Front Row: Paige Lee (FCCLA Director of Fundraising), Kael Heflin, Debbie Cosentino (VIP Child Counselor Advocate), FCCLA President -Caitlyn Burdick. Back Row: Thomas Chernasky, Caden Brungard and Jaiden DeRosa
FCCLA has coordinated with the Wayne and Pike County Victim’s Intervention Program to make it known that February is “Dating Violence Prevention Month.” Students have placed bright orange flyers and ribbons in the hallway with flyers and important information for anyone who may be seeking help or experiencing an abusive relationship. Students have the opportunity to take an awareness quiz for a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card.
FCCLA Director of Fundraising Paige Lee, sophomore, explained that her time learning about and promoting dating violence prevention has been a rewarding experience.
“I hope that students at our school realize that this issue should be taken seriously,” Paige, who also participates in indoor track and softball, said. “I want them to know how important it is to contact someone for help if it is needed.”
FCCLA President Caitlyn Burdick, senior, agrees.
“I hope that my classmates realize that they can get out of a bad situation. There is always someone there to help them,” Caitlyn explained.
Did you know that one out of three high school students across the country experience an abusive relationship before they graduate? If you need help, reach out to an Advocate today! Call 570-253-4401 or text 570-798 -4VIP (4847). Chat : vipempowers.or/chat
Both Western Wayne students take pride in their work and hope that it makes a difference for others.
DonVito’s poster reads “Your Life Matters. You are Not Alone. There is always hope.”
He has incorporated three cartoon-like figures on the poster. He explained that he tried to make the design pleasing to the eye. DonVito has enjoyed drawing in this style for several years.
“Cartoons inspired me to get involved in making art in the first place,” DonVito explained. “I watched a lot of cartoons as a kid, and I was always interested in how they were made. I drew a lot when I was little, and I just kept doing it and it developed into an active hobby.”
He explained the most challenging part about making this particular contest poster for the statewide Suicide Prevention contest run by Prevent Suicide PA.
“The most challenging part was probably the text on the bottom. I didn’t want to put something that was incredibly common, but I also didn’t want to put something that was more obscure, so I tried to find a good middle point. I hope people see that there are still people there for them. No matter how alone they feel, there is still someone there to help them, even if it seems like there isn’t.”
DonVito was happy to use this contest as a way to express himself through his artwork.
“I love creating art because I want to make people feel something. I specifically enjoy animation. I want to entertain people, and I want to leave a lasting impression on them with the things I make. I want to make people be able to go, ‘Hey, I enjoy this and I’m going remember this for years to come,’ ” he explained.
DonVito aspires to go to a community college and then do freelance animation and graphic design work or other art-related projects.
Fellow Western Wayne semifinalist Sydney Hutchinson also aspires to pursue a liberal arts related field after graduation. She plans to pursue communication journalism in college.
For her entry in the contest, she created a 30 second audio file about suicide prevention awareness. She explained that the most challenging part was making her submission fit the time requirement.
“It took many tries to get it right,” she explained. “I hope that people get from my audio file submission to know that they can always reach out for help if they need it. Someone is always there for you.”
When listening to her submission, pay attention to the sound affects she added for typing, emailing, etc. She really enjoyed creating this project, and it made her feel even more confident about her choice to pursue a career in possibly broadcast journalism. She has committed to Penn State Main Campus in the fall.
“I love to write especially when it is about something I enjoy,” Sydney explained. “I have learned a lot in my Western Wayne classes to help prepare me for my career especially about how to work with people and how to get along with them.”
Sydney is involved in many activities at Western Wayne which include: cross country where she serves as captain, indoor track, outdoor track, NHS, FBLA, yearbook, and student council.
The Western Wayne School District encourages the public to vote online for these two talented students in the Suicide Prevention Contest.
The public voting is open from now until Friday, February 26th. One vote per person, per contest, per day. Voting is open to anyone and can be shared widely. Contest winners will be announced in early March, and winners will be honored in the spring.
There was a wonderful story about Random Acts of Kindness week, which highlighted one of our students: Truly Zablocky in Mrs. Firmstone’s second grade class at Robert D. Wilson Elementary.
“Valentine’s Day and 100 days of school inspired RDW students. Every student filled in a heart to honor why they enjoy being in school. The hearts were arranged for display thanks to the RDW Student Council.”
Pictured is Western Wayne senior Tyler Peet. The photo was taken in October of 2020 when Tyler won a race at the Big Diamond Speedway in Pottsville and received a $1,500 dollar prize.
