Western Wayne High School FBLA members attended the FBLA Regional Leadership Workshop at Woodloch Resorts on October 26.  From left, Laurel Frable, Dakotah Sopko, Cheyenne Stenlake, Kayla Fitzpatrick, Alexandra Buckman, Taylor Burdick, and Summer Franklin.

Reciting original limericks was always a fun activity in Ezra Tetreault’s family.  Little did he know that this skill would help him in winning a local section of the most recent National Chemistry Week Poetry Contest.

“My dad has always been really good at limericks,” Ezra, a sophomore at Western Wayne High School, said.  “I ran my poem by him before bringing it to school.”

Ezra’s chemistry teacher Maria Masankay challenged her students to enter the American Chemical Society’s 2017 National Chemistry Week Poetry Contest.  Much to his surprise, Ezra won the Susquehanna Valley Section of the contest.

“I had no expectations for winning,” he said. “The idea came to me quickly.”

Ezra explained that once he knew the topic for the poem was “rocks” he immediately started to think about writing a limerick because of his experiences with them in his family.  He then started to think of a rhyme scheme and realized that just about all types of rocks end in the suffix “ite”.

After doing some quick research, he found that only three types of rocks do not end in that suffix.  Therefore, he gave Basalt, Gabbro and Pumice a featured line in his poem.  He accented his entry by including a drawing of a volcano and some of the rocks.

His poem has now made it to the national level of the contest.  Ezra’s family and Masankay are invited to attend the ACS Awards Banquet in May where Ezra will be presented with a $50 check for being section winner.

This isn’t the first time Ezra has made it to a national level competition. Last year, he competed at FBLA nationals in public speaking as a freshman.

This year Ezra and a team of two other Western Wayne students Noelle Orehek and Trina Barcarola are working on a presentation to enter into the FBLA introduction to business event, which is a state-level competition. Ezra serves as the sophomore representative for FBLA.  Also, he is sophomore class president.

When he is not writing poetry and FBLA presentations, Ezra plays football and track for Western Wayne.

Ezra loves all of the academic and extra-curricular experiences he is having at school so far and looks forward to participating in more activities.  He also is greatly interested in politics and aspires to join the Coast Guard Academy and possibly work for NASA in the future.

“We are all very proud of Ezra’s efforts in all areas at Western Wayne,” Paul Gregorski, high school principal said.  “We look forward to seeing if he advances in the NCW contest.”

From left: Ezra Tetreault, 2017 NCW Poetry Contest Section Winer for the Susquehanna Valley Section of the ACS, and Paul Gregorski, Western Wayne High School principal.

Whip, nae nae, and dab are all moves that most teenagers have mastered in today’s culture. However, it is not often that teenagers have an opportunity to learn traditional couples dancing. At the Western Wayne High School, it is a yearly tradition that students in the Spanish course take Spanish dancing as a part of their curriculum during the fall.

Local dance instructor and studio owner Vince Brust works with the Western Wayne students to teach a variety of traditional Spanish dances such as tango, merengue, mambo, and salsa among others.

The students had about nine sessions with Mr. Brust before debuting their new dance skills for other Spanish classes during the day on Thursday, Nov. 2, in Western Wayne’s newly renovated high school auditorium.

Students performed a variety of the dances they learned for their classmates. They did a choreographed dance with multiple partners and a mambo among other numbers during the day as a practice session for an evening performance. The Spanish students also gave the night performance on Thursday, Nov. 2, for their friends, family, and members of the community.

All of the students involved enjoyed having the opportunity to learn about this important aspect of Spanish culture.

From left: Brittney Reinert, Dillon Dante, and Bethany DeGroat pose at a final rehearsal before their evening Spanish dance performance on Thursday, Nov. 2, in Western Wayne’s newly renovated high school auditorium.

Local dance instructor and studio owner Mr. Vince Brust explains to an audience of Spanish students the types of dances they will see their classmates perform during an in-school performance on Thursday, Nov. 2. He is pictured with Western Wayne High School Spanish teacher Mrs. Elizabeth Sandrowicz.

The Western Wayne High School marching band took their show on the road for Halloween festivities during the final days of October.

The students performed at a number of events including Honesdale’s Annual Halloween Parade on Thursday, October 26. They also gave a performance to elementary students in the district on Tuesday, October 31 at the R.D. Wilson School and on the same day, they performed in the community at the Wayne Woodlands and Julia Ribaudo Nursing Homes.

The Western Wayne Marching Band will wrap up their Halloween season tour on Sunday, Nov. 5 at 2 p.m.  in the 52nd Annual Barrett Township Halloween Parade, Route 390, Cresco, PA, which had been postponed from a previous date due to rain.

From left: Rachael Harsch, color guard captain; Ellen Dwyer, color guard captain; Katelin Dennis, drum major; and John Kear, drum major.

On October 23^rd Western Wayne High School Students in grade 9 experienced the THINK! ENERGY Innovation Program. This program is an interactive, hands-on presentation with a take home energy efficiency kit for each participating student and teacher. The program teaches the importance of energy, natural resources and environmental resources, and gives each participating student’s family energy-efficient technologies to install at home. Students and Staff in the high school received innovation kits on October 23^rd.  The kits included four LED light bulbs, shower timer, a water conserving shower head as well an advanced smart energy power strip.  180 innovation kits were distributed overall.  This comes to 3,012 new LED bulbs distributed to the Western Wayne School District since the program’s launch in 2015.  This program will also result in a number of mini grants for the teachers in the high school as well.  The Think Energy Innovation Program has been brought to the schools by the National Energy Foundation, PPL Electric Utilities and the Pennsylvania Department of Education.  For more information or questions, please contact National Energy Foundation at 1-855-494-2942 or email  stephanie.dorman@nef1.org.

Caption: Left to Right: Science Teacher, Mark Nebzydoski; Presenters Stephanie Dorman and Robert Penkala; Principal, Paul Gregorski.