December 2009 Page 1

December 2009

What‟s Inside? Page 2-On The Spot

Page 2-New teachers in Bow

Page 3-Column: universal health care

Page 3-A taste of Italy in Bow

Page 4-What the staff does on weekends...

Page 4-Nickerson comes to Bow

The Falcon Chronicle

Field hockey finishes strong Girls place third

By Kylie Iasillo

From top, Andrew Phinney, Hannah List, Abby Smith, Jess Lulka, Greg Uliasz, Chel-

sea Bailey, and Kyle Mitchell in the Bow High School production of Brighton Beach

Memoires.

Swine „09 Influenza like Illness spreads through district

By Hannah Kearns

not once, but twice this year.

Superstitions played a big

part in the team’s success. Lori

Zibel always wore one black and

one white shin guard in practice.

Sarah Strumford and Lexie

Welsh will always remember

their tradition of ending practice

the same way and starting games

on the same side they warmed up

on.

The success of the field

hockey team was truly a team

effort, and they

a lways in-

tended to get

m a x i m u m

power from all

of their players.

Many seniors

on the team

agree that this

was their best

season in all

four years they

have played at

B o w H i g h

School. Even

Coach Berube, who has been

coaching for a while, couldn’t

have asked for a better season.

“They played great and

worked very hard, and they’ve

made this year a great accom-

plishment by working together as

a team,” Berube said.

So boys, if you feel you

could play an entire game of field

hockey (run about five miles),

and you feel like wearing kilts,

try outs for next years team are in

August.

(For picture, see page 2)

Can you imagine boys in

kilts? From what Tracy Berube,

coach of Bow’s varsity field

hockey team, told me, in other

parts of the world this is a very

popular sport for men.

Here at Bow High School,

however, the girls varsity team

finished with an outstanding re-

cord of 11-2-1. Their third place

finish was a great accomplish-

ment from a team that blended

one freshman with a group of

season veter-

ans.

C o a c h

Berube’s own

experience of

p laying a t

Keene State

has helped the

Falcons pro-

gram tremen-

dously. With

Sarah Strum-

ford in goal

and help from

Rachel Rob-

erts, Sam Gallerani, Lindsey

Davis, and Lindsay Bucknam, the

Falcons’ season proved to be an

overall success. Freshman Lind-

say Nerbonne was a welcomed

addition and played as if she were

a veteran of the team. Lori Zibel

and Sarah Strumford both feel

that Lindsey “Nerbs” Nerbonne

could have potentially been this

years MVP, saying that she was

the brand new girl that fit right in

and worked hard. Teammate

Julia Romano felt that Lindsey

Davis was always with the ball

on offense, and will never forget

beating MV (Merrimack Valley)

A recent concern in

healthcare has been the newly

discovered strain of flu called

H1N1. The flu is believed to

have originated in pigs, which is

the reason for its commonly used

nickname, swine flu. The swine

flu was classified as a pandemic

this past summer, and has since

been affecting

t h e w h o l e

world, and is

cause for a

number o f

deaths. But the

common form

of the flu that

we see every

y e a r

(influenza) is also making a lot of

people sick.

According to BHS School

Nurse Leslie Bean, the flu really

hit Bow hard during the school

week of October 19th through the

23rd. Absences reached a high of

163 in BHS on Thursday Octo-

ber, 22nd. One hundred twelve

students reported having an ILI

or Influenza like Illness. There

were 2 confirmed cases of H1N1.

So how do you know if

you have H1N1? The most rec-

ognizable symptom is a fever

over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

This is different than the fever of

no more than 99 degrees Fahren-

heit that is associated with an ILI.

A sore throat is usually accompa-

nied with the fever. Being tired,

having a cough, or stomach pains

are other likely symptoms.

How do you prevent get-

ting H1N1 or

an ILI in the

first place?

Bean said a

simple thing to

do is to wash

your hands fre-

quently. Also,

cover your

cough, and

don’t share saliva. You can also

build your immune system by

taking a daily vitamin, she said.

If you think you may have

H1N1 or an ILI, the best thing to

do is rest. Also, check your tem-

perature to try and determine if

you indeed have H1N1. Remem-

ber to have good nutrition, and

drink lots of fluids.

Pay attention to flu clinics

in the area and talk to your doctor

if you have any questions about

you and the flu.

