is open to the public.”

Don’t know how to dance? That’s quite alright. For the first 30 minutes of the dance, 7:00 to 7:30, a Mr. Quincy Grigson, will be present, joined by his equally talented girlfriend, offering free basic ballroom dance lessons to anyone that is willing to learn. “Quincy did an excellent job at the dance last year and he’s on board again this year,” ensures Moss. “It’s good to be able to draw in for-mer students of Prairie Grove.”

It’s true that the city of Prai-rie Grove lacks a live music scene, especially when compared to its neighboring city of Fayetteville, AR, but the question remains: why jaz

music? “When we first started the Jazz Band, I saw how much talent we had and I tried to think of dif-ferent ways to showcase the tal-ent,” Moss explains; “When I was at school at UCA*, the Jazz Band there put on a Jazz Band Dance; so I thought, ‘Why don’t we try it here?’” Last year was the first year that Jazz Band was offered to Prai-rie Grove students as a high school class elective. “We were able to put together enough music to put on—what I consider to be—a very successful Jazz Band Dance.”

Tickets for the Jazz Band Dance are $5.00 per person and $8.00 per couple, that is, if you buy your tickets in advance. Tick-ets sold the night of the dance will be raised to $7.00 per per-son and $10.00 per couple, so get your tickets soon. Tickets can be purchased by Mr. Neal Moss himself. For more information, or to purchase tickets, email Neal Moss at neal.moss@pgtigers.org.

Jazz Band Dance to be Certain Success

less amounts of men. To this, he replied in a drowned voice, “The Nazis weren’t men at the time, they were monsters. Scott did kill numerous Nazis. How-ever, he accidentally killed an elderly Jewish man in his line of fire.” I looked up at his expression, awkward and not knowing what to say. Thankfully, he re-lieved the silence. “That, as my father would tell me, was worse than death.” The bitter winds would halt whatever cheer the Americans had dur-ing any amount of rescue. Glory was short lived, and even then did the sounds of gunfire riddle the air with smoke and bullet tails to race the wind ever higher. Military units would saunter beside death as if waiting to be met later in their haunt-ing future. Death would greet the Nazis, but it seemed as though the maggots would only throw them back out, with guns ready to face an immortal war. “My dad would always tell me how endless [Germany’s] military was. It didn’t really seem like they were being wiped out at any rate at all, really.” They were infinite, just as the evil was that ran in their fro-zen logic. The Nazis would push relent-less tactics, and although easily defeat-ed, they would keep coming back. Their eyes would lust for death, and that was very much alive in the East’s stale air. John Wyatt went on to tell me countless details of his father’s cam-paign in the war against Nazi Germany. His words seemed to make the conver-

sation seem more alive than most would ever tell such legends. I didn’t want it to end, and the clock only struck further to bend time forward. Glancing at the clock, I readied myself to bid him farewell un-til the next chance I would ever see him again. Before shaking his hand, though, he stopped me with a countenance that seemed stuck in readied presentation. I halted my motives, and sat back down, to which he told me, “My father, he would always tell me about his days in the war. But one thing he put out the most was his fear of being forgotten. He had fought so hard for all those people, and countered many biased conversations he would overhear once returning to America.” And to this, I left with those words bound to the walls of my thoughts, like portraits bleeding paint on glass. So careful to keep what was said, I left with a continu-ing thought, forever trapped in infinity. Although the war was over, the war itself would never be forgot-ten. It’s the people like John Wyatt’s father who make it so memorable. The air would forever carry the sound of gunfire and shouts of content from res-cues prior. The universe gladly traps the salvations in jars to control glory in binding light, forever keeping what grace was held in such bitter calamity; and the earth beneath your feet, will rattle with the sounds of their decay.

By Stephen Silva

World War II was a dark age in world history. The Nazis were invad-ing most of Europe’s cities and pillaging homes that were under any influence of Judaism. Hitler’s forces were invading to the near brink of total control and domi-nation, and later realizing this, America stepped in; flooding Germany’s borders with its strongest military unit. Although it seemed that it would’ve been an easy fight, the U.S. was pushed back in shock at the strength of Germany’s fleet, their minds swept with Hitler’s voice and or-ders ringing in the creases of their blood-lust. America and the Jewish community were at war with the world, and the quar-rel would only continue in the infamous Holocaust. Despite how often elders say “the good old days,” it was practically a nightmare. PGHS substitute teacher John Wyatt agreed to a brief interview to discuss the matter of events that had occurred in the early 40’s of the Second World War. With eyes lit up, he gladly told the tales of his brilliant and valiant father. “He was a soldier for the Ameri-can military unit, and a brave one, most

prominently,” John Wyatt told delightfully of his father and his efforts held in the American war against Hitler’s forces. “It was dark, or at least that was the way he told me it was. There was never a light that shined in his eye when he told me his stories.” Wyatt pauses for a moment, taking in a breath to, what seemed like, prepare himself for his fa-ther’s shoes. It seemed now was the best time to see if they fit; and I could see in his eyes the ominous past he was about to tell, and more horridly, re-live. “He always admitted to being so scared,” another breath entered and flew from his countenance with tired words,” Admitting to that was the most coura-geous thing a man could do at the time.” One could only imagine how the fields of flickering fire savagely brushed against the night’s sky, warming the air in some form of bitter mockery. “It was cold,” Wyatt laughs,” I remember that word well from my father. He was nev-er one for chilling weather.” The stars screamed for day’s awakening to shed the lonely silence of night from the men that shot so carefully in the dark. They would be so cautious, so careful not to shoot at the wrong prey. “My father told me a story of a friend of his,” John low-ered his face, trying to remember, yet repressing in sync of his fluidity of tone. “I believe his name was Scott. ‘Scott killed a man, once’ my father would say.” I stopped Wyatt, confused, know-ing that certainly Scott was in the military and that he had to have killed count-

F E A T U R E

23

Substitute John Wyatt on the Not-so Glory Days