The Anoka Siren

Orchestra String Fling Concert, May 27 2010

Sara Vincent

Thursday night, May 27 Anoka High schools orchestra comprised of roughly one hundred seventy five students put on a phenomenal show to wrap up their year of concerts. The auditorium was filled with parents, friends and other supporters at seven o’clock and the concert lasted about an hour and a half. The string fling was the last concert of the year, and for the seniors, their last concert at Anoka.

The seniors brought a lot to Anokas orchestra.

“We were always goofing around with the seniors and just having fun,” said junior Calvin Kubat.

The concert went well and the songs played were beautiful.

“It was one of, if not the very best performance I’ve had in my three years here,” said Kubat.

All of the students in any of the four orchestra classes deserve recognition for their outstanding performance.

“The whole orchestra, especially our director, Michael Halstenson did a great job with the last concert of the year,” recalled Kubat.

The underclassman are looking forward to next year and especially to the string fling.

By Alex Bollman

On a beautiful, sunny, gorgeous June afternoon, one’s time should not be spent sitting in front of the TV inside wasting time away.  On Saturday, June 12, at Central Park in Ramsey, there will be a prime opportunity to enjoy the gorgeous Minnesota weather as well as many other festivities.

St. Katharine Drexel church will be hosting its fourth annual “Party in the Park” from 4-11 p.m.  The goal of the event is to promote community and keep prices affordable for families; the prices have not increased from last year.

The event features various musical performances from mostly local artists such as the Irish bands  Sweet Colleens (5-6:30 p.m.) and Erin Rogue (6:30-8 p.m.),  rock band Section 30 (8-9:30 p.m.), and singer/songwriter Martin Zellar (9:30-11 p.m.).   Anoka High School’s own Kendri Scarborough, 12, who has performed at the Party in the Park two previous years, has returned for the 2010 event, playing from 4-5 p.m.

“I love playing at Central Park because it is a way for me to give back to the community and share my music with others,” said Scarborough.

Tickets to the event are $7.00 in advance or $10.00 at the door (13 years and older), or free for 12 years and under.  You can also purchase a kids’ activity wristband for games, activities, and unlimited use of inflatables for $10.00 in advance which will be open from 3:30-9:00 p.m.  You can buy tickets online or at Bill’s Supperette in Andover, Nowthen, Oak Grove, or Ramsey or by calling 763-323-4424.

The party is open to everyone and anyone is welcome to come and join in for however long whether it is the whole evening or just for a few hours.  For more information on this local event visit www.partyintheparkmn.org.

Next Friday, June 4th, a benefit concert to raise money for the Haitian earthquake survivors will take place at the Lord of Life church at 14501 Nowthen Boulevard in Ramsey. All proceeds will be sent directly to the organization “Habitat for Humanity” to help build housing for those devastated by the earthquake.

“We all have to do everything we can to help those in need,” stated Elizabeth Peterson.
The festivities will begin at 6:30, at which point participants will get a chance to mingle and partake in a bake sale.

“I wanted to help out, but I didn’t really want to sing,” explained Samantha Sis.
After the audience has had sufficient time to chat with their neighbors and get their fill of delicious bake treats, or half an hour passes, whichever comes first, the show will begin. The show will contain performances by a group choir in addition to individual performances by multiple parties.

“The first time I heard about this concert, I knew I was all in,” said participant Kendri Scarborough.
Tickets to this event are still available, and they will be available at the door. Adult tickets will cost $6, students $4, and children under seven are free. They request that anybody interested in attending call (733) 478-7079, send an email to garveysgang@gmail.com or find them on Facebook.

“It is basically just going to be a night full of awesome,” said senior Traehn Collentine.

By Alison Tonsager

Last Spring, art teacher, Diane Grunewald, was contacted by the Rum River county libraries to paint a mural in the Children’s story time room at the Rum River Library. She submitted a drawing and worked with the committee to develop a first-draft illustration.  Soon after that Anoka painting students and Mrs. Grunewald worked together to complete that large mural.

This past winter, Mrs. Grunewald was contacted again to develop and create additional phases of this mural project which include 7 large canvases and 2 more wall murals. Fifteen Anoka artists were selected for this year’s paintings. The artists include Jasmine Greenwaldt, Marisa Collette, Carolynne Beede, Garret Nasset, Matt Brown, Megan Unzelman, Delaina Havelka, Alyssa Benson, Danielle Lenart, Ashley Olson, Nicole Wherley, Jessica Minnich, Annie Schweiger, Ashley Masog, and Erin Hunter.

