Writer/Photographer - Lily Monigold This last Thursday after school, the Le Roy Scholastic Bowl team gathered together in the library to get ready for their meet. They were going up against Ridgeview. Usually, Ridgeview would have either come to Le Roy for the meet or we would have come to them. However, this year things have looked different; like a lot of extracurricular activities right now. For example, this year the team started up with practices and meets in January when usually the season starts up earlier than that. Instead of having actual buzzers, each person has a computer in front of them in a zoom call. There is a button to push for the buzzer on the computer screen. These differences, however, didn’t stop Le Roy from giving it their all. The meet started out with the choosing of Mary Thayn for captain. There are two seniors this year on the team; Mary Thayn and Jacob Gaul. They take turns being captain each meet. Basically, Mary’s job as captain was to be the spokesperson for the team on the bonus questions. She was also the one to have the sound from the zoom come out of her computer. Throughout the meet, Ridgeview never had a score higher than Le Roy’s. For instance, at half time (after ten rounds) Le Roy had 70 points and Ridgeview had 40 points. Toss-up and bonus questions were fired at the team, but they never wavered. When in doubt, they gave it their best educated guess. The questions ranged from the subjects math, science, literature, history, religion, and more. They weren’t easy questions that everyone would know, either. I realized throughout the meet that I do not have much random knowledge, for nearly all of the questions had me stumped. The final score of the game was Le Roy with 150 points and Ridgeview with 70 points. So far this season, Le Roy has two wins and four losses. They have the potential to go to Regionals this year, for the top ten teams go and they are currently number 10. To top off the exciting win, Mrs. Marcy’s birthday was the following day after the meet. To celebrate, everyone wore their craziest hats/headwear. You can see from the pictures below that there were some pretty cool ones! Even though things are looking different this year, the Scholastic Bowl team has managed to stay positive and still have fun during their season. According to Mrs. Marcy, a big downside is that her and the team don’t get to meet as many new people from other schools. The next meet will be on Tuesday, February 9th. There are no meets next week for it will be “Trash Bowl” week. This means that the team will have some fun answering pop culture questions. Be on the lookout for more updates!
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Writer - Miranda Little
Photos Provided By - Miranda Little and Kim Wohlwend This past week on January 21st, 2021, Key Club teamed up with the American Red Cross and hosted a blood drive here in Le Roy. Donors of all ages, shapes, and sizes came out to donate during these difficult times and our workers and volunteers could not be more proud; because of this, we in Key Club and The Paw Print Newspaper felt it necessary to share with the community just how important it is to be donating at this time. We hope that spreading awareness about this will promote more people to donate to a drive or find other ways to support hospitals both locally and nationally. Listed below are some of the many reasons you should be giving blood right now: 1) It Can Save Lives Every year, there are thousands of car accidents, cancer patients, trauma victims, and others who go through terrible tragedies that do not have issues that can simply be solved by bandages or medicine. Many people need blood transfusions to get through these life-or-death situations. A shortage of donated blood could determine if someone lives or dies every day. Hospitals are only able to save people's lives through donations of blood. 2) Less Than 10% Of Possible Donors Donate While there are many regulations on who can and cannot donate blood, less than 10% of people who can donate blood actually donate. This does not take into account what types of blood those donors have. Blood types such as AB and B are some of the rarest blood types, meaning there is always a risk for hospital patients with those blood types. More donors reduces unwanted risk for those patients. 3) A Donation Takes Only One Hour Although the idea of giving blood does sound like a tedious task, it only takes around one hour for the entire process. Donors will answer questions, take a quick blood test, be prepared to give blood, before finally giving blood all under one hour. Certain blood donation services make this process even faster by using online questionnaires to let donors answer required questions before ever showing up for their appointment. This one hour experience will usually result in one pint of blood being donated. 4) COVID Antibodies Are Vital Now During this global pandemic, many blood donations centers were shut down for the first few weeks of quarantine and some still are; however, hospitals and research centers need your blood now more than ever with COVID being spread. While blood donation centers will not test you for COVID, anyone who has recently recovered from COVID is being requested to donate blood. Antibodies are formed in a person's blood after recovering from COVID that help that person avoid getting COVID again within a short time period. That time period is when it is most vital to give blood to help hospitals and research centers save lives. While the idea of going out in such a short amount of time after having COVID does not sound particularly inviting, you could be saving possibly thousands upon millions of lives. These are not the only reasons you should be giving blood. There are many professional resources out there from agencies and organizations to help people understand why these medical practices are important. If you are interested in learning more about the blood donation process or helping out during this pandemic, feel free to browse the World Health Organization (WHO) webpage as well as the American Red Cross webpage to find more information. Please be on the lookout for future events to help our community as we move into the future. We wanted to give a quick thank you to our workers, volunteers, and donors at the Key Club Blood Drive last week and we hope to see you all again soon! My name is Matt Williamson, and I'm a video editor / reporter for The Paw Print. Throughout my high school career, I have been working towards a career in video production, so when Mary Thayn approached me with an idea to start a video production part of The Paw Print, I immediately said yes. It's my dream to be a video editor for a major company someday, and The Paw Print will give me the opportunity to get some real experience. I'm very excited to see where our video production crew goes from here!