Western Wayne Senior Tyler Peet has always had a love of cars. He has been involved in competition racing since he was seven years old. Members of his family have been involved in racing and this sparked Tyler’s interest in the sport.
This past race season, in October of 2020, Tyler won a race at the Big Diamond Speedway in Pottsville and received a $1,500 dollar prize. The Big Diamond Speedway track is one that races weekly once the season starts. To partake in the race, participants arrive, pay a fee to participate, and then race.
“An event like this is very wild, hard, and stressful. The race format would be 7 p.m. warm-up laps for all cars, then there are heat races which is one of your qualifying races. This is a short 8 or 10 lap race with about 10 cars in the field (depending on how many cars come to race). In a heat race, your goal is to finish as close to the front of the field as possible because only a certain amount of cars will make the A-main. The cars that don’t qualify through the heat race will go to a last chance qualifier which could have anywhere from a six car field to a twenty car field. This race will be around fifteen laps long and less cars will advance to the A- main. The people that qualify for the A-main will race with the main goal being to win,” Tyler explained. ““In this race, I started in fifth and I was able to pass the four cars in front of me to take the lead and eventually take the race win.”
Since Tyler has been involved in car racing since he was very young, he has had a lot of training experience by racing as much as he possibly can during each season. He also enjoys his auto shop classes at Western Wayne and considers himself an all-around repair man.
“A big thing in the racing world is not giving up,” Tyler said. “This is a big lesson because in just a second your entire night can change.”
Being a part of the racing scene isn’t something that a lot of high school students commonly do.
“I would say being a high school student and racing is not very common,” Tyler, who also plays baseball for Western Wayne, said. “However, I know a good amount of people that are my age that race.”
There are some challenges that racers must overcome which Tyler discussed.
“I would say the most challenging thing is qualifying for the race just because of how many cars that show up,” he explained. “For example, I was at a race, at the end of the year, where about 90 cars came and only 30 made the main event.”
Tyler greatly enjoys his experiences with racing and hopes to continue racing after high school.
“My favorite part about racing would have to be winning races,” he said. “After high school, I still plan on racing. My goal is to move up the ranks and eventually turn it into my full-time job. Throughout the years, I have met a ton of people. I have not only had the opportunity to be around and talk to some of the biggest names in racing, but I have been able to also become friends and work with some of them.”
Western Wayne junior Hudson Malinowski recently was accepted to the PMEA All-Eastern Concert Band on clarinet. Hudson will represent Western Wayne at the virtual festival later this spring. This is the first time in recent memory that a student from Western Wayne has achieved this honor. Western Wayne faculty and staff congratulate Hudson on this great accomplishment. The photo was taken during Western Wayne’s 2019 fall field show.
Pictured are Western Wayne Art Students who have been recognized this year by the Scranton Times in their Artist of the Month Contest. From left: Irene Sheehan, Cori Talarico, Abigail Lopez, and Noelle Cruz.
Western Wayne High School had four seniors recognized as winners of the Artist of the Month Contest for this year by the Scranton Times: Cori Talarico, March; Irene Sheehan, June; Noelle Cruz, August; and Abigail Lopez, November. In these stressful times, Cori Talarico’s Times submission will be sure to have a calming effect on all those who take in its beauty. “The piece I entered is a very serene landscape of a lake,” she explained. “I really like this piece because it is filled with cool colors that make it very calming to look at. Working on this painting provided an outlet to free my mind from everything that has been going on in the world recently. I really enjoy doing landscapes that highlight the beauty of nature. I am often inspired by nature in our living area for my landscapes.” Cori has been drawing since she was two and painting since she was about four. She has taken art classes throughout middle and high school at Western Wayne. Currently, she is in three different art classes. “My favorite medium to use is acrylic paint,” Cori said. “You have a lot more creative freedom with it since you can always paint over messy areas or mix different colors to make the one you need. I always do fine details in colored pencil on top of acrylic paint, because the colored pencil adds more vibrancy to the painting.” After graduation, Cori plans to take a gap year to focus on herself and what she wishes to pursue. She knows art will always be her favorite hobby, and she thinks it could be involved in her future career. Cori values the importance of art to her life. “Art provides an escape from stressful situations in life. Whether it is sketching, drawing, painting, or sculpting. Art is something that I have complete control over when everything else in my life is turbulent and changing,” Cori explained. “It gives me piece of mind as I am able to be as creative as I’d like to be.” Fellow senior Abigail Lopez also loves the creativity involved in being an artist. Abby has been drawing and doodling since elementary school. She also has been teaching herself different coloring and shading techniques since she was young. Her