Red Devil Post, Vol. 2, Issue 3

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October 9, 2023

RED DEVIL POST Peer mentors visit Three Creeks

by Hailey Fox

On October 27th, 32 of our Red Devil Peer Mentors went to Three Creeks Elementary School as a reward for the elementary students for their PBIS plan. Students at Three Creeks are able to earn ‘Bear Bucks’ that they are then allowed to purchase different things/activities with. The students who chose to spend time with our mentors participated in different fall-themed activities. All of the activities included pumpkins and gourds which were donated continued on page 12

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October 9, 2023

Masthead

Staff Hailey Baran Jonathan Budz Brooke Chandler Josh Cornell Lily Cruz Hailey Fox Lily Gleason Bryson Hebble Jaidyn Jansma Trinitie Lintner Allie Lukasik Allie Mecha Brooke Miller Gabby Morache Taylor Rothrock Emma Sampias Ava Tippy Isabelle Udovich Addi Umfleet Sponsor Joe Gianotti

IN THIS ISSUE Peer Mentors, page 1 Track or Treat, page 3 Nurse Wathen, page 4 AP Art, page 5 Haunted House Tour, page 6 Autumn in Lowell, page 7 Book Review, page 8 Cross Country, page 9 Girls Soccer, page 10

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October 9, 2023

Red Devil Pride Annual Track or Treat successful again

by Addie Um eet

Track or Treat was Thursday, October 26 and it was a huge hit! We had many participants and happy kids who were able to receive a lot of candy from our local communities and clubs from our school.

The best part of Track or Treat is seeing our family owned businesses participating and making the kids have a wonderful experience. This program was fun for everyone and is always able to bring the town close together for this time of year. This year, we had many people show up, both for handing out candy and receiving candy, greater than what is was in the past. The L-Club had a huge part in helping set up the events for Track or Treat, including the spooky haunted hallway and putting up all of the tables with giving guidance as to where everyone should go. Overall, this event went spectacularly! The Red Devil Pride was portrayed throughout the whole event all night long. A shoutout goes to everyone who went and had a great time there to help the turnout. Track or Treat is a

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great preview of the beginning of Halloween!

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October 9, 2023

Red Devil Pride Nurse Wathen: One amazing medical professional for 1100 students and staff

by Allie Mecha

I got a chance to sit down with the very busy Nurse Wathen, who has seen an uptick in cases that she has had to attend to this year. After meeting with her, this is what I learned.

AM: What is the most common illness that you deal with, and what are the symptoms that go along with it.

NW: One of the most common things I deal with is anxiety and the student does not recognize the physical symptoms they can experience.

AM: Tell me about a time when you had to treat a condition that you hadn’t treated before.

NW: My primary experience before coming to the schools was end-of-life care and geriatric care, so it was shocking to have young people with a diagnosis that you continued on page 13

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October 9, 2023

Artistic Endeavors AP Art readies their portfolios

by Lily Cruz

AP Art has started off the year brainstorming ideas for their art portfolio that they are submitting to the College Board to gain college credit. The rst thing that they worked on was a project called a mindmap. This project allowed students to think and write down any ideas as their main prompt to base their artwork on and practice and use creativity in their mindmaps. Some ideas that students thought of were personal, environmental, etc. After you think of your main idea, later on in the year you have to generate a prompt question that your artwork re ects off of. Once everyone nished their mindmaps, in groups they shared their ideas and potentially the one that they are most likely going to go with as their main prompt idea.

The rst piece of artwork that students have to create is always the hardest. AP Art has started to work on the rst artwork of their portfolio. Students are able to use whatever material they desire for all of their artworks.

Some different art materials that they use are colored pencils, paint, chalk, oil pastels, oil paint, clay, and more.

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October 9, 2023

LHS Community Lowell’s haunted house tour worth the price of admission

by Lilly Gleason

On October 14th, I attended a ghost tour in Downtown Lowell, after a month, it is now time for me to give you all my opinion and share some of the chilling stories about our very own town. The Haunted Walking Tour of Downtown Lowell is an event run by Mike McDowell, Owner/Ghost Host & Paranormal Investigations of Chaos Haunted & Historical Tours. McDowell is the Founder, President, and CEO of the Indiana Ghost Trackers, Inc, which can be found at www.indianaghosts.org. It is one of the leading authorities on hauntings in the state of Indiana. This tour is a walking tour of the area of downtown Lowell, and McDowell speaks about some of the chilling ghost stories of the buildings that are in that area.

