What All Goes Into Planning Graduation?

Alex and Hannah go behind the scenes to see what all goes down to prepare for the graduation ceremony. Includes interviews with Mr. wagner, Penny, and a junior escort. Enjoy!

Planning for Graduation from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

Drake Relays 2010

This past weekend, members of the HCHS Boys and Girls traveled to Des Moines to compete in the Drake Relays. In this video, Alex and Hannah give you the results as well as some footage of the races. Enjoy!

Drake Relays 2010 from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

2010 JAZZ CHAMPIONS!

For those of you who don't know, HCHS Jazz Band just won their third Iowa Jazz Championship in a row! We have special interviews for you with some of the players, and other people's thoughts on the studs of the HCHS Jazz Band. By Alex and Hannah.

Iowa Jazz Champions! from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

Student Council Elections by Alex

As some of you may know, the elections for the 2010-2011 school year are rapidly approaching. With Ellen Klitgaard being newly elected as our Student Body Mayor, the HCHS Student Council is striding towards next year with very high expectations. Kelsey McDaniel stated, “I believe that next year’s HCHS Student Council is going to be like all the other years before, but will continue to improve as we acquire new students.”

For those of you who don’t know, Student Council is one of the various clubs that HCHS has to offer. It does differ from the others, however, in the way that in this club, a lot more responsibility and leadership is required. In Student Council, you are expected to attend meetings, help make decisions that affect our school, and help out with various fundraisers and other big projects, such as the Homecoming festivities.

HCHS’s Student Council is perhaps one of the best in the state, if not the country. Ms. Vicki Gray is our StuCo advisor, and because of her wonderful leadership, our Student Council has won numerous awards, one being the very prestigious National Excellence Award. If you are interested in being in a council that is very successful and hard-working, and also fun, the HCHS Student Council is definitely the way to go.

To the right, a leadership activity done at a Student Council convention.

The process of running for a spot isn’t that difficult, but unfortunately the applications for next year were due earlier this week. But if anyone who reads this genuinely feels interested in being a part of Student Council, you are more than welcome to attend meetings next year and become an associate, and then eventually even run for Student Council sometime in the future. To run for a spot in the actual election, all you need to do is get a petition signed by twenty-five members of YOUR class, get a letter of recommendation from a teacher or someone you are close to, and write a personal statement, saying why you feel you’d be a good person to have on Student Council.

To the left, a group of a few members who went to Chicago for a StuCo Conference!

If anyone is interested in running for Student Council, I highly encourage you to do so. I have been involved in Student Council since I was in sixth grade, and I have enjoyed every minute of it. If you love to work hard and to make a difference, Student Council is the way to do it. If you have any questions/concerns/comments about Student Council, feel free to leave a comment!

HCHS Community Service Day 2010

Here's a little preview of what all goes down on Community Service Day, which is on Wednesday April 21st. Be sure to get your parental permission slip signed and turned in this week, as well as get signed up for which job you would like to participate in! Video made by Alex and Hannah.

HCHS Community Service Day 2010 from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

Girls Soccer Preview 2010

A little preview of the upcoming Cyclone Girls soccer season! Enjoy! Brought to you by Alex and Hannah.

Girls Soccer Preview 2010 from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

Girls Golf Preview 2010

A short little video on the fun of the HCHS Girls Golf Team and how they think their season's going to shape up! By Alex and Hannah

Girls Golf Preview 2010 from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

Cutting the Budget in the HCSD

Recently the Harlan Community School District has experienced some severe budget cuts, and Alex and Hannah have gotten interviews with teachers to see how the budget cuts have affected them. Enjoy!

Budget Cuts from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

Toilet Paper? Say WHAT?!

After hearing the announcement about the Toilet Paper last week, I’m sure many of you were very confused. You were probably thinking something somewhere along the lines of, “Read the toilet paper? Huh? There’s nothing on it!” Well, worry no more Toilet Paper-readers; I’m here to tell you what all this “business” is about.

Every couple of weeks, or actually about once a month, we are assigned a blog story, which is pretty much just a miscellaneous blog, for those of you who have experienced one of Mr. Bruns’s classes. For those of you that haven’t, it’s pretty much just a paper that’s about a page long, giving your opinions or a recap of something. Anyways, because none of you ever read these stories that we put an enormous amount of effort into, Danielle and Kelsey came up with the idea of creating the Toilet Paper.

The first editions of the Toilet Paper came out last week, and they were updated with four new ones this week. There has been a lot of talk about the paper, some positive talk, and some negative talk. One of the things that student’s were confused by was the MLIA’s on the side bar. MLIA stands for My Life is Average, and it is a lot less depressing than the also popular FML’s. I really enjoy the MLIA’s, and think they are quite hilarious to read while you’re doing your business.

Some of the positive feedback we have received is basically the same. When asked if they liked the Toilet Paper, Bailey McGrath said, “Yeah, I like it! Especially the MLIA’s.” Amanda Petersen stated, “I don’t really notice it...” and Ben Reinig said, “I haven’t really paid much attention to it, but when I was talking to someone about it, nothing good was really said.”

In my opinion, I think the thoughts about the Toilet Paper are split into two categories: Girls=Positive and Boys=Negative. I think the girls appreciate it more because they spend A LOT more time in the bathroom than boys, and boys just like to get in and get out of there. I also think boys don’t like it as much just because they aren’t really concerned with social issues like girls are.

That pretty much “wraps” it up for me. (Pun definitely intended) If any of you have any comments or feedback on the Toilet Paper, or things you would like to see added to it, feel free to contact either Mrs. Daniels, Mr. Bruns, or any other School News members. Or just feel free to visit the News Blog and comment!

