Dec. 21, 2010 Hi-Line Online

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VOLUME 51 ISSUE 12 1015 Division St. Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613

Groups perform outreach to kick off holiday season Maya Amjadi Staff Writer

Many different groups within Cedar Falls High School are gathering their talents to do service and bring holiday happiness to the community. The chorus students rehearsed Christmas carols that they performed while caroling before their concert on the thirteenth as well as at River Hills School on December fourteenth and the Women’s Club on the sixteenth.

The River Hills performance happened because the school contacted Mr. Elliot Kranz, choir director, asking if his Jingle Jazz group would perform for them. The group includes seniors: Carly Naaktgeboren, Sarah Postel, Chelsea Larsen, Nick Carlo, Reed Bowden, and Chris Kempf. The juniors of the group are: Sarah Welter, Erin Keiser, Kaitlyn Smith, Alex Stewart, and Ian Veenstra. The sophomores are: Josh Carlo, Ryan Ehrhardt, Kelsey McDonald, McKenzie Sesterhenn, Ann Fienup, and Amanda Harwood.

“Mr. Kranz asked us if we were up to it. We didn’t really give it a second thought. We wanted to go help from the start. The fact that River Hills choose us, Cedar Falls High School, to go, that really meant a lot,” said junior Erin Keiser.

It was amazing for the students to see that doing something as simple and easy for them as singing could have

such an impact on others.

“I thought it was really nice to be able to do what I love (singing) to make these kids’ day special and exciting,” said sophomore Amanda Harwood about their trip to River Hills.

The vocal jazz group has practiced since November eighth, and every Monday and Thursday morning from 7am to 8 am since then. The songs they performed included: “Caroling Caroling,” “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy,” “Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Deck the Halls,” “We Wish You A Merry Christmas,” “Hark the Harold Angels Sing,” and more carols.

The students had a lot to say about their trip to River Hills. “It was a lot of fun. It made my day. We got to volunteer with the kids and it was very rewarding. I would love to do it again sometime. I enjoyed performing for an audience that I knew would love it no matter what and would not judge.

I also loved interacting with the kids afterwards,” said Harwood. “ My favorite part was after we sang our program, we sang “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” with the audience and the “MC.” Santa came out, and the kids were so excited. It was so wonderful to see their reaction. Me and a couple other girls were tearing up.”

After the students performed they helped the kids at River Hills with face

Lisa Boelman photo (From left to right) senior Lisa Boelman ,sophomores Kalund Brown and Kalehl Brown, and junior Adam Streicher read and visit with the elderly at Allen Hospital. painting, puzzles, and coloring. “We split into groups and tackled the tables.

It was so much fun interacting with the kids. Some of them weren’t able to participate because of their disability, but you could tell from their facial expressions that they were having a blast anyway. I would do it again in a heartbeat,” said Keiser.

The students are happy with their performance and the time they spent with the children. From the smiles they put on the children’s faces it was clear they made an impact. “I hope it made a difference. I thought it was a great way to celebrate the spirit of Christmas and bring people together,” said Harwood.

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CFHS is fortunate to have several foreign exchange students this year. A Hi-line writer spoke

with each of them about how the holiday season in their home countries compare to in the U.S. We don’t have “Thanksgiving,

Yibing Su China

but we celebrate Christmas and the Chinese New Years. On Christmas my family makes dumplings together and we just celebrate.

”

We have the “lights at home

I really like it “here.

There’s

Krenare Loxhaj Kosovo

more detail and decorations here.

There are a lot of presents and the lights are the best part, but it’s cold.

”

Lena Weimann Germany

also but just not as much. [They are] very beautiful to look at and the feeling is great.

”

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2 opinion our view Snowflakes help support medical center in Africa This year’s French classes are on yet another mission to help Africa.

For the past few years, French teacher Anna Danforth has been distributing snowflake ornaments to her French students so they can sell them. The snowflakes are completely hand made by African women. Biba, along with other African women started making these ornaments for their malnourished children who stay at at the Gamboula Medical/ Nutrition center. Children from all over Africa go to Gamboula in order to receive proper nutrition while their mothers receive a proper education about nutrition in order to help their children prevent a return to Gamboula Medical/ Nutrition center.

The ornaments are made from grass and wrapped in strips from plastic bags in order to keep the grass from falling apart.

In the past, the ornaments have been sold for a $1 but this year the French students are leaving the price open to what costumers are willing to donate.

We at the Tiger Hi-line feel this is an excellent endeavor. Our world is rife with problems and any steps to help alleviate them deserve our attention. With all the proceeds going towards Gamboula Medical/ Nutrition center, we encourage students and staff to help support this project.

Contact the Tiger Hi-Line

The Tiger Hi-Line is a weekly publication of the journalism classes of Cedar Falls High School, 1015 Division St., Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613. Our website is www.hiline.co.nr. The Hi-Line is distributed to CFHS students on Tuesdays to read in their DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) classes.