Mike started his research with the paranormal in 1997, but his interest started when he was around 10 when he saw a spirit himself of a deceased boy who had been killed while using a pogo stick to bounce himself to school. Even though McDowell is a very experienced public speaker in the region having completed his Gold Toastmasters International certi cation in 2019. “An achievement many in the organization never

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October 9, 2023

LHS Community Lowell o ers plenty

of autumn entertainment activities

by Emma Sampias

As the leaves begin changing colors, and the weather grows colder, fall activities appear everywhere in Northwest Indiana. These activities range from pumpkin patches, apple orchards, corn mazes, and many more. Deciding between these activities may be dif cult if you're unaware of what each activity involves. Fall activities nearby include: Kregel’s Pumpkin Patch, located at 7705 W 159th Ave, Lowell, Indiana. This exciting pumpkin patch offers hay rides, a corn maze, pumpkin picking, a petting zoo, pony rides, photo ops, and their famous Pumpkin Peak Slide.

Harvest Tyme, located at 17904 Grant St., Lowell, Indiana offers entertaining fall

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October 9, 2023

Modern Minute Plot twist after plot twist lies in A.J. Finn’s debut novel, “The Woman in the Window”

by Hailey Baran

When an agoraphobic woman spends her days by herself, drinking wine, taking pills, and spying on her neighbors, she is bound to get herself in trouble. A.J. Finn’s debut novel, ‘The Woman in the Window’ is about Dr. Anna Fox, a child psychologist who lives alone in her New York City home. When Dr. Fox sees something she shouldn’t have while spying on her neighbors, it turns her world upside down, and secrets come spilling out.

The novel starts with Anna spying on her neighbors across the street, witnessing an affair. She uses a camera to spy on them in peace. When not spying on her neighbors, Anna describes what she does in her house 24/7. She likes to watch classic movies, play online chess, communicate online with other agoraphobes, take online French lessons, and talk to her husband and daughter on the phone.

While spying on her neighbors across the street one day, Anna nds out they’re moving out, and a new family is moving in; the Russells. Anna tries to befriend the Russells’ teenage son; Ethan, as he reminds Anna of herself. As a child psychologist, Anna senses that Ethan doesn’t have the best home life, and she shares her kindness and advice with him. As she begins to blossom her friendship with Ethan, she befriends Ethan’s mother, Jane Russell, after Jane catches Anna

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October 9, 2023

Courts and Fields X-country ends its season with a mudslide of success

by Gabby Morache

On the morning of October 21st, the running red devils travel to New Carlisle, Indiana to take on one of the most brutal and monstrous courses in the state to run against the biggest competition they have faced yet in the Regional championships. The very wet, rainy, cold, and quite honestly miserable conditions did not stop the devils from wrapping up their cross country season’s on a high note.

Both races went out slower than normal due to the weather conditions, but this did not continued on page 18

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October 9, 2023

Courts and Fields Lady Red Devil soccer ends another successful season against Hanover

by Brooke Chandler

The Lowell Girls Varsity Soccer closed their season on Saturday, October 7, with a 3-1 loss during the sectional championship against the defending Hanover Wildcat champions. The Lady Red Devils worked their way up to the championship game after defeating the Grif th Panthers 8-0 in the rst round of sectionals. Then, they went on to defeat the Highland Trojans 2-1, Samantha Guerra scored the game winning goal in the second half of over-time, which advanced them to the sectional championship.

The Lady Red Devils performed well for their last game of the season.

Allison Mecha and Brooke Chandler both had two shots on goal. Samantha Guerra and Kaelen Lulinski both had one shot on goal. Brooke Miller had two shots on goal, one of them being a goal off of a penalty kick late in the second half that brought the score to 3-1.

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October 9, 2023

Courts and Fields Lady Red Devils volleyball: A ght against the Region

by Trinitie Lintner

On October 1st, 2023, the Lady Red Devils Volleyball team patiently awaited their sectional draw. They eagerly watched the TV, seeing all the other schools get their pair.

With Lowell being a 4A school for volleyball, it was one of the later classes to get drawn. Once the 4A class started, however, it was very quick when they found out their match. The screen quickly revealed itself. Chesterton vs. Valparaiso, Kankakee Valley vs. Portage, and nally, Lowell vs. Hobart.

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Peer mentors, continued from page 1 thanks to our local pumpkin patches; Harvest Tyme Family Farm and Kregel's’ Pumpkin Patch.

Both of our local pumpkin patches were generous with their donations and the mentor program is very thankful for both of these donations. With grades K-3, we painted the gourds, which was a blast. And then with grades 4 and 5, we slingshotted the gourds at a scarecrow made by one of the mentors. The mentors also spent time at recess and lunch with the elementary students, which everyone enjoyed immensely. Through this trip, the mentors instilled kindness and positivity into the elementary students that left everybody smiling at the end of the day.

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Nurse Wathen, continued from page 4 typically only see in older adults.

AM: What do you like doing the least in your line of work?

NW: Charting!

AM: How do you handle medical emergencies in a school setting?