The swine flu was clas-

sified as a pandemic

this past summer, and

has since been affecting

the whole world...

From the Bow School District, a chart detailing total absences from Bow Elementary,

Memorial, and High Schools from October 19th through 27th.

“They played great and

worked very hard, and

they‟ve made this year

a great accomplishment

by working together as

a team.”

Page 2 December 2009

On The Spot

What is your favorite

TV show?

Bow High School

The Falcon Chronicle Staff

Staff

Advisor

Mrs. Aubin

Editor-in-Chief

Sophia Paslaski

Editor-in-Chief

Will Sheffer

Jocelyn Swenson

Arielle Vandewater

Sophomore Jono Vinnenburg

The Office, because it is funny!

New Chinese

teacher immerses

herself in Ameri-

can culture By Hannah Kearns

One of the new teachers

here at Bow High is Yanzhan

Zhao, an exchange teacher from

China. She is staying here in

Bow for one school year to teach

Chinese classes.

Yanzhan was arranged to

come and teach at Bow by the

TCLP (Teachers of Critical Lan-

guages Program). This program

is run through the US Department

of State. Yanzhan says they be-

lieve that in years to come,

“Chinese and Arabic will be criti-

cally important languages in the

world.”

She states that she likes

being in Bow more than China.

Yanzhan says that customs here

are much different. The school

system is different, including

classes and times.

Yanzhan has been lucky

enough to go to the circus, attend

a Halloween party, eat big lob-

sters, and have the experience of

talking with everybody here. She

says these are some of her favor-

ite things she has done since ar-

riving in August.

Yanzhan mentions that

her goals while visiting America

are to “teach Chinese and Chi-

nese culture and explore Amer-

ica,” which she hopes to achieve

by getting involved in many ac-

tivities here.

Yanzhan seems to be en-

joying it very much here in

America. She says that she

“really enjoys being here. The

people are friendly, and I have

fun!” Junior Shelby Odom

Mystery Diagnosis

Senior Kyle Mitchell

Family Guy

Kylie Iasillo

Hannah Kearns

Dr. Freije

Grey’s Anatomy

Freshmen Sunday, Brooke, and

Annie

The Office, because of Dwight

Schrute

Bow High Wrestling team warms up in the mini-gym.

Atticus Swett blocks an opponent, enabling quarterback Austin Hill to complete a pass

to another player in a game against Trinity High School this fall. The varsity team

finished with a 6-4 record, and JV finished with a 6-3.

Lindsay Bucknam (R) leads Lindsey Nerbonne (L) with a pass during a field hockey

game this fall.

December 2009 Page 3

A brilliant reason to support universal health care

An Opinion Column by Sophia Paslaski

I’ve observed enough

now to know that when someone

brings up the topic of health care,

the people around them are often

divided into the quiet supporters

of President Obama’s health care

plan, and those who repeat the

words “death panels” and “taxes”

loudly for all the room to hear. It

would seem to the American pub-

lic that those opposed to Presi-

dent Obama’s plan for health care

reform far outnumber those in

favor. To those of us who have

joined forces with others in sup-

port of the bill, however, it is

clear that we are by no means

outnumbered; we are simply a

great deal more soft spoken.

Yes, it’s true. There in-

deed exists a vast mass of the

American public that is in sup-

port of a universal health care

system in the United States. We

are not members of the lower

class experiencing unique, near-

poverty conditions. In fact we

are members of the middle class,

the lovely residence of white-

collar jobs where roughly half of

all Americans live. And yet,

even though our parents, our sib-

lings, and/or we ourselves are

college educated and hold a vast

number of professional jobs, in-

cluding lawyers, doctors, and

professors, we still struggle to

pay our health insurance premi-

ums each month.

Some members of the

middle class say they find their

current health insurance plans

very satisfactory and affordable,

and see no reason to change the

system. These are the members

of the middle class that have not

yet experienced a major illness in

the family that requires intensive

and very costly care; the best ex-

ample of such an illness is can-

cer.

When cancer strikes a

family, it is always, inevitably,

unexpected. It’s one of “those

things that happens to someone

else.” Unfortunately, to quote

Calvin and Hobbes cartoonist

Bill Watterson, “we’re all some-

one else to someone else.” That

said, cancer is far too common

for anyone not to know (or know

of) a person who has had the dis-

ease; however, it is far too un-

common for everyone to have

had it in their immediate family

and be able to understand exactly

what the process of treating the

disease does to the patient and

their family.