favorite medium to use is digital. “I can always do digital art as long as I have my tablet or phone and don’t need to keep buying supplies and fearing running out of said supplies, which is always a win,” Abby explained. “It also makes it easier for me to fix mistakes that would usually discourage me from even wanting to continue a project.” The piece Abby submitted to the Times is a work-in-progress digital piece. It depicts a character from an ongoing “series” online called the Dream SMP. Abby, who plans to attend Mansfield University for Digital Design, explained her work process for her digital art. “I actually don’t have a theme for my projects,” Abby explained. “I really like just creating whatever inspires me or motivates me at the time. Whenever I’m making digital art, I’m more likely to draw fanart or original characters. I love that you can create scenes out of such simple things. You can take a scene from a low-poly video game and turn it into so much more or just take a concept in your mind and bring it to life.” Another Western Wayne art student who has been excited about bringing her art to life this year is Noelle Cruz. Noelle has taken Studio Art every year throughout high school. She hopes to create a senior display for the art show and knows she will focus on bright multi-colored depictions of nature for it. “My favorite medium recently is colored pencil. It takes longer, but I can be more precise with my drawing which allows for more detailed artwork. I like how realistic I can make something look with the more time I put into the piece,” Noelle said. She further described a favorite realistic piece she created this year. “My favorite piece that I’ve worked on this year is my colored pencil drawing of a jellyfish. I love how vibrant the colors are on the black paper as if it’s glowing,” Noelle explained. In the future, Noelle plans to attend Pennsylvania College of Technology for a bachelor’s in dental hygiene. She is also interested in joining creative clubs and in taking digital art classes in college because she has never experimented with digital mediums before. Noelle is excited to continue to develop her creative abilities even after high school. “What I enjoy most about creating art is the freedom it allows my creative mind to have,” Noelle explained. “I sketch something simple that came across my mind and a week later that image in my head is now full of life for others to see on the canvas in front of me.” Fellow senior Irene Sheehan, like Noelle, plans to continue art as a hobby in the future. She explained that acrylic is her favorite medium to create with. “You can layer it, so it’s fun to do more impressionistic pieces that way,” she explained. The artwork Irene created for the Times is a picture of a fairground. Irene explained the peace she finds in developing her art. “It’s calming to me,” Irene said. “In my time at Western Wayne, I have learned a lot about technique, and I now have the ability to overcome, less anxiously, the barrier of having a blank piece of paper in front of me when beginning the creative process.” Irene looks forward to studying music and psychology after graduation. Western Wayne faculty, staff, and administration are proud of the accomplishments of these aspiring young artists and encourage the community to look for their work in the Scranton Times to celebrate their accomplishments.
During the holiday season Western Wayne Middle School students were treated to a visit from Santa to brighten their spirits. Students enjoyed this special surprise this past December. From left, Western Wayne Middle School students: Roxanne Dugan, Loucynthia Allen, Ema-Jade Heller, Mia Gifford, and Samantha Lee.
The Western Wayne High School received a 500 dollar 2020 ExxonMobil Educational Alliance Grant for their math and science departments. ExxonMobil and Onvo present these grants to various area schools each year. The check was awarded to Western Wayne this November. Western Wayne Administration and staff are excited to use these funds to better the educational experiences of their students. The District intends to use these funds to purchase upgraded calculators for use in their math and science departments. The following picture was taken during the 2019 school year. Due to COVID-19 circumstances, a picture from this year could not be taken. From left: Mr. Matthew Barr, high school vice principal; David Stinson, district manager; and Mr. Paul Gregorski, high school principal.
Western Wayne student Kayla Peirce, won second place in the 9-12 grade category of the national 2020 National Chemistry Week (NCW) Illustrated Poem Contest pertaining to the theme, “Sticking with Chemistry.”
This is the first time in our section’s history that a student’s poem made it to the National level. Kayla is also the 2020 ACS Susquehanna Valley Section National Chemistry Week Poetry Contest 9th-12th Grade Winner. Kayla’s poem was judged as being the best out of all 9th-12th grade entries received by our Section.
Kayla will be honored at the annual May banquet with her parents and teacher Mrs. Maria Masankay. In light of the COVID pandemic, the ACS Susquehanna Valley Section has not yet decided on a format for the banquet. If they are unable to hold the banquet in person this year, Kayla will receive a $50 check and a certificate via mail in May.
In addition, Kayla’s winning poem entry is featured on the campaign’s website at www.acs.org/ncw, which receives over 25,000 unique visitors annually. Her poem will also appear in an upcoming issue of the Chemical and Engineering News (C&EN) magazine on December 21, which will be available to view at cen.acs.org. Kayla will receive a cash prize, a certificate, and a letter of congratulations in the coming weeks.