NW: My primary concern is the student's safety. I assess the situations and my goal is to assess that student and protect them at the same time. I also really try to protect people's privacy and dignity in those situations. I've been known to get a little bossy when those things are happening.”

——————————————————————————————————————————————— Haunted tour, continued from page 6

reach.” I will be judging and reviewing his abilities in this article.

The Haunted Walking Tour of Downtown Lowell was 2 hours long. It was unfortunately a rainy day, but that didn’t affect Mike and his ability to engage a large group of people. Mike continued to share his paranormal stories about the Downtown area. Mike’s voice was one of an experienced public speaker. It made you want to listen to what he had to say. Mike spoke about many places along E Commercial Ave such as McVey’s Restaurant & Bar, Downtown Hair Studio, Purple Door Bridal Boutique, Bennetts Pub and Play, and many others along the way. He conducted research before the tour and went and interviewed owners or employees of these businesses to get experiences from them. Another place that Mike spoke about was The Lowell Public Library, which as many of you might know is built right next to a graveyard. Mike stated, “They reported seeing a shadow in the children’s book area. They’ve also seen objects move, the door sensors trigger by themselves.”

He also mentioned that the maintenance guy named Tom would hear boxes being moved around upstairs when he was there alone at night. Mike and his fellow continued on page 14

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October 9, 2023

AP Art, continued from page 5 Many students have been thriving with their first art pieces and are making progress fairly quickly. Since students are making such great progress, they are going to have an art critique for all the classmates to review and give feedback on each other's artwork in progress. These artists are thriving throughout their journey and are excited to create more artwork as the school year progresses.

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investigators have investigated the Library twice, once in 2006, and once recently in 2019. Both times Mike has caught evidence of haunting such as voice recordings with intelligent spirits who called themselves Ralph and Isabel. Mike also took us to The Halstead House where he spoke about not only the history of the home but also some of the hauntings with it. He spoke about one in particular a murder that happened around 1880. People believed that this murder happened in or around the Halstead House, but actually, it happened right across the street in front of the Thorne Home.

Mike stated that the town Blacksmith at the time was talking with Mrs. Thorne and up walked John Meyers who shot him dead at 9:00 in the morning, where he would later die in the Thorne Residence just 10 minutes later. Because many people used to believe that the murder had happened in the Halstead House as Mike stated, “that’s where the folklore gets mixed up.” Mike nally spoke about some old crimes in the 50s and 60s about the outlaws and bandits in our town. At the end of our tour, it may have been pouring rain, but Mike never stopped talking and didn’t cut our tour short.

Overall, Mike is very passionate about what he does and I could tell he took his time with research, he even stated how we should look deeper into our town’s history because of have “fascinating” it is. While I may not entirely believe every story he told or everything he said, I think the tour was an interesting and eye-opening experience.

Mike is a great public speaker, he is amazing at engaging his crowd. He also provided pictures, recordings, and other forms of evidence from his own investigations. My nal review of Mike McDowell is that if you are interested or curious about paranormal and want to hear about places you know, I encourage you to check out his next tour dates or

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check out his website (https://www.chaostrips.com) I don’t think you’ll regret it.

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fall activities, continued from page 7 festival includes pumpkin picking, corn mazes, a half-mile Pumpkin Glow Trail, amusement rides, a petting zoo, photo ops, and food options.

County Line Orchard, located at 200 S County Line Rd, Hobart, Indiana. This pleasing apple orchard incorporates apple picking, live music, corn mazes, a petting zoo, a children’s train, and delicious treats.

Fair Oaks Farm Orchard, located at 856 N 600 E, Fair Oaks, Indiana. This appealing orchard includes apple picking, golf cart rentals for trail rides, wagon rides, and tasty food.

Johnson’s Farm Produce, located at 8960 E Ridge Rd, Hobart, Indiana. This intriguing produce farm involves flower, pumpkin, and vegetable picking during this season, while also having a fun farm for younger children.

These considerable fall activity options may create warm memories that will allow you to correlate the season of fall with fun experiences. Now with a greater understanding of what each location involves, it may be easier to decide what works best for you, your family or any group of individuals you make these memories with.

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October 9, 2023

The Woman in the Window, continued from page 8

spying on her. Jane is outgoing and fun to be around, and Anna appreciates this. Anna likes the company and she’s happy to make a friend.

After a long day of drinking too much, Anna decides to spy on the Russells across the street, and witnesses something disturbing no one else saw on her block: Jane Russell getting stabbed to death. However, no one believes Anna. The police, the Russells, doctors, and just about everyone think she’s crazy due to her mental illnesses, her agoraphobia, and her drinking problems. The Russells claim Jane never died, as Jane is still alive with no signs of injury or harm.

