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October 2011 | School House Co m Ini plim tia e l E nta xa ry m
MBJH Service Retreat
Front row: Parker Hartline, John Eagan, Bill Perry, George Eagan, Katie Reiss, Brooke Littleton, Margaret Murray. Back row: Deke Marbury, John Callaway, Preston Eagan, Owen Ross, Catherine Turner, Bailey Martin, Walton Stivender, Sanders Reed, Brantley Sanders, Paley Smith, Anna Matthews, Principal Ben Hudson.
By HILARY ROSS Last year students at MBJH performed over 5000 hours of community service and donated thousands of dollars coordinated by the Students Organized for Service (S.O.S.) organization whose mission is to promote volunteerism among students. The S.O.S. Leadership Council and Officers for 2011-12 are: Anna Matthews (1st Vice President), Bailey Martin, Bill Perry, Brantley Sanders (Historian), Brooke Littleton, Cate Harmon, Catherine Turner (Secretary), Charlie Steinmetz, Claudia Rose Keating, Deke Marbury, Elizabeth Summers, George Eagan (Vice President), John Eagan (Treasurer), John Sisson, Katie Reiss, Lucy Wolter, Margaret Murray (President), Paley Smith, Preston Eagan (Parliamentarian), Sergie Kampakis, Virginia White and Walton Stivender. Each year, members of the SOS Leadership Council go off-site to learn
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about various non-profit organizations in their community that need support of volunteers. This year, 14 Leadership Council members and five at large members were able to attend the retreat at the Birmingham Zoo. “Most of these students have grown up going to this zoo, so this is a great opportunity to show how they can give back and preserve this zoo for their children,” said S.O.S. parent sponsor Penney Hartline. The S.O.S. Council retreat occurs at the beginning of the school year and is the length of a regular school day. The retreat at the zoo included an introduction from the zoo’s volunteer coordinator to learn about the various volunteer opportunities at the zoo (Boo at the Zoo and Zoolight Safari), the performance of a service project, and a tour of the zoo’s newest exhibits and animals.
Support the MBJH magazine fundraiser By HILARY ROSS Mountain Brook Junior High kicked off its annual fundraiser of magazine sales through QSP, Inc., a Time, Inc. company. Friends and family could renew existing subscriptions or order new magazines at a huge discount. It is not too late to support Mountain Brook Junior High! State budget cuts have totally eliminated classroom supply money for teachers. The proceeds from the magazine sale fundraiser have been earmarked to help replace these funds. You can help by visiting the web site
of the school at www.mtnbrook.k12.al.us/ mbjh and then clicking on “Magazine Sales” under the quick link options. Then you can see the MBJH-QSP online catalog and place any renewal or new order from the convenience of your home computer. The MBJH account number with QSP.com is 1085797. Or, you can make a straight donation to MBJH by giving monies at various levels. This option is 100 percent tax deductible. For more information, you may visit www. mtnbrook.k12.al.us/mbjh.
MBHS Debate takes Wake Forest by storm to start season The Mountain Brook High School debate team travelled to Wake Forest University on September 10 with a team of 16 debaters. The students had excellent success. In Lincoln-Douglas Debates, junior Wyatt Moorer made the sweet 16 of Varsity while Junior Haley Siddall and sophomore Amelia Putnam both made the elite 8 in Junior Varsity. In Junior Varsity debate, sophomores Mary Nix Roberson and Chamblee Shufflebarger made it to the elite 8 and sophomores Hope Reamer and Caroline Goolsby made the final four. Leading the team in Varsity Policy was senior Evan McCarty, who was awarded the second place overall speaker. Ironically, McCarty’s former partner, who is now debating on scholarship for Wake Forest University, was allowed to award the trophy to him on stage. He and his partner, junior Philippa Straus, finished in the final four of a competitive field of teams from all across the country. As a result, Straus and McCarty earned their first of two needed bids to the Tournament of Champions held
at the University of Kentucky. Also of note was Mountain Brook’s rising eighth grader Marc Straus, who appeared in the very first tournament of the year with sophomore partner Ben Jackson. Marc and Ben did move on in the Junior Varsity pool, but Marc was the 13th overall speaker, which shows some great potential for the future of Mountain Brook Debate! Congratulations to each of the debaters who contributed to the success of their first event of the year. The team will now travel to the Greenhill School, in Dallas, Texas, for the year’s most prestigious pre-season National Circuit event. We will have four varsity debaters in competition! The team greatly appreciates support from the community and would like to encourage everyone to continue the support by attending debates or simply keeping up with the progress of the team. You can follow the team on Twitter @spartandb8 or reach Jeffrey Roberts at ROBERTSJ@mtnbrook.k12.al.us.