Salmon Lake: The True Story

By: Dustin & Charise

On a cold September morning, Mr. Hindman’s class of twenty-four embarked on a planned trip to Salmon Lake. It took many days of planning from the teachers, but it was worth it. The class was very excited.

On the way there, which was a thirty-mile drive, we stopped at every mile marker to write down what we saw. This and some rough driving conditions were one of the reasons that it took over 2 ½ hours to get there. Around mile 23 we stopped at the Nome River to do some water animal research. The people who had rubber boots went into the river, kicked up the rocks, and collected insects and fish in nets. “This was my favorite part of the trip,” says Mr. Hindman. Some people say that they collected 6 different species of insects and fish.

When we got to the camp, next to the lake, the class was a bit disappointed, especially the boys. They found out the girls got the better cabin. After we put up our things, we went inside the mess hall and got the heater going. It was a lot warmer in there, than outside. Some students complained thought, saying that the building smelled weird. After we did some worksheets, we played football and other games outside.

Later, some of the class went with schoolboard member elect, Lew Tobin to hike up a mountain not far from camp. Then around 6 or 7 P.M., the class and the parents ate a moose meat spaghetti dinner, compliments of Mr. Bob Walker and Mr. Gerald Graham. When night came we built a fire, roasted marshmallows, and made smores. Eventually we all retired to our cabins. Sleeping conditions were a bit rough, but we managed. In the boys’ cabin, Mr. Vasiliev told scary stories, ones about flying coffins and hot pockets made of people.

The adults said the trip was a big success. We took a survey and found out that 21 said they enjoyed the trip, 3 didn’t, and 1 wasn’t sure. We think the trip was a success too.  

Hands-on Underwear

By: Megan H. & Hailey

The students of the Anvil City Science Academy recently started a typing program using boxer shorts as keyboard covers. The Mavis Beacon typing program allows the students to learn how to type by touch instead of by sight. Mr. Hindman, says “I can hunt and peck pretty fast, but I don’t want my students wasting their time hunting and pecking like I do.”

We went around the classroom to get the students opinions on the boxer shorts. After being asked what they thought of the boxer shorts, Elise replied, “I think they were funny!” and David G. said, “Weird, just weird.” After that thirteen students were randomly asked, "Did you think that the boxer shorts were Mr. Hindman’s before he announced that they were not his? "Six said yes, six said no, and one was undecided. We also asked, "Which are your favorite boxer shorts?" Seven said the pigs, three said the sunflowers, three said the eagles, two said the 101 Dalmatians, two said the camouflage, one said the underwater sea life, and another said the umbrella.

The final question we asked to all of the veteran students was "Do you like the boxes from last year or the boxers from this year?" Four replied the boxers, one said neither, and seven preferred the boxes from last year. The reason most of the veteran students chose boxes is because they could cheat by looking under the cover box. David G. confesses, “I like the boxes from last year because I would lean back and cheat.” 

Males get into the Cheerleading Spirit

By: Megan C. and Jessica

This year is the first year ever that the Nome Elementary School has had male cheerleaders. Scott and Louis will be the new Wolverine male cheerleaders. “The men will be incorporated into the cheer routines, they will act as spotters, and be yell leaders helping with sideline cheers during the games,” said Richard Beneville in an e-mail interview. “All of the cheerleaders will work as one team to bring an additional level of excitement and fun to the games.”

This is not the first time in history males have been cheerleaders. According to Mr. Beneville the first cheerleaders were men. Cheerleading in our country began in what are called “Ivy League” schools; Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, and a few others. Male cheerleaders bring additional size and strength to a mixed squad making “fancier” gymnastic tricks possible. Also, male cheerleaders add greatly to the sound and volume in leading the cheers. The male cheerleaders will be doing mostly floor cheers during halftime. They will also help while they are not playing basketball.

This year the cheerleading coach is Katie Booth, she was a J.V. cheerleader in 1996 at Nome Beltz High School. To make sure the cheerleaders trusted her, she put water in a bowl of gummy worms and told the cheerleaders to close their eyes. Then she told them to put their hands behind their backs and get a gummy worm and eat it without opening their eyes.

With this addition this year’s cheerleaders should be more loud, clear, and exciting since they have added a new gender to the group.

50’s Rock Star Brought Back to Life!

By Chase and Emily

The Nome Arts Council and the Nome-Beltz drama department are putting on a play, which is open to both the young and old of the community. Richard Beneville and high school schoolteacher Samantha Dunaway are the directors of Bye, Bye, Birdie.