As Anna begins to question even herself, the pieces to the puzzle start coming together one by one. Finn does a fabulous job of narrating the book through Anna’s perspective as a woman with crippling anxiety and depression while everyone else around her is cast as “normal.” Each character was created to be unique, and it’s an underlying factor that makes the novel interesting to read. Finn’s writing style is sleek and thrilling and will keep you hooked the entire time. Although the novel is entirely ction, it seems it’s a true story.

‘The Woman in the Window’ will keep you guessing until the very end. Luckily, the ending of the book is optimistic with the idea that there’s always a chance to start over.

The raw truth may have come out, but everything worked out in the end. With a simple

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send-off, Anna can live her life the way she deserves to.

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X-country, continued from page 9 stop Daniel Frevert from making some noise on the course.

Coming in at 29th place in a field of 245, Frevert only missed state qualification by one place. With Frevert only being a sophomore, we can be sure to see some state championships in his future. Senior Seth Bakker followed not far behind Frevert with a new personal best time, despite the awful weather conditions, bringing him in at 57th place. Sophomores Camden Mikulich, Zak Hudak, and freshman Jose Vasquez rounded out the top five. Senior Dylan Hochbaum and Junior Ben Garcia follow closely behind to also round out the top seven. The boys wrap up their season at regionals but with a relatively young team, they are very excited to prepare for track as well as next cross season.

The girl’s team fell short at the Sectional Championship, missing team qualification by a few placements. Fortunately, due to their individual placement in the race, many of the girls were able to qualify as individuals. Gabby Morache, Morgan Myers, Payton Boyer, Julia Monix, Christina Friend, and Veyda Myroup also traveled to the raging Agony Hill alongside the boys team to compete in the Regional competition. Although times were not where the girls wanted them to be due to the weather conditions, the girls did their best to make the most out of the very muddy course. Leading the devils pack was senior Gabby Morache followed by seniors Morgan Myers and Payton Boyer. This senior trio has led the lady devils throughout the season and although their high school careers ended at regionals, the girls team also have a relatively young squad for next season with freshman Veyda Myroup, sophomore Christina Friend, and soon-to-be senior Julia Monix all in the mix.

It will be very exciting to see what both distance squads do on the track this spring after wrapping up another great cross country season. Congratulations to both teams and we will see you on the track!

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Volleyball, continued from page 11 The girls all immediately got excited and started to scream. They knew that for the first time a quite a few years, they could make it past the first round of sectionals. In the days leading up to the game, the girls were having a rough time. Their last game of the regular season didn’t end too well, and their practices weren’t looking very promising. The girls were just not in the right mindset, and it was starting to make some of them worry. The week of sectionals they didn’t have any matches and only had practices. The girls made a great effort to show that they wanted to be there and during the sectional match the people who wanted to be there showed up ready to play. October 12th, 2023, Lowell vs. Hobart, both teams first match of sectionals. Lowell knew that they had the power to beat Hobart and had a team talk before the game. Some people stepped up and were leaders that night. Alex Delgado and Sidney Napiwoki were inspirational during the team talk and got their points across to the team. After the team talk, the teams started their warm-ups. Everyone was feeling a little bit nervous. The game started, and Lowell was looking good. They had a lot of great plays in the first set and took the first set win with the score 25-20. The second set however was even better. The Lady Red Devils only let Hobart score 4 points the entire match. It was a shocker to both teams, ending that set with the score 25-4. In the last set, they started off doing pretty well, but then little things started to slip. A few points here and a few points there. Hobart was starting to catch back up. In volleyball they play the best 3 out of 5, meaning if Lowell won that last set, they would win the whole game. If Hobart were to win that set, they would have the chance to play another set and maybe win the whole game. The final score for the 3rd set was 25-22, Lowell. The Lady Red Devils pulled it together for the last set win, making it past the first found of sectionals in almost 6 years. They were filled with excitement, but eventually realized that this would probably be their last win of the season because they would have to face Chesterton on Saturday. Even though the Lady Devils played very hard on Saturday, they did inevitably lose to Chesterton. The first two sets didn’t go so well with scores of 25-14, and 25-8.

However, in the 3rd set, the Lady Devils fought as hard as they could. They knew that the set would either be the end of their season, or a chance to keep fighting, and the devils chose to fight. They started to form a bit of a lead and were surprised while playing. Eventually, they took the set from Chesterton with a score of 25-21. In the 4th set, Chesterton was done playing games and took the final set score of 25-13. Chesterton won 3-1 in set wins. Even though they ended their season with a loss, the Lady Red Devils had such a great season and played hard every chance they could. Great job Lady Red Devils!

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Girls soccer, continued from page 10 The team fought hard for the entirety of the game, but could not manage to pull off a win, which meant their season had come to an end. The Lady Devils had a good season overall, with the ratio for the entire season being 10 wins, 6 losses, 2 ties, and 4th in conference.

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