Western Wayne recently held its annual high school prom in which senior Gianna DeBastiani was named prom queen and senior Austin Kidder was named prom king. From left: Jennifer Bradley, high school assistant principal; DeBastiani, Kidder, and Paul Gregorski, high school principal.
Read Across America Pictures at EverGreen Elementary SchoolMarch 14, 2025The second-grade students at Evergreen Elementary teamed up with Kindergarten during Read Across America week on March 4, 2025. The second-grade students partnered up with kindergarten students to read a book to them. Second grade students also made a bookmark for their kindergarten reading buddy to take home, along with the book that they read and colored together.
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Thank you to the EverGreen PTAMarch 14, 2025Thank you to the EverGreen PTA for providing our students in grades K-5 with the opportunity to experience Kindness Quest. An exciting and educational laser show presented by Prismatic Magic. This 40-minute interactive assembly focused on the values of kindness, empathy, and teamwork through an engaging storyline filled with superheroes, a treasure map, and an outer space robot. Guided by the animated laser character Max Bravado, students participated in puzzles, games, and optical illusions designed to reinforce the importance of caring for others. With dazzling special effects, high-energy music, and a powerful message about community and friendship, Kindness Quest left a lasting impression, encouraging students to practice kindness in their daily lives. Parents can ask their children about their favorite part of the show and how they plan to apply what they learned to help build a more compassionate school environment.
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Western Wayne and Honesdale High Schools Robotics Team FRC 4285 Places 8th at Hatboro-Horsham District EventMarch 11, 2025The robotics team FRC 4285 Camobots (composed of Honesdale HS and Western Wayne HS students) competed at the Hatboro-Horsham District Event and placed 8th. We are very proud of the performance for the team took on a tough engineering challenge of designing, building, testing, and competing in 6 weeks a 140lb robot to autonomously and human driven the task to pick up and place a 12” long piece of Sch40 4” pvc and 16” diameter rubber ball in specific locations. The team chose to design, build, and compete utilizing a 3 piece telescoping crane arm with manipulator, this took all of their time up and had minimal drive and interaction time with the robot prior to the event. The team learned, adapted, problem-solved, presented to CEO’s and engineers of major companies, and persevered to compete in the playoff round and place 8th. Congratulations to the robotics and engineering members.
Western Wayne team members are: Ethan Gillott, Grace Owens, Kyle Matthews, Aiden Matthews, Paul Borowski, Logan Pauler, Liam Pauler, Jake Obloshny, and Alexis Bartels.
Pictures are from the Hatboro-Horsham District Event.
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Local Students Explore Real-World Environmental SolutionsMarch 11, 2025Local Students Explore Real-World Environmental Solutions
Students from several local schools are participating in an educational program focused on environmental science and collaboration throughout the 2024-25 school year.
Each school has a team of five students and a teacher-advisor. The program includes hands-on field trips and investigations, allowing students to explore real-world environmental issues.
Participating Schools
Lackawanna County: Carbondale, Forest City, Lackawanna Trail, Lakeland, Mountain View, Old Forge, Riverside, Western Wayne, and Wayne Highlands.
Luzerne County: Crestwood, Hanover, HAAS, HACC, Hazleton, Northwest, Tunkhannock, and Wyoming Area.
Western Wayne High School students have already taken part in trips to Lackawanna State Park, Keystone College, the Old Forge borehole, and the Alliance Landfill. These experiences helped them learn about healthy watersheds, how to monitor their conditions, and ways to maintain water quality. The program is supported by Pennsylvania American Water Company, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), and DCNR’s Watershed Education Program.
March Field Trip: Water Treatment in Action
In March, students visited Pennsylvania American Water’s Lake Scranton Water Treatment Plant and its Sewage Treatment Plant.
At the Lake Scranton Water Treatment Facility, Sr. Superintendent Daniel Baratta led a tour, explaining how the system provides clean drinking water to about 160,000 people in 14 communities. The facility draws water from Lake Scranton and other reservoirs, processing an average of 19.5 million gallons daily.