Outside of going to school, I try to stay as busy as possible. I work at TrueValue and the Princess Theater. I'm involved in Key Club, Student Council, Scholastic Bowl, The Paw Print, as well as the musical and play our school puts on. I'm also Vice President of the Class of 2022. When I'm not busy with work or extracurricular activities, I enjoy playing video games, watching movies and tv shows, playing guitar, and spending time with friends and family. Hello! My name is Allena Johnson. I have always been an avid writer and have loved stories and writing since a very young age. I am in the High School Band, Chorus, and theater. I also do Community Theater in Champaign.
Writer - Lily Monigold
The legal voting age in the United States has been 18 since 1971. It was changed from 21 to 18 by the 26th Amendment when 18-year-olds fought in the Vietnam War. They said that since they fought for the country, then they should be able to vote for the country. Many argue that the age of 18 for voting age should also be lowered. However, there are two sides to the argument, like any argument, as to why this should happen or not. There was even a proposed amendment in 2019 that was rejected by the House of Representatives to lower the voting age to 16. There are other countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Scotland that already have the voting age at 16. So the question is: should the voting age be lowered? NO: Many say no to this question, and have multiple points to back that up. Possibly the biggest point is that someone at the age of 16 or 17 just isn’t as mature as an 18-year-old. The brain doesn’t fully develop until the age of 25, and while 18 doesn’t reach that either, it is definitely closer than 16. Also, 18 is when you become an adult and enter into the world of the many adult responsibilities. While teens younger than 18 share some of the same responsibilities as adults, there are some that are just limited to those 18 and older. These include having a full-time job, applying for a credit card, participating in jury duty, and being held responsible for your own depts. To continue, most 16 and 17-year-olds are still living with their parents, and parents hold a large influence over teens. At 18, you may be able to think for yourself more and form some of your own opinions. Also, once you are 18 you simply have more education. You have either completed high school or have almost completed high school by then. A lot of schools, including Le Roy, have a government class that can teach you a lot of the basic information you need to know in order to be a well-informed voter. 16 and 17-year-olds possibly haven’t taken or completed this class yet. Since the brain isn’t fully developed at this age, it can be easier to be influenced into voting for someone else by your parents, friends, or social media. While voting is a right, it is also a responsibility; a responsibility that should be taken seriously. YES: There are a lot of points as to why the voting age shouldn’t be lowered any, but there are also a lot of very valid points as to why it should be lowered. There are already multiple countries other than the U.S. that has the voting age lowered to 16. A few cities in the U.S. allow teens to vote in local elections now. In November, there was a vote in San Francisco to lower the age to 16; it was extremely close, but didn’t pass. The reason behind these countries and cities lowering the age to 16 include that many 16-year-olds can drive and have a part-time job. When you have a part-time job, you have to pay taxes. Elections have an affect on taxes. Voting at a younger age encourages teens to become more interested in learning about issues that directly affect them and their communities. Similarly, Laurence Steinburg, New York Times psychology expert, says "adolescents can gather and process information, weigh pros and cons, reason logically with facts and take time before making a decision." While the brain might not be fully developed yet, the cold cognitive part of the brain is to said to already be fully developed by 16. This is the part of the brain that can make rational decisions when given time to process information. It is the hot cognitive part of the brain, or the part that makes rational decisions in stressful situations or last minute, that has not been fully developed yet. Voting is a habit, and when you start earlier in life it encourages the continuance of voting throughout your life. Young voices should be heard in the many decisions that directly affect them and their lives personally. There is a reason why there is such a debate behind voting age. Both sides of the argument have extremely valid points, making it a very hard decision to make. This is something that directly affects teens, especially those in high school, right now. Efforts have been made to try to lower voting age already in parts of the U.S., so the idea of it happening soon is not out of reach. There is no right or wrong answer to this, which is what makes it such a large debate. How do teens feel about this matter, who are the ones that are directly affected by it? Why do you believe the voting age should/shouldn't be lowered?
Sources https://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/election/civics-in-action/voting--should-the-voting-age-be-lowered.html https://www.timeforkids.com/g56/voting-age-debate/ https://ballotpedia.org/San_Francisco,_California,_Proposition_G,_Local_Election_Voting_Age_Charter_Amendment_(November_2020) https://www.bustle.com/p/8-pros-cons-of-lowering-the-voting-age-to-16-like-washington-dc-is-considering-8823839 |
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