The first mural consisted of animals doing various things with a background showing the four seasons.  For this mural they wanted to have several of the same characters doing others things on canvases to be placed on the wall above the book cases.

“There are also 2 wall murals – one with a fantasy/medieval theme with a castle, knight, dragon, and fairy, and the other one a peaceful surrealistic type landscape to be painted on the wall above and beside the computer desks,” added Mrs. Gronewald.

They will work on these murals all through May during library hours so that guests can watch their progress. The library also hopes that the paintings will simulate children’s interests in reading.

“The purpose is to enhance the children’s library area – and motive them to read, learn, and explore!” said Mrs. Gronewald.

The students hope to be done with the mural by the end of May. The library will have a celebration on Saturday, June 5^th from 10-2 to honor the wonderful artist ability of these students.

Melissa Manns

Students at Anoka were more than happy to get out of class this Wednesday to watch their peers perform acts from all around the world at the multi-cultural show. The production has been put on by S.A.M.E. for years, and has never failed to impress both students and staff.

This year, hosts Immaculate Yego and Lee Nyarecha were caught off guard when technical difficulty delayed the show a few minutes, but kept the crowd entertained by engaging with them and telling jokes. They also introduced the great performances from students ranging all the way from freshman to senior. Acts included everything from country singers to Indian dancers to sign language interpreters.

There was also a fashion show that included clothing from China, India, Kenya and Japan amongst many others. As students modeled their fashions to Chris Brown’s “Forever”, Yego and Nyarecha described the history of the clothing’s country as well as the piece of clothing’s function and origin of use. The fashion show marked the half-way point of the multi-cultural show, and was followed by more great performances celebrating tradition and history.

One act that came after the fashion show was junior Sarah Yang, who played a song she wrote herself inspired by a play she saw earlier this year. The crowd was blown away by the vocals coming out of such a tiny figure.

Perhaps the most captivating performance of the day included all of the members of the multi-cultural show, who together sang “We are the world”. This concluded the show, and participants of the show received a well-earned standing ovation by most of the crowd, who began singing along to the song as the bell rang and the regular day commenced.

Sara Vincent and Alison Tonsager

With warm summer weather coming much sooner than anticipated this year, our schools patio has had an increasing amount of trash left behind.

Anoka High School is privileged to have such a nice patio for students to use. Therefore, we should leave it in tip-top condition for future students. Only having thirty minutes to eat, students need to realize that a bit of time needs to be designated for patio clean up. Leaving trash, trays and other belonging for custodians to clean up is not okay.

“We have to pick up garbage, bottles and trays from inconsiderate students,” janitor Pat Oliver reported.

However, the janitors don’t mind having the patio left open, but the amount of trash left out there should be minimized.

“It doesn’t matter that it is open; the kids enjoy it so we might as well,” said Mr. Pat Oliver.

Last year, Mr. Farley put a rule in effect saying that if the patio didn’t get cleaned up, he’d close it. Unfortunately he had to follow through, and the patio was closed for an entire week. During this time, the weather had peaked and students were rather upset that their classmates were so disrespectful of the property. Please take this message into consideration and remind your friends and classmates to clean up after themselves; you’re harming everyone else by not.

“Just pick up,” said Mr. Pat Oliver.

By Lauren Johns

Last Friday, April 23, members of Anoka’s Future Educators Club (FEC) participated at the local conference competition. The day long competition and banquet brought together FEC members from 14 different schools in the conference to the Radisson Hotel in Plymouth. Each member who wished to compete had previously signed up for the event and either sent their final work in or brought it to the competition that day, where it was then presented and judged that day.

Some of Anoka’s very own took titles in a few of the competitions. Congratulations to Lomumba Ismail, 12, and Leslie Persson, 12, who won third-place in the Banner competition, Donna January, 10, took first-place for her Educational Board Game, and Justin Griffin, 12, who took first-place with his T-shirt Design, which was later distributed to Anoka’s FEC members, and will be honored as next year’s Conference FEC competition t-shirts.