Students also toured the sewage treatment plant, where they learned how wastewater is treated before being safely returned to the Lackawanna River.
Looking Ahead
The program will conclude on May 6, 2025, with a student presentation banquet at Montage Mountain. Western Wayne students will showcase their project: planning an ecology-based field trip for fourth graders at the Varden Conservation Area. Inspired by their own experiences, they designed activities to teach younger students about the environment in a fun and engaging way.
Through these hands-on experiences, students are gaining valuable knowledge about environmental conservation while working together to find real-world solutions.
“I really enjoy learning about the science field through these hands-on real-world experiences,” Western Wayne sophomore Dakota Douglas said.
Picture One, from left : Dakota Douglas, Giuliana Velazquez, Aliyah Gregory, Kyleigh Turner, and Jerrah-Ann DeBree.
Picture Two, from left : Kyleigh Turner, , Jerrah-Ann DeBree, Dakota Douglas, Aliyah Gregory, Giuliana Velazquez, and Water Treatment Facility, Sr. Superintendent Daniel Baratta.
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Students Take Top Three Places in Rotary Essay ContestMarch 11, 2025The Hamlin Lake Ariel Rotary Club recently had their Rotary District 7410 Essay Contest giving students the prompt: Rotary’s Four Way Test, which guides all Rotary projects, including this question: “Is it fair to all concerned?”. Students were asked to write about the statement, “we use empathy to see other points of view, in the context of problems to be solved.” How can we use teamwork, inclusion, empathy, acceptance, belonging, and accountability to solve problems or achieve goals we set?
Rotary District 7410 offers this Essay Contest as an incentive for young people to develop their skills of self-expression, and as evidence of a sincere desire to demonstrate service above self, which is Rotary’s consistent motto.
Western Wayne High School students placed in the competition. Mercedes Pedersen, senior, took first place; Kennedy Scott, senior, placed second; and Anthony Redmond, senior, placed third.
Mercedes along with writing is involved in a variety of activities at Western Wayne including: color guard, stage crew, and Spanish Club. She is also the president of Western Wayne’s Chapter of the National Honor Society. She plans to study veterinary medicine with an emphasis on exotic and domestic animals.
Mercedes discussed how she focussed on how a problem can be solved using the pillars named by the Rotary Club.
“I discussed how the different aspects work together when solving a problem,” she said. “This was a rich topic, and I was able to get four pages out of it.”
Her work earned her a club-level first prize of 100 dollars in the contest, and she is excited to see her essay move on the district level where she will be in competition to win a 1,000 dollar prize for her excellent writing.
The second prize winner was Kennedy Scott. Her essay focussed on solving conflict through the use of the Rotary pillars.
Kennedy feels she will use the strong pillar qualities in her daily life more than ever next year when she takes on the unique opportunity of doing a gap year abroad through Colorado State University. She will earn twelve credits and get to travel the world going to destinations such as France, Spain, the Netherlands, Ghana, Japan, Thailand, and many other locations. She first learned of this academic opportunity through TikTok in her sophomore year, and she chose to pursue it and gained acceptance into the program. She will study media marketing at Colorado State University and aspires to do promotions for businesses after she graduates.
Finally our third prize winner is Anthony Redmond. He is a four year member of the Western Wayne High School Marching Band serving as the percussion section leader for two years. He also participated in Pep Band and Pit Band. He wishes to pursue a degree in music education to be a high school band director. Anthony focussed on the aspects of teamwork, inclusion, empathy, acceptance, and accountability in his essay all of which he knows make for a good working team in a high school marching band.
“I discussed both how these aspects can help make people work as a good team and how they can bring people apart as well at times,” he explained.
The Western Wayne School District and especially their English teacher Mrs. Carrie Wittenbrader congratulates these students on their award-winning efforts and wishes them the best in their bright futures.
From left: Mercedes Pedersen, Kennedy Scott, Anthony Redmond, and Mrs. Carrie Wittenbrader.
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