February 2017
Kelsey Thompson, 3, and Paisley Hardt, 5, play at Red Mountain Park in Mesa
Building success piece by piece
Local teen’s award-winning play on Mesa Arts Center stage
Mesa middle-school girls’ Lego robot puts them in national finals By Alison Stanton About eight years ago, when the LugNuts was formed for Mesa middleschool students, 10 boys showed up. This science, technology, engineering and math-based techie-stuff certainly wouldn’t be for girls. Or would it? Fast forward to January. The LugNuts, reflecting a changing world, had morphed into an all-girl group – and they rock. Inspired to draw their gender into STEM education, the LugNuts won the Champions Award for first place at the Arizona FIRST Lego League State Championships Jan. 14-15, when about ...continues on page 7
— Special to Nearby News
The LugNuts are (from top clockwise) Claire LuzHoxsie, Christina Ardavin, Kailey Appel and Quinlan Harris.
Claire Howard learned about the East Valley Children’s Theatre’s Aspiring Playwrights Contest two years ago while attending an EVCT performance, and her interest immediately was piqued. However, the deadline was three days away, and Claire, then a 14-yearold home-schooled student from Mesa, had never written a play. She spent the next three days furiously researching and writing. Claire, now 16, is about to watch the world premiere of her winning work, “The Heroes of Olim,” performed at the Mesa Arts Center Feb. 9-19. ...continues on page 8
Claire Howard, 16, wrote “The Heroes of Olim,” to be performed in February at the Mesa Arts Center.
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