“It was really shocking,” admitted Griffin who had worked so hard on his design. “We [the competitors] were all holding hands and when they showed the t-shirt and everyone looked at me I couldn’t believe it.”

The day was brought to a close as well as FEC’s 2009-2010 exciting and successful year.

“The club is really a neat experience,” says Griffin, “I would definitely do it again if I could.”

Griffin encourages everyone who is interested in teaching in their future to join the club. The FEC will wish off this year’s seniors and hope that their desire in post-secondary education has been assured through their devotion and affiliation in the club.

by Torrie Jay White and Lauren Johns

Last Saturday, April 24, iconic news anchor Katie Couric spoke as the keynote at the University of Minnesota 2010 Alumni Association Annual Celebration.  Nearly 2,000 guests gathered to hear her Power of Resilience speech, during which she discussed her experiences in the news business and her experience that taught her how to channel her strength.

She opened with a few minutes of good-natured ribbing of Minnesotans—faking the accent, referencing “White Trash Wednesday” and joking with students about joining them afterwards in Dinkytown for some Jagerbombs.  Delivering her jokes with a smile and a twinkle in her, she received chuckles out of the crowd instead of indignation.

After the jokes, her tone turned a bit more serious, and she set off talking about her journey to the top of the world and her plummet into her personal nightmare.  Couric reminisced about being told by news directors they never wanted to see her on air again, being told she could only anchor for a very small audience—all versions of what she called her “own little Stephen King novel.”

“I’m one of those annoyingly upbeat, glass half full type of people,” Couric said with a self-deprecating smile.

Her persistence paid off though, when Tim Russert, her own personal cheerleader, offered a job anchoring the ABC morning news.  Couric would go on to stay with ABC for nearly fifteen years, before becoming the first woman to ever anchor a solo nightly news program.

Amidst her career successes, Couric saw her personal life slide into what could only be considered as much, much worse than a Stephen King novel.  Her husband was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer at the age of 41.  For nine months, while Couric continued to smile every morning for America, a part of her was “dying” with her husband.

After his death, she began pioneering for greater awareness of colon cancer, most significantly by doing an on air colonoscopy.  After the televised event, there was nearly 20 percent increase in colon screenings.  She continues her campaign today by raising awareness and money for research and medical centers.

Despite her hardships and heartaches, she finished her speech with the smile on her face and the twinkle in her eye that American came to love her for.

By Josh Abbott and Genna Lawler

On Wednesday, April 21, our Anoka Girls’ Lacrosse team hosted the Elk River Elks in an aggressive match that ended with a close game of 9-6, with the Elks leading the Tornadoes.  Players who scored included, Molly Kronberg, Emily Anderson and Bri Poidinger.  Despite what appeared as biased refs and over-aggressive Elks, the team still played a strong game.

“We had a shaky first half, but we really picked it up during the second half,” said senior captain Whitney Clark.

Despite the team’s loss to the Elks, the first time in two years, the girls have continued to work phenomenally hard and continue to improve their skills and as a whole.

“Our goal for this season is to dominate at playoffs and to continue to hold our own in our games. We have a young team, and all of our girl’s are very talented and athletic” added Clark.

The defenders earned the glory in this game.

“They definitely held it together, kept us strong and never gave up an easy point to the Elks. They truly held the team together,” said senior captain Jasmine Greenwaldt.

By Josh Abbott and Genna Lawler

On Wednesday, April 21, the Boys’ lacrosse team traveled to Elk River High School.  The boys played an outstanding game by winning 13-3 over the elks.

“Last year they beat us 10-2 which shows how much we have progressed as a team,” said senior player Caleb Saffrin who scored one of the teams many points that game.

Senior goalie Mike Lesmeister has a fantastic record by having a 75% save record.

“The team has progressed a lot since last season, we are already 2-1 which is better than last year, we only won one game,” said Saffrin.

Other scorers of the game included senior Cody Batsche who scored 5 goals, Nick Picha (11)  also had a goal, Lane Kocovsky (10) also with one and Kyle Gegen (11) scored 2.  Outstanding players of the game included Mike Lesmeister and Cody Batsche. “

“Both players had amazing performances and held their own during last night’s game, are team has true potential,” said Captain Joe Stetson.

The team hopes to win at least half of their games this season as they continue to work to their limits and better themselves as a whole.