A NEW CHAPTER

FHN Secretary retires to spend time with family and travel

by Drew Johnson djohnson440@g.fhsdschools.org

Administrative Assistant Rae Ann Noah retired on Jan. 31. Noah has worked in the district for 23 years and the past 11 spent at FHN. Noah has retired in order to spend more time with her family.

“Earlier, my husband was diagnosed with cancer and I decided that I needed to be available to take him to his treatments if he was sick,” Noah said. “Recently, we went to the doctor and he is cancer free. Now I can retire and we get to enjoy the later part of our lives together.”

Although Noah is optimistic about the future, she still is sad to leave the district.

“I’ve developed pretty deep friendships with the majority of the people here and I am just someone who cared about her job every day,” Noah said. “I have never gotten up one morning and dreaded coming in, I love it here.”

Despite the fact that many of her memories were positive, Noah still had a difficult time adapting to some changes. Noah has spent the past five years as head secretary to various main principals.

“When I got the position as head secretary, it was hard trying to learn the job and be what I felt like

Fun Facts About Heidelberg Germany

I needed to be for everyone,” Noah said. “I’ve also had four bosses in the last five years and that’s been a huge challenge.”

Ever since Noah assumed the role of head secretary, colleagues have felt that she kept the staff running smoothly and has formed unbreakable bonds with the people she worked with.

The town is about an hour from Frankfurt, Germany.

Heidelberg has an estimated population of 160,335 people.

Heidelberg has an estimated the largest wine barrel in Germany.

“It’s going to be hard here without her, she brings us together,” Cara Mchaffie, who has been a secretary at FHN for nine years said. “It’s something that’s been really hard for me because I just care about her so much. I think if you were to say anything, she’s just well respected by the administration and assistants.”

Noah is looking forward to the future with her family and time off. She has plans to travel with her husband.

“I’d like to do some traveling,” Noah said. “I was born in Germany, so I would love to go visit there. An Alaskan cruise would also be fun as well. I have some things on my bucket list to do.”

Many members are sad to see Noah retire. Though, with her future unfolding, she believes its the right time to leave.

“It’s been a wonderful ride here and I’ve enjoyed every single second of it,” Noah said.

Mardi Gras Parade

by Sadie Ortmeyer sortmeyer483@g.fhsdschools.org

This year, St. Charles is hosting their own Mardi Gras celebration in Frenchtown by having a familyfriendly Mardi Gras Parade on Feb. 18. It starts at 11 a.m. and parades down Second Street, and ends at the Foundry Art Centre parking lot where they are having an afterparty from noon to 2:00 p.m.

50 Marathons By 50

Teacher Stacy Bevill has a goal of running a marathon in every U.S. state by the time she is 50 years old

by Ella Struble estruble765@g.fhsdschools.org

Math teacher Stacey Bevill is working towards completing 50 marathons, one in every state, and hopes to complete it by age 50. So far, Stacey has run marathons in 16 states, including Connecticut, Nevada and Wisconsin. She began this journey in 2015.

“It started off when I ran a race after my first kid was born and kind of got the bug,” Stacey said. “And then I thought to myself, ‘what’s something that’s just so out there that I can do to keep me active.’ I decided, you know, ‘I think I’m going to have a goal of doing all the states.’”

Since COVID, Stacey has had to increase her number of races from three a year to four or five a year in order to meet her goal by 50. COVID also had a great impact on her training regiment.

“When COVID hit, obviously for everyone it caused a lot of issues,” Stacey said. “It caused my training to really get off. To where after COVID I was just doing one or two runs to prepare for these races.”

After this setback, Stacey hired FHN alumni Jackie Pirtle-Hall to be

BEVILL’S TRAVELS

her running coach. Stacey is also supported by her husband, Brett Bevill, who is the varsity football coach at FHN.

“I do my best to make her marathons,” Brett said. “I go there to support her and you know, carry around anything she needs and meet her on the race course at least two or three times.”

Stacey began running to keep herself active after having children. When she heard about the marathons a friend of hers had been running, she decided to try it herself.

“I started with a half marathon,” Stacey said. “First one was tough, and then the second one I did, after I finished, I said to myself, ‘I think I could run that again, I’m not tired.’”

Stacey enjoys running because of the opportunity it gives her to relieve stress, especially stress related to teaching.

“So with teaching, it helps, there’s so much weight that’s always on teachers’ shoulders all the time, and running is one of the few times that, when I have just so much weight on my shoulders, I can just let it all go,” Stacey said. “And it allows for me to be free and allows my thinking to be free.”

“It’s fun to come together and just have a reason to get together with people and party,” French teacher Jenny Liberson said.

Even if this holiday originated in New Orleans, it has spread to many places beyond. It serves as a time for people to get together and celebrate with family and friends even if they celebrate Lent or not. This is why Frenchtown is doing a parade which allows anyone to come.

“I think it’s a fun thing that should keep being celebrated and I think it’s important to remember the origins of New Orleans and all that stuff,” Liberson said.

Mardi Gras is a widely known holiday that has been celebrated for hundreds of years and is specifically well known for its decorations and colors. Especially in New Orleans, the celebration is huge and includes parades, decorations and music.

“New Orleans is huge, they have a week of festivities and they shut things down,” Liberson said.

The holiday Mardi Gras is celebrated on Fat Tuesday, which is the last day before Lent for Christian groups. It can fall on any day between Feb. 9 and March 3, but this year, it falls on Feb. 21.

“I think it’s just like the fun-like cultural aspect of New Orleans, and the strong cultural presence it has there kind of like stems out everywhere else,” Liberson said.

“And I don’t think that is the case with a lot of holidays.”

by Brianna Dunham)