Bye, Bye, Birdie is about a big rock star in the 50’s named Conrad Birdie. He is kind of like Elvis Presley. Conrad was drafted to the army. In order to keep his business; Conrad’s manager Albert has picked a name out of the Conrad Fan Club listing. Before Conrad leaves to the army he will travel to the girl’s town, sing her a song, and then give her a kiss good-bye. im’s pesky little brother Randolph Mackafee. 22-year-old Elizabeth Korenek plays Kim Mackafee. “My lines aren’t that hard to memorize because they’re all one-sentence lines,” says David G.. Bigger parts like Albert and Rosie may be a tad harder to remember. During practice hours for the play, actors sing their lines to the tune of the piano played by Ginny Fagerstrom. They learn their 50’s dance moves and some actresses practice their “Conrad Scream.”

In the original Broadway production of Bye, Bye, Birdie. Dick Van Dyke played Albert and Chita Revera played Rosie. Will the Nome production be worth going to? “Undeniably, yes” says Beneville. “Yeah, for me, because I’m in it. And yes for others because I think this will be a funny play,” declares David G.. The play will take place in the Elementary School gym on the 10th, 11th, 17th, and 18th of November. We hope to see you there!  

Parent Profiled

By: Javier & Louis

This month’s parent profile is Louis’s stepfather Timmy James. Timmy James works at Bonanza Fuel Co. He lives in Nome with Louis & Angela Buffas.

One of Timmy’s favorite hobbies is snow machine racing. He also enjoys hunting, baseball, fishing, 4- wheeling & lots of outdoor activities. Timmy James started racing, in 1988 when he was 14. His first snow machine was an Arctic Cat that he won at the Firemen’s Carnival for $1.00. Since that day, he’s been racing in races such as the Nome Golovin race, the Dexter & the Cannonball. He has taken home four victories. His favorite race is the Nome Golovin. His family also races including his grandma, dad, sister in-law, brother in-law & him self. Now he has a new snow machine a 1999 mxz 670 ski-doo H.O. model. Timmy James says his racing days are over, but we think he won’t quit because he loves racing.  

Students Cast Votes

By: Abby & Jessica H.

Student Council elections at ASCA took place Friday the 22nd of September. The candidates for President were Jessica , Abby , Emily , and Clinton. For Vice President the candidates were Jenelle, Ramon, Megan H., and Melozi. Scott , Charise , and Megan C. made a run for Secretary. For Treasurer, David L., Dustin, Akim, Jessica H., and Dylon ran.

On Friday, all of the students viewed Power Point projects that the candidates made, instead of giving speeches. Mrs. Ford brought in an election booth that the students used to cast their ballots. Mr. Hindman announced the results on Monday morning. The results were: Jessica For President, Jenelle for Vice President, Megan C. for Secretary, and Dustin for Treasurer.

When the winners were asked what skills they had to be in student council, Jessica said, “I am a good leader, I have experience, and I have good ideas.” Jenelle said, “People listen to me when I talk, I have good ideas, and I always speak my mind.” Megan C. answered, “ I am a fast writer, I am honest, I can follow directions, I am a good listener, I am an accurate typist, and I am able to go to all meetings.” Dustin replied, “I am good at math, I am a good leader, I am very organized, I am honest, and I am a good student.”

Jenelle has run for Secretary before and also won that election. Jessica had won the presidency before in 4th grade, and ran for Secretary in 5th but lost to Jenelle. Dustin ran for Treasurer last year but lost. Megan C. ran for Secretary last year at the elementary school but did not win for the second time in a row. All of the candidates think that they will be a good person for their job.

Take a Dive

By Jenelle and Elise

The Nome Northstar swim team is starting their new season. Coach Sharon Keeny-Oleson and assistant coach Tina Hager are preparing approximately 50 experienced swimmers for a new-year. Sharon has been coaching for eight years, she volunteers about fifteen hours a week for the team and has three kids of her own that swim. She started coaching when her oldest son Zach started swimming, and then it “just sort of evolved.”

The team just received a new video camera from the Northern Area Teams. It will be used to record the swimmers strokes, so they can actually see what they need to do differently. In a normal practice their workout usually includes each type of stroke: the butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle. They also do drills; taking one stroke and breaking it down into little parts, so they can improve their technique. Another part of practice is starts. They practice starts to improve their dives. They also complete windsprints; a windsprint is a 25-meter sprint that they do without breathing. Usually, the last part of the practice is relays. When you swim a relay, one person swims the length their suppose to swim. As soon as they finish the race, and touch the wall, the next person does the same thing.

