Issue #5 - December, 2018 Hemet High School, Hemet, CA 92544 (951) 765-5150

Hemet HigH ScHool

tHe BUllDogS-Top 15

Christmas Songs-The Christmas Parade

-Chanukah-Winter Sports Season

- Christmas Tradi-tions

-The Other Christ-mas Parade

-Kwanza-Dancing With The Stars-Junie B. Jones-Door Contest-The Best Christmas Movies-Top 15 Christmas Songs -Winter Animals

In your classroom, on the web, reporting on our school!

Hemet High School 41701 E. Stetson Ave.

Hemet, CA 92544 951-765-5150

www.hemethigh.com

Journalism Staff2018- 2019

Views expressed in this issue are those of the students writers and are not the expressed

or implied views of Hemet High School, it’s Staff, Administration or the District.

HHS Journalism Staff: MJ Vargas, , Sydney Amestoy, Sabrina Hunter, and Sidney Cruz.

In your classroom, on the web, reporting on our school!

The Other Christmas Parade in Hemet!

By Sydney Amestoy

The Christmas parade that goes down Florida Avenue is a major event that involves over

a hundred Hemet schools and clubs. It’s a major draw for people across the valley. However, there is another Hemet-exclusive Christmas time event that comes around. If you see a bunch of bright-ly lit-up jeeps driving through your neck of the woods, chances are you’re witnessing the Hemet Jeep Club Light parade.

The Hemet Jeep club, one of the oldest clubs of it’s kind in the nation, holds this as an un-

declared tradition. You may have seen some of the Jeeps in the actual Hemet Christmas parade. There were about 15 cruising down Florida for the parade, but the light parade brings out almost the whole club, maybe 40 Jeeps!

These Jeeps drive around all over Hemet to ob-serve the lights that homeowners have put up

for the season. If you here loud, rumbling engines on December 22nd, come out and see the parade! It’s sure not to disappoint.

Secret Elephant By: MJ Vargas

Everyone knows about the tradition of watch-ing Christmas movies for the holiday season

but there is another tradition that has been around for years! Secret Santa and White Elephant Gift Exchanges have been around for a while and it’s a fun Christmas tradition to do! Some classes here at Hemet High are doing Secret Santa’s and White Elephant Gift Exchanges as well as some clubs such as the Christian Club and Broadcasting!

Now although some may think that these two festive activities are the same they are actu-

ally quite different.

Secret Santa is an arrangement in which a group of friends or colleagues exchange Christmas

presents anonymously, each member of the group being assigned another member for whom to pro-vide a small gift, typically costing no more than a set amount. Here are the rules to the game:

1. Write the names of everyone participating on a piece of paper.

2. Cut out and toss the names into a hat.

3. Set a price limit

4. Draw names

5. Set a gift -giving date

6. Purchase a gift

7. Exchange gifts

White Elephant Gift Exchange a party game in which impractical gifts are exchanged

and usually the goal of the game is to entertain party-goers rather than to gain a genuinely valu-able or highly sought after- item. Here are the rules to the game:

Each participant supplies one wrapped gift that is usually of