Due to the impending winter storm starting Wednesday afternoon into Thursday, schools will be dismissed tomorrow at 12:00 PM. There will be no afternoon Early Intervention. Also, school is cancelled on Thursday December 17th.

The magic of the holiday season was in the air for Western Wayne’s FCCLA Club as they hosted their first drive-through Holiday Breakfast on Saturday, Dec. 12, with all proceeds benefitting the Wayne County Children’s Christmas Bureau.
FCCLA has held this event in the past hosted in the high school cafeteria. Due to COVID-19, they worked, just as hard as Santa’s best elves, and found a way to make this event possible for the community even during this challenging time.
Instead of serving food in the cafeteria, the FCCLA students brought food out to their customers waiting in their cars. Even Santa made a socially distanced appearance on a local fire truck. Instead of having stations for people to shop at, this year, the FCCLA students made sure to have all gifts for the little ones ready ahead of time for none other than Mrs. Claus to pass out to the eager kids in their family cars.
Some of the items distributed included: lollipops, coloring books, crayons, and McDonald’s coupons among other fun gifts.
Many of FCCLA’s club members worked to make this event possible. This year’s club officers include Caitlyn Burdick, president; Zoey Goldman, vice president; Kaitlyn McDermott, secretary; Tarena Strasburger, treasurer; Paige Bell and Kailey Tickner, public relations.

FCCLA members Kennedy Mistishin and Zoey Goldman worked as student chairpersons for this event to lead the students in making the breakfast a success.
Kennedy had worked to lead the event last year. This year Zoey stepped into a co-leadership position. Both girls found planning this event to be a very rewarding experience.
“My favorite part is the execution of putting together an event of this nature,” Kennedy explained. “I love when it all comes together at the end. This is very different than our event last year, but it is still very rewarding in different ways especially because we have the chance to do this for the community during this challenging time.”
The students have been busy working to plan this event for a few weeks by making decorations, getting gift bags together, and preparing other items and aspects of the event. It truly was a team effort by all students and staff involved.
The drive- through breakfast with Santa was not FCCLA’s only event this year. The group also, earlier this school year, assisted the Blue Star Mothers of Northeastern Pennsylvania in writing 100 cards to active patriots. Students got to hand-write personal letters to patriots stationed all over the world.
Zoey Goldman, vice president of FCCLA, said this activity was special to her.
“I have a number of family members who have served, so writing these letters felt especially meaningful to me,” Zoey explained.
Along with writing letters to patriots and hosting their breakfast, FCCLA has held a few meetings this year mostly online. Secretary of the club Kaitlyn McDermott explained how it has been challenging to get information out to members.
“I have used email and Google Classroom to distribute a lot of information to our members,” Kaitlyn explained. “I think it has been successful because we have 30 members in the club this year.”
As a group FCCLA has many purposes including to provide opportunities for personal development and preparation for adult life, to strengthen students for society, to encourage individual and group involvement in helping achieve global cooperation and harmony, to encourage democracy through cooperative action in the home and community, and to promote greater understanding between youth and adults and many more.
FCCLA is so grateful to the district for allowing the events they had this year so far to be possible. The group looks forward to finding creative ways to hold more events in the future for all to enjoy.