The NNST fundraising comes from the movies, and selling See’s candy. The money is used to help the team travel to out of town meets.

Most of the swimmers on the team are trying to achieve the goals of traveling to out-of-town meets and out-of-state meets including Age Groups, Junior Olympics, and Region 12 regional, and the Western Zones. This year rumor is that Regionals and Zones will be held in Hawaii. The high school swimmers will be traveling to Delta and Fairbanks in October for another swim meet.

This year, several ACSA students are on the swim team. Jessica has been on the team for three years, and says her favorite stoke is butterfly. Hailey, who is starting her second year on the team says that her favorite stroke is breaststroke.

They both like meets better than practices, but for different reasons. Jessica likes them because you get to swim faster and Hailey says that she likes meets because “you get to curl up with a warm towel in the corner when your not swimming.”

Musk Oxen, the Real Deal

By: Eddie & Akim

Claudia Ihl, a graduate student working for her Ph.D. at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks came to our class on Friday, September 15, 2000 to teach the class about musk oxen. She also told us how they were over-hunted and died out all over North America. The Musk Oxen we see today were brought from Greenland.

During the slide show, she also told us that they eat sedges, grasses, lots of willow leaves and some wild flowers during the summer. In winter they eat moss and mountain avens. A musk ox can run up to 20 to 30 mph for speed, which is surprisingly fast for a big animal. They run that fast when bulls are in rut or when they're scared. They cannot run very far, though. Musk oxen can swim, but they do not like to because their hair is not hollow and buoyant. They are not very good swimmers, so they try to avoid swimming. Their hair gets water logged and weighs them down.

Ms. Ihl also brought in a Musk Oxen skull and showed it to the class. Some students noticed a spirally thing in its nose and asked what it was. She said it is something to help heat up cold air they breath in before it gets to their lungs.

Run Like the Wind

By: David G. & Ben

The Nome-Beltz Cross Country team started training for the up coming season on August 7th. They were also training for the Nome Invitational, which was held on September 1st at Nome Beltz Jr./Sr. High School. The Coach and Assistant Coach for the 2000 team was Nancy Bauer-Bahnke and Tom Brannan, respectively.

Nancy said that she knew how to train the team from books, other coaches and previous experience. This year team members traveled to Anchorage, Barrow, White Mountain, Soldotna, and Kotzebue. When asked to compare this year’s team to previous years Nancy said, “The Boys team has done well the past two years, where as the girls have struggled to remain strong.” She also said, “Considering the challenge of injuries, both teams have did very well this year.”

This year State was held in Soldotna and the qualifiers from Nome were Megan , Luki , Benjamin , Vanya , Reese , Kelly , Zachary , Mike , and Lindsey . Nancy said that she feels some of the members did really well in state.

Nome-Beltz Wrestling Team

By: Clinton & David L.

On September 25th, 7th though 12th grade students who wanted to be on the Nome-Beltz wrestling team started training for the new season. The coach for the Nome-Beltz wrestling team is Coach Homelvig.

The team is getting in shape by running in the tunnel doing 10 to 20 push-ups and 10 to 20 sit-ups. They also do Cobras, which are done by arching your back while you are lying on your stomach. This helps stretch out your back. They also do 100 up-downs and 20 frog jumps. The most difficult exercise is “Andre Time”. “Andre time” is when they run for 30 minutes non-stop. After “Andre Time” the team stretches out again and does some more exercises. After the exercises, they have a 5-minute break where they can eat or get a drink of water.

This past weekend there was a wrestling meet at the high school. Point Hope, Unalakleet, and Kotzebue all came to wrestle. The wrestling meet was held at the high school gym.

Kids Shoot The Hoops

By: Mina & Dylon

Youth basketball started September 25, 2000 for the 5th and 6th graders of the Nome Public Schools. The youth basketball games will be held at the Nome Elementary school gym each Saturday at 11:00 am. They started on October 7th and run until December 9th.

The teams and coaches are: Tommy Wells for the Bulls, Nate Perkins for the Sonics, Bertha Koweluk for the Blazers, Uly Hall for the Raiders, and last but not least , Jason and Kunnuk Angusuk for the Eagles.