Cancer consumes every

day of the victim’s life. Usually

the patient makes weekly visits to

a chemotherapy clinic, where

they receive a dose of the infa-

mous cancer treatment and go

home to lie down for the rest of

the day. The effects of chemo are

incredibly burdensome on the

sufferer, leaving them tired and

their muscles atrophied after a

few months of treatment every

week.

Some very fortunate peo-

ple who fall ill with cancer are

members of the upper class, and

can take as much time off from

work as they need to recover and

regain their health. Obviously,

seeing as how the majority of the

country’s population identifies

with the middle class, most peo-

ple who are diagnosed do not

have the funds to take a year or

two off to get better. Too many

cancer patients work through

their treatment in desperate ef-

forts to assure the continuation of

the care they receive; after all, if

they can’t pay for the health in-

surance that covers their treat-

ment, they can’t receive care.

As the cancer patient pulls

bravely through their illness, their

health insurance premiums rise

like an exponential function, get-

ting steeper and steeper as their

insurance company realizes that

their customer is now in a high

risk group. Thus, the patient

reaches a point where their health

insurance costs somewhere in the

thousands of dollars per month.

Says Kelly Cuvar, a cancer-

stricken blogger on change.org,

the non-profit organization dedi-

cated to giving people a place to

raise awareness about and take

action for important causes,

“Now, I was looking at an indi-

vidual insurance policy on the

open market and finding it would

cost $2600.00 a month.” That’s

$36,100 per year, and is not a for-

eign number amongst people af-

flicted with serious illnesses. For

comparison, an average, mini-

mum wage ($7.25 per hour), full

time job (40 hours per week)

would make a person roughly

$15,080 per year, which is less

than half of what they would

need to afford health insurance so

they can pay for their cancer

treatment.

I’d like to think that any

human being at this point would

be stopping to ask one question:

“Why would you charge a cancer

patient, who is already physically

impaired, not working full time,

and paying for health insurance

in between it all, even more on

their premium when basic logic

dictates that they obviously can’t

pay for it?”

Unfortunately, the people

who ask this question are far too

few in number. The people who

are aware of the costs cancer pa-

tients and others stricken with

serious illnesses, including Multi-

ple Sclerosis (M.S.), Heart Dis-

ease, and various sorts of benign

tumors, to name a few, are paying

are even fewer in number. These

are the members of our society

who can not understand why any-

one supports universal health

care. I don’t blame them; they

have no reason to know how

much disease-stricken citizens

are paying for their health insur-

ance. They only know that their

own premiums are affordable.

Given the current state of the

economy (though in the wise

words of The Beatles, “It’s get-

ting better all the time”), it’s easy

to understand their fear that a

change in the health care system

of our country could raise the

money they spend each month on

health care.

However, what they

should fear more is the all-too-

likely possibility that they could

join the disease-stricken masses

some day soon. According to the

American Cancer Society, in

2009 doctors diagnosed approxi-

mately 1,479,350 American men

and woman with various forms of

cancer. This number continues to

increase every year; in 2008 the

number of cases stood at

1,437,180 men and women.

Every American has a chance of

being diagnosed with the disease

and facing the same financial

problems today’s sufferers face.

I implore those who doubt

the benefits of universal health-

care to make an effort to under-

stand this one reason of many

that supporters of the public op-

tion do exist, and remember that

they are no exception. Anyone

could find themselves a sudden

member of the disease-stricken

group struggling to pay for the

health insurance they need now

more than ever, and no one wants

to be in that position. If Ameri-

cans want health insurance, they

should ensure that they will have

coverage when they need it most

by supporting a universal health

care system in the United States.

A taste of Italy in

Bow An interview with our Ital-

ian exchange student. By Jocelyn Swenson

Ever since a friend told

her about the exchange program

in their first year of high school,

Francesca Menescardi has

wanted to come to America as an

exchange student. Menescardi

came here in September from Mi-

lan, Italy, barely speaking any

English at all.

“It took two months to

understand it,” said Menescardi.

Yet that did not stop her

taking advantage of some oppor-

tunities Bow had.