Excited seniors on Western Wayne’s Homecoming Court got the opportunity to walk out under the Friday night lights to crown a King and Queen in this time-honored tradition on Friday, Nov.6, at a game against Wallenpaupack High School.
All the seniors who participated felt thrilled to have this chance in a year of such uncertainty. Members of the court included: Matthew Henneforth, Colin Mead, Sydney Hutchinson, Madison McGlone, Zane Janiszewski, Matt Leslie, Julien Walck, Jada Siino, Leno Piccolino, and Cassidy Asinski.
“It was a lot of fun,” Western Wayne Homecoming Court member Jada Siino said. “I was thankful that everyone voted for me to be on the court.”
Jada has been highly involved during her time at Western Wayne and felt grateful to have this opportunity to make her senior year special.
She had participated in the following activities during her time at Western Wayne: volleyball for three years; National Honor Society for three years; yearbook for two years; Student Council for two years; CATS Club for one year.
Of all her activities Jada has enjoyed her time on the volleyball team the most.
“This is the activity that I have been a part of the longest in high school,” Jada explained. “I have made a lot of great relationships on the team.”
Jada plans to attend a four-year university for early childhood education.
“I think I have learned about how not to procrastinate from my time in high school,” Jada explained. “I have learned about the importance of planning.”
Jada will be able to put this skill to good use in the future in her career path to be a teacher of young children. Jada explained that she first realized she wanted to pursue this avenue through her volunteer work with Pocono Community Church.
Jada’s classmate and fellow homecoming court member Cassidy Asinski agrees with Jada that the time management she learned in Western Wayne will stick with her long after graduation.
“I think I learned so much about time management from doing as many clubs and honors and advanced placement classes as possible,” Cassidy, who plans to attend a four-year university, explained.
Cassidy has participated in the following activities during her time at Western Wayne: soccer for four years; track and field for three years; basketball for two years; FBLA for four years; Spanish Club for two years; Girls Lead Club for two years; FCCLA for one year; and tennis for one year.
“It was a surprise to be nominated for the court,” Cassidy said. “Some of my favorite high school memories involve Friday Night Lights and playing sports with my friends, so this experience was very meaningful to me.”
The remaining members of the Homecoming Court are also extremely involved at school. Matthew Henneforth participated in the following activities during his time at Western Wayne: volleyball for four years; basketball for four years; NHS for three years; FBLA for two years; and Junior Leadership of Northern Poconos. Matthew says he has had many great memories at Western Wayne and plans to attend a four-year university.
Another court member Sydney Hutchinson participated in the following activities during her time at Western Wayne: cross country for two years (team captain); indoor track for four years; outdoor track for four years; NHS for two years; FBLA for three years; and yearbook for two years. She plans to attend a four-year university for tech education and to continue her running career which she is passionate about.
Next, member Madison McGlone took part in the following activities during her time at Western Wayne: varsity track and field, varsity tennis, FBLA, Student Council, prom committee; Science Olympiad; Envirothon; Student Ambassador Program; and she organized her own club called “The Green Group.” Madison plans to attend a four-year university for entrepreneurship/ marketing.
Another member of the court is Zane Janiszewski. Zane has been involved in the following activities during his time at Western Wayne: NHS for three years; FBLA for three years; FCL for three years; football for four years; baseball for four years; basketball for three years; and wrestling for one year. He plans to attend a four-year university majoring in education and minoring in business.
“My favorite memory was beating Valley View this year [in football], becoming the schools all-time leading tackler, and being the first team to win the Division Championship,” Zane said.
Fellow court member Matt Leslie is also highly involved in sports at Western Wayne. Matt has participated in the following activities during his four years of high school: wrestling for four years; soccer for three years; FBLA for three years; and he served as the 2019-2020 Junior Class President. Matt aspires to attend a university where he can continue his wrestling career.
“I will always remember my years spent with the wrestling teams and my friends at Western Wayne,” Matt said. “They are memories that I will have forever.”
Another member of the homecoming court that will have many long-lasting memories from sports is Julien Walck. Julian has taken part in the following activities during his time at Western Wayne: football for four years (senior captain of football team); and baseball for four years. He plans to attend Wilkes University to further his football career and major in early childhood and special education. He especially will cherish all the fun memories he made on Western Wayne’s football team.
The final two members of the homecoming court had the distinct honor of winning the titles of Homecoming King and Queen through the votes of their classmates.
Senior Lena Piccolino felt completely surprised to be chosen for Homecoming Queen.
“I definitely did not expect it,” Lena said. “Some of my favorite memories at Western Wayne, other than being on Homecoming Court, are my final soccer season this year. I thought everyone did a great job. I am also excited to be accepted to Wingate University in North Carolina to study pre-pharmacy. I recently received a scholarship. I always wanted to do work behind the scenes in the medical field, and I think that studying pharmacy will be a great fit for me.”
Lena has been involved in the following activities during her time at Western Wayne: soccer for four years; track and field for four years; indoor track and field for three years; NHS for three years; SADD for two years; and FBLA for two years.
“I think I learned the most about time management through my experiences at Western Wayne,” Lena explained.
Lena will always cherish all her memories at Western Wayne both inside and outside of the classroom. She said that her favorite part of Homecoming did not have anything to do with her winning the title of Queen.
“I was definitely the happiest to hear that Colin Mead won Homecoming King,” Lena explained. “He was my partner that I walked on the field with. I thought that he deserved to win. He really is always so nice to absolutely everyone at school.”
Colin was excited and surprised to win Homecoming King.
“It was crazy, and I didn’t expect it,” Colin said. “I was excited that I got so many votes. I like to make it appoint to be friendly to as many people as I can at school.”
Colin has greatly enjoyed all his shop classes at Western Wayne. He would like to pursue either being a mason or welder after graduation. Colin has worked on both skills at Western Wayne and with his dad. He also likes to spend time fixing cars.
“The best part about Homecoming was walking out on the field and hearing all of my buddies cheering for me,” Colin said.
The entire Western Wayne Homecoming Court is thankful to have had the opportunity to experience this milestone event and look forward to the rest of their senior year.