Columns and letters do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Hi-Line or Cedar Falls Schools. The Hi-Line editorial staff view is presented weekly in the editorial labeled as Our View.

Reader opinions on any topic are welcome and should be sent to the Tiger Hi-Line staff or delivered to room 208. All letters must be signed.

Letters must be submitted by 3 p.m. on Thursday for publication the following Tuesday. Letters may not exceed 300 words and may be edited to meet space limitations. Include address and phone number for verification.

Editorial Staff

Editors-in-Chief: Sara Gabriele and Ellen Gustavson News Editor: Sara Gabriele and Allyson Vuong Opinion Editor: Meg Lane and Kaylee Micu Sports Editor: Ali Miller Feature Editors: Ellen Gustavson and Ali Miller Entertainment Editors: Meg Lane and Kaylee Micu Photo Editor: Tracy Lukasiewicz

Dec. 22, 2010

Outreach, front page Student senate committees led by junior Alex Stewart and junior Ryan Giarusso are doing some community service for this holiday season as well.

Stewart’s group is going caroling and making snowmen at the Western Home off of Main Street. They are also planning on shoveling snow around the school for a span of a one mile radius.

Giarusso’s group visited Allen Hospital and read their favorite Christmas children’s books to the elderly staying in the hospital over Christmas.

They made this trip Dec 19.

Sophomore Shannon Moody said that the idea was inspired by group collaboration but the one to voice the original idea was her friend, sophomore Mallory Rinnels. “It just to-

tally popped into my head, [in student senate] they said that we needed to come up with something that wouldn’t cost any money, and that would be enjoyable for others,” said Rinnels.

To set up the service, Rinnels e-mailed Allen Hospital. “They said they loved the idea and then we set up the date, the nineteenth,” said Rinnels.

Preparations for the service included finding something to read. “We decided that if they could bring a Christmas book that would be fabulous but if not, then they could just bring their favorite children’s book,” said Rinnels. The group hoped to recruit as many people as they could, not just the 10 or 15 student senate members.

The students involved are really excited to make a dif-

ference. “I want to feel good about helping someone out. It will make the kids happy and make the school look good that we are getting out and involved in the community. Its not hard and everyone can do it. Besides in the end you feel good about yourself that you helped someone else,” Moody said. The group is really hoping to brighten their audiences’ days and bring smiles to their faces.

Although these activities require stepping out of the normal comfort level of high school students, the groups think it is the best way to do service and spread some Christmas cheer. “I think that the point of the holidays is give a little more than you receive, and you should always be involved in your community whether it be Christmas or any holiday,” said Rinnels.

brought about several aggressive actions from the United States and other countries in order to prevent more harmful leaks.

Mastercard, Visa, and Paypal all cut off their customers from donating any amount of money to Wikileaks.

This brought a new group of activist from the shadows named Anonymous. The group has attacked many people who they think are to blame for the money cut offs with Mastercard and others.

Assange told his mother while in jail, “we now know that Visa, Mastercard PayPal and others are instruments of US foreign policy.”

I agree with MasterCard, Visa and PayPal for not processing the donations. I do not think that there should be a ‘donations box’ for a company who’s only goal is to bring down government and to basically get rid of democracy.

Giving the site donations is like giving a child a reward for doing something wrong.

All of the scandal between Assange and the world has left the countries scrambling for answers.

“People wanted to know on what legal grounds the ban

was taken, but no one could answer it.” Robert Marshall, the chairman of the Icelandic Parliamentary General Committee said. “ It violates the secret of diplomatic relations and puts people protected by diplomatic secret in danger.”

Assange though will not back down. “We will not engage in a negotiation regarding the further release or dissemination of illegally obtained US government classified materials.” Assange said.

This attitude has brought down many with him such as US Army private, Bradley Manning, who leaked US documents over the Iraq war earlier this June.

Now after hearing all of these allegations about WikiLeaks, I was horrified. I believe there are some things that just need to be kept a secret from the country - and the world for that matter. If there is something the government is hiding, there is most likely a good reason for the secrecy. I would not wish to have a global panic because of a website attacking governments and countries all over the world.

Wikileaks cannot keep its secrets Jessie Hoffman Staff Writer

“This disclosure is not just an attack on America’s foreign policy interests, it is an attack on the international community.” U.S Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said.

The attack she is referring to is the recent scandal involving Wikileaks.

Wikileaks is a site where documents normally kept under wraps by governments agencies are leaked to the public.

I think that Wikileaks is not a good site to have because there are things that should be kept secret from the public in order to reduce panic. It’s not just hurting America, it’s hurting everyone.

The founder, Juilan Assange, says that he wants to diminish the power that governments have and show their inadequacies.