“I couldn’t play soccer in

Italy because we had no girl’s

team…and I came here and made

varsity. I was excited about that.”

Menescardi has made

many friends since arriving in

Bow.

“At the beginning every-

one was nice to me because I was

the new exchange student. And

now there are people who really

like me,” said Menescardi.

Chelsea Bailey, a sopho-

more in Menescardi’s American

Studies class, said, “It’s nice to

learn about Italian culture and be

Francesca’s friend.”

Overall, Menescardi has

enjoyed the time she has spent in

America, and is looking forward

to the rest of the time she will be

spending here in Bow.

...In 2009, doctors di-

agnosed approxi-

mately 1,479,350

American men and

women with various

forms of cancer.

Want your ad here? Contact Mrs. Aubin at

GAubin@bownet.org

In the next issue…

More staff profiles

More exchange stu-

dent profiles

Cartoon

Winter sports

Editorial

Student profiles

Page 4 December 2009

On the weekends...

Mrs. Chaffee watches television

and grades papers.

Mrs. Jumper grades papers and

spends time with her family and

friends.

What does the staff do on the weekends? The Falcon Chronicle reports on the interesting habits of

the staff By Kylie Iasillo

And in case you’re wondering…

On the weekends, Falcon Chronicle Co-Editors-In-Chief dress up as

Batman and Robin and fight crime on the streets of Bow. No, really!

Mrs. Burkhart does housework,

gets together with her neighbor-

hood friends to play cards, goes

hiking with her family and dog,

Molly; goes to Boston to visit her

daughter sometimes to see a

show of some sort, and usually

relaxes by watching sports

games, like the Patriots.

Mrs. Mottola enjoys dinner and a

movie on Friday night. On Satur-

day night she likes getting to-

gether with friends, and on Sun-

day she enjoys shopping and

cooking.

Mrs. Gridley goes grocery shop-

ping, pays the bills, attends

church, hangs out with her family

including her husband and daugh-

ter, Rachel; cleans the house, and

corrects school work… some-

times.

Mr. Doneski goes to practice on

Saturday, comes to school on

Sunday to finish up school work,

and usually brings his son and

daughter to sports practice.

New Hampshire Native

Michelle Nickerson joined the

faculty at Bow High School this

year as the new band teacher.

Nickerson was born in Exeter and

grew up in Epping. She went to

the University of New Hampshire

where she earned her Bachelor’s

degree and proceeded to Boston

University for her Master’s De-

gree.

She began her teaching

career student teaching at Memo-

rial High School in Manchester.

After student teaching at Memo-

rial she went on to work at Man-

chester West, where she worked

for five years. Nickerson decided

that a scene change would be nice

and decided to teach at some

American schools around the

world. The first school was in

Berlin, Germany. She taught

there for two years then moved to

South America. She taught in

Lima, Peru for two years. And

now she is back in her home

state.

“The biggest differences

between America and Peru is the

different languages, the multi-

culturalism that is found in an

American school abroad, and lis-

tening to kids that have lived all

over the world share their experi-

ences,” Nickerson said.

Nickerson loves teaching.

Both of her degrees are in Music

Education.

“Band and chorus are my

favorite classes. The thing is I

love conducting. There is nothing

quite like waving a baton and

hearing the music answer me. I

also enjoy teaching music history

and analyzing music, but con-

ducting is really the coolest thing

ever,” she said.

Nickerson thinks high

school age is the best years to

teach because one sees the most

growth in high school students.

“I love teaching high

school because you are able to

relate and reason with your stu-

dents in an interesting and chal-

lenging time in their lives. After

spending four years with them

you can catch a glimpse of what

kind of adult they will become,”

Nickerson said.

She does not have any

specific instrument that is her fa-

vorite. She is a piano player and

played mallet percussion in high

school and college. If she was an

instrument she would be a cello

or a French horn because “they

are melodic and supporting.”

Nickerson settles into music department

as band and chorus director By Will Sheffer

Mr. Raynard likes to spend time

with his family and do chores and

run errands he doesn’t have time

for during the week.

Interested in Journalism?

Like to take pictures?

Want to be best friends with awesome

people?

Join The Falcon Chronicle staff today!

See Will Sheffer or Sophia Paslaski for more

information!