Her winning poem is titled “A Gecko’s Grip.” Kayla has always loved art almost as much as she enjoys creative writing. This love of drawing influenced her to make a gecko the subject of her poem for the contest.
“I thought I could draw a gecko well,” Kayla explained. “I did some research and then from there the poem just came to me. I really enjoy writing. I keep a journal where I practice my writing.”
Kayla’s favorite subject is English.
“I really like the writing part,” Kayla, who wishes to study psychology in college, said. “I like how you can do so much with words. I also like looking back on my writing and thinking about how much fun I had making it.”
ALL NEWS
Band Performs at GDS Fair and Meets Kurt AaronAugust 29, 2024Kurt Aaron and Michael Olivo
Band and Color Guard perform at the GDS Fair.
The annual Western Wayne Marching Band and Color Guard performance at the GDS Fair was especially eventful this year because on the day of their performance Wednesday, August 28, WNEP’s Kurt Aaron and his infamous dog Ranger were also there doing live spots. Aaron briefly interviewed Western Wayne band member Michael Olivo, a senior. Michael proudly told the viewing audience about Western Wayne’s upcoming performance at the fair.
“It was really exciting to get to promote our band to a TV audience,” Michael said.
The students were thrilled to perform their 2024-25 Boy Bands themed field show for the audience along with playing some fan favorite stand tunes.
Drum majors this year are seniors Lia Hartman and Kalob Franko. This is Lia’s second season as drum major.
“We are all so grateful to be able to perform for the local community who is so supportive of us,” Lia said.
The Western Wayne Band is under the direction of Mrs. Elaine Ort who is now in her 11th season with the district.
The entire Western Wayne Band and Color Guard invite the local community to attend the first home game of the season for varsity football against Lackawanna Trail on Friday, August, 30, at the Sharkey-Rosetti stadium. Western Wayne will have the pregame show starting at about 6:45 p.m.; kick-off is at 7 p.m. [...]
Western Wayne to Host Annual Car Show Saturday, Sept. 7—NEW RAIN DATE! August 27, 2024The Western Wayne Hot Rod Club and Drama Club will host their 2024 Annual Car Show on Saturday, September 7, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the high school parking lot, 1970A Easton Turnpike, Lake Ariel, PA, near the football stadium. Please note our NEW RAIN DATE is Sunday, September 15.Food to be sold at the concession stand. Registration fee is $10. Spectators are free. The Hot Rod Club will give prizes for best car, truck, tractor, motorcycle, and best in show.In addition, the Drama group will sell a variety of concessions. There will also be a raffle of baskets and gift certificates generously donated by businesses and families in the local community.Drama Club student Robert Scramuzza is excited to partner with the Hot Rod Club for the for the Car Show. He explained how the Drama Club students will be dressed in 50s attire for the event.“We wanted our presence at the event to go along with the variety of cars from the past that surely will be there,” Bobby said. “We hope that the public comes out to enjoy the cars and to have some good food and purchase some chances to win baskets and gift certificates.”Members of the Drama Parents Club are working to obtain a variety of items for the raffle at the Car Show from many very generous businesses and families in our Wildcat community. The students involved in the Hot Rod Club and Drama Club can use the funds raised from this event for their club activities.The Hot Rod Club meets on a regular basis to work on a variety of automotive projects after school and can use the funds for their projects among other activities.The Drama Club meets on a regular basis after school to work on a variety of projects and activities.“Drama Club gives students a place where they can express themselves,” club president Lillian Maros explained. “We are like one big family in our club and really enjoy coming together to work as a team on events such as the Car Show.”All of the members of the Hot Rod Club, Drama Club, and Drama Parents Club cordially invite the public to attend this fun-filled event on Saturday, Sept. 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the High School parking lot near the stadium. Come out and see some great vehicles, take some chances on our basket raffle, enjoy some food, and enjoy some time socializing. Rain date is Sunday, September 15. [...]
Freshman Orientation – Save the Date!August 8, 2024August 22, 2024 – 6:00-7:30pm – Veterans Memorial Auditorium, WWHS
Western Wayne High School welcomes the Class of 2028!
Information on the high school/ 9th Grade Transition
High School Survival Guide
Student’s class schedule
Tours
Refreshments [...]
Safe2Say Something is a youth violence prevention
program run by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General.
The program teaches youth and adults how to recognize
warning signs and signals, especially within social media,
from individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others
and to “say something” BEFORE it is too late.