Assange was being held in London on several charges, most of which happen in Sweden. He was charged with unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape.

The recent leaks have

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Dec. 22, 2010

New bowling coach strikes smiles Melanie Rasmussen Staff Writer

Chemistry and bowling at Cedar Falls High School are about to collide.

Chemisty teacher Bradly Baker is the new coach for the Bowling team.

Supervisor Gary Koenen informed Baker about the opening for coaching.

“Mr. Koenen and I talked last spring about the fact that there was going to be an opening for a bowling coach, and then this fall he asked if I was interested in taking over,” Baker said.

Before coaching for CFHS, Baker had coached at Fairfield for two years.

“I have been bowling pretty much

my whole life. My parents were both bowlers, and I started in youth leagues and bowled in high school before bowling in men’s leagues.”

There has been 2 games in which CFHS lost both but are expected to be in good shape when the season moves on. “The team has started slowly, but we are improving. We are 0-2 right now, but we played two tough teams in Dubuque Hempstead and Cedar Rapids Prairie.” Baker said. The team will be expected to do well by February. “I think if we continue to improve, we will be ready to make a good showing in February at the sub-state tournament.” The team is progressing and

will practice until perfect.

Students on the bowling team have nothing but good things to say about Baker. “He is too cool for school. He helps us work towards our goals and score higher” Junior Aj Langle said.

“He taught us how easy it is to pick up spares and do good at the sport. I was not on the team last years but he makes it fun. It’s like bowling with your buddies.”

Junior Kaitlin Izer is new to the CFHS bowling team and enjoys Baker’s coaching. “He’s very encouraging so like when we do something wrong he tires to tell us what we could do better.”

Tigers take a bite out of the competition at Mercer Invite Marie Deviney Staff Writer

Cedar Falls Men’s Swim team participated in the Mercer Invite on Dec. 18 in Iowa City.

The Tigers took first out of the 8 teams that were there. The team has been working hard in perfecting their techinque for the invite.

“I think they are a little tired but do it all to handle the competition.

We work well as a team, its not just one or two of us.” said Coach Dick Marcussen.

And their hard work paid off. Even Coach Marcussen agreed.

”At this point we have played the top 10 teams and beat everyone of them. We can’t get cocky though, you know how people can get when they get to the top. We are happy where we are.” Marcussen said.

Senior Austin Abbas said the toughest team there was Iowa City High.

“They have a lot of good freestylers and it was hard to match up.”

Abbas said. The Tigers won seven out of the elven events on Saturday, which gave them first place.

“We want to place high for state rankings, and so far we are ranked the highest team in the state.” Marcussen

said.

As for how the team did overall, Coach Marcussen wouldn’t change one thing.

“We did what we had to do. No athlete does everything one hundred percent right but that’s what we aim for,” said Marcussen.

The team’s next big meet will not be held until after the holidays, but they plan to train hard like the tigers they are, to be prepared for the second half of the season.

“We just got to keep working on things. In swimming little things are important and we can’t make mistakes.” Marcussen said.

Young lady tigers strive for better basketball season Sandra Omari-Boateng Staff Writer

Young and ready are two words that can describe this years women’s basketball team.

“There is a lot a potential with this years team.” sophomore Imonee Qualls said.

This years squad consist of three seniors, four juniors, three sophomores, and one freshman.

“It’s hard having such a young team because there isn’t enough team chemistry. The players haven’t known each other for long enough yet, but it will get better,” Qualls said.

Age however is not keeping these Tigers from great strives this season.

“One of our strong points is that we are quick,” Qualls said.

Sophomore Katie Friedel added, “We have good penetration, and we

Haley Harkless photo

Senior Brittany Conrad shoots a three pointer with pride.

have good outside shots.”

The team may have started with

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a record of 2-6 but plans to improve over the course of the season.

“We are going to get to know each other and have more team bonding”, Friedel said.

Daily practices help the girls discover each others strengths and weakness.

“We defiantly need to work together and learn to improve ourselves by learning from each other” sophomore Katie Friedel said.

Improving is the number one thing on everyone’s mind for the team, so they all have ideas on what could be done to make them even better.

“We just need to continue and learn everyone’s talents and try to show them”, Craig said.

“We will do nothing but improve the rest of the season”, Qualls said.

The Tigers next game is away at Cedar Rapids Xavier at 6:00 p.m.

Athlete Week of the

Austin Abbas Senior Men’s Swimming 1. What’s your favorite part of the season?

“Probably competing at meets. That’s where all our hard work pays off and its fun to do well.”

2. How do you fell you’re doing as a team so far? Individually?

“Really good so far.

We’re ranked number one in the state, and have a good chance to win if we keep improving.

Individually, I’ve already got personal bests in a couple races, and I’m close to All-American times which is my goal.

3. Who as been your biggest competition both as a team and individually?

“Dowling Catholic and Muscatine are probably our fastest competitors.

I’m not sure individually.”

4. How are you preparing for State?

“Right now we’re working really hard and everyone’s really tired.

We’re lifting weights and hopefully everyone will rest up so we do well and win.”

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Dec. 22, 2010

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Warm up this season with holiday drinks Chandal Geerdes Staff Writer

The holiday season is finally here, along with snow and frigid temperatures. This means lots of hot chocolate and coffee to consume. Some of your favorite places to go may be Panera, Starbucks, The Cup of Joe or even Scratch. These coffee joints are now offering many warm and comforting flavors for you to try.

Panera in both Waterloo and Cedar Falls have a few flavors that are sure to please your taste buds. Right now they are featuring their Peppermint Mocha and Peppermint Hot Chocolate, both made with premium chocolate and peppermint, steamed with milk, and topped with whipped cream.

To go along with these drinks make sure you buy one of their delicious bakery treats. Their new French Toast made with a special french toast bagel topped with a freshly

Photo from Starbucks.com

cooked egg, sharp Cheddar cheese and all-natural sausage is the perfect way to start your day.

If you would rather go a bit lighter, try their holiday Panettone. Panettone is a bread filled with cranberries, walnuts and candied orange peel, and topped with powdered sugar. And don’t forget their Holiday Bread, baked with with fruit and chocolate, drizzled with icing. These treats are only available until Dec. 24.

Starbucks in both Waterloo and Cedar Falls have a wide variety of holiday flavors for you to try out this season as well.

Like Panera, Starbucks also has a Peppermint Mocha made with peppermint flavored

syrup, bittersweet chocolate, espresso and steamed milk, and topped with classic whipped cream and dark chocolate curls, making it Starbucks’ most popular holiday drink.

The oldest Starbucks holiday drink is the Eggnog Latte.

It hasn’t been changed since it was introduced 25 years ago.

Celebrating its 11th anniversary is the Gingerbread Latte, made with gingerbread spices, espresso and milk topped with sweetened whipped cream and ground nutmeg. You can also enjoy it without coffee as a Gingerbread Creme.

Starbucks’ latest holiday drink is the Caramel Brulée Latte. A tasty combination of freshly brewed espresso and steamed milk, flavored with buttery-rich caramel Brulée sauce is sure to warm you up.

Starbucks also has many other flavorful drinks. Some being White Peppermint Mocha, Pumpkin Spice Latte, Caramel Apple Spice, and Peppermint Hot Chocolate.

Scratch, in downtown Cedar Falls, is a well know place for their delicious and oh so sweet cupcakes. They also

have seasonal drinks to enjoy with their holiday cupcakes.

Their drinks include Holiday Delight coffee, and a Pumpkin Spice frozen blend and steamer.

Some cupcake choices include Peppermint-stick, Gingerbread, Chai Latte, and Cinnamon Cake. Peppermintstick cupcakes are made with white or chocolate cake and peppermint butter-creme frosting; the others are topped with vanilla butter-creme. All of these cupcakes are sure to hit the spot this holiday season.

Also downtown, Cup of Joe has a wide range of holiday drinks for all to enjoy.

Peppermint Patty Mocha has the perfect blend of chocolate and peppermint. Snowflake Breve has a mix of chocolate and white coconut sure to please. Cafe Miel Latte has a unique sweet and spicy blend of honey and cinnamon.

Lastly, the Eggnog Latte is a wonderful blend of “feel good flavors”.

“Eggnog Latte is my favorite. It reminds me of the holidays and it’s festive,” Cup of Joe manager Sarah said.

Classes exchange secret Santa gifts Maya Amjadi Staff Writer

Students and teachers are celebrating the holidays in some classrooms by doing secret Santas.

The process is to draw someone’s name and then get them a present. Hence you are their secret Santa. Classrooms taking part in the fun event include: band’s percussion section, chorus, and Senora Black’s Spanish III class.

Sophomore Bennett Ford said, “The point of secret Santas is to be uncommonly friendly to someone without them knowing, and it could

be someone you know or not know.” He looks forward to next week when they will find out who their secret Santas are.

The percussionists have been exchanging gifts every Wednesday and Friday. It is the fourteenth annual percussion tradition of secret Santas and the people involved are enjoying the secret but prominent feeling of giving that is putting them in the Christmas mindset. Junior Karl Sadkowski said, “Although exclusive, it helps spread the jolly atmosphere of giving that is so closely associated with Christmas.”

Some students are instituting the game on their own time such as during lunch periods. They are getting friends together at lunch tables and drawing names. It is a fun way to get in the spirit of the holidays and practice the most important part of the season, giving.

(From left) Senior Tracy Lukasiewicz and juniors Karl Sadkowski and Lucas Hamilton excitedly exchange secret Santa gifts in the percussion room.

Maya Amjadi Photo