Girls Track Preview 2010

Alex and Hannah bring to you a preview of the 2010 Girls Track Seasons. This informative video has interviews with Coach Hosack, some girls track members, and also some boys track members. Enjoy!

2010 Girls Track Preview from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

FFA Sub Districts

Interviews with Mrs. Elmquist and other FFA members about their Sub District Competition.

Untitled from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

Flying Sharks Swim Team

Untitled from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

This video is just a little info about the Swim Team that Britanny Burmeister and I are in. It explains some strokes, an interview with Brit, and some info about our state meet. Enjoy!

by: Hannah and Alex

Who dat? Oh, it's Mayor Ellen!

You may be wondering who will be the new Student Body Mayor next year after our present mayor, Luke Lansman graduates. Alex and Hannah give you the answers to your questions in this video introducing our new Student Body Mayor, Ellen Klitgaard, to you. Enjoy!

Who dat? Oh, it's Mayor Ellen! from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

PINK OUT!

This is a video about the Pink Out Game this last Friday, January 29, 2010. It includes interviews with Mrs. Osborn, and players from the girls and boys baskeball teams. Also, the winner of the 26" flatscreen TV! Enjoy!

Update!!

Grand total for the Pink Out activities held on Jan. 29 was: $6597.00.

Pink Out! from Chad Bruns on Vimeo.

67th Annual Golden Globe Awards -Alex

The 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards were held at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills last Sunday night, the 17th, and were televised on NBC.

The Golden Globe Awards were first held in 1944 at the 20th Century Fox Studios and has been held in various locations ever since. The Awards are presented annually to recognize the stupendous achievements in both motion pictures and television. The Golden Globes are said to be a major part of the film industry’s award season, along with the Academy Awards.

This year, many of the winners and presenters at the Golden Globes sported red and yellow ribbons to show their support for the disaster in Haiti, which in my opinion is a very modest and considerate action.

There were many movies, television shows, and actors and actresses that I was extremely excited to see win awards this year. One motion picture that won two awards was the 3D blockbuster Avatar. I personally haven’t seen this film, but I’ve heard from various friends that it was AWESOME. The awards that Avatar received were ‘Best Movie Drama’ and the director, James Cameron, took home ‘Best Director’.

The 2009 comedy ‘The Hangover’ received the award for ‘Best Motion Picture Comedy/Musical’. I was thrilled to see this movie win because I thought it was hilarious. Another movie I was excited to see receive an award was Disney-Pixar’s ‘Up’, which received ‘Best Animated Movie’. You don’t even need to be a kid to enjoy this animated movie, it was a spectacular combination of humor and seriousness, and it even got a couple tears from some people!

My favorite award winner of the night was Sandra Bullock, without a doubt. She received ‘Best Actress Movie Drama’ for her 2009 hit movie, ‘The Blindside’. (If you want to learn more about ‘The Blindside’, feel free to check out my previous story on it by clicking the tag 'alex and joe' on the left side of the page) I was excited to see Bullock win this award because she did a phenomenal job of playing her part in the movie, and also because of the comeback she's made back into the movie industry. She herself stated, "I'm in the best spot of my career." The movie was spectacular; funny and inspirational, and just an all-around feel-good movie.

All in all, I was very impressed with the presentation of most of the awards. The only thing that I didn’t like about the Awards was the host, comedian Ricky Gervais. Many people thought he was hilarious, but for an awards show that is supposed to be elegant and classy, I found his humor to be very crude and a tad bit disturbing. Don’t get me wrong, I think a few jokes to break the ice are acceptable, but some of the things he referred to were just disgusting.

Other than that one little thing, I though the Golden Globes were definitely a success. If anyone has any opinions on the recipients of the awards, or anything else, feel free to leave a comment!

For complete coverage of the Golden Globe Awards:
-http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/17/golden.globes/index.html
-http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/01/17/monique-takes-home-golden-globe-award-precious/

Disaster in Haiti-Hannah

Haiti occupies an area roughly the size of Maryland on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Nearly all of the 8.7 million residents are of African descent and speak Creole and French.One of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, Haiti in recent years has struggled with problems ranging from near-constant political upheaval, health crises, severe environmental degradation and an annual barrage of hurricanes. On Jan. 12, 2010, a massive earthquake struck Haiti, reducing much of its capital to rubble. It was the worst earthquake in the region in more than 200 years, with as many as 200,000 feared dead. Sporadic violence, looting and gang-related gunfire broke out under sweltering Caribbean skies even as thousands of US forces awaited deployment from a newly-arrived aircraft carrier sitting in the waters off the city.
In chaotic scenes, United Nations food trucks were rushed by hungry people clamouring for handouts of nutritional biscuits and water purification tablets. Children and the elderly were pushed aside in the crush.
Stunned Haitians piled their dead on the crumbling streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and Preval reported stepping over dead bodies as well as massive graves running across beaches. Police estimate the numbers of the dead are incresing rapidly into the hundred thousands.

"Dead bodies are everywhere," said Frederic Dupoux, a resident of the city, in a Twitter feed. "I haven't seen one ambulance or any professional medical care anywhere in Port-au-Prince."

International rescue teams pulled two Haitian women from a collapsed university building, using machinery to cut away debris and allow rescuers to pull them out on stretchers. A sister of one of the survivors shouted praises to God when the women emerged.Now that a week has gone by since the devastating earthquake and aid is finally reaching those who need it, more groups are pitching in to try and help out those and the families of the survivors in Haiti. We should feel fortunate to have been born in a country that does not have such a mass population of poverty striken people and civil unrest. So let's all put our hands together and help out those in Haiti who are suffering. Links for donating are posted below (:


*www.foodforthepoor.org
*www.redcross.org
*Text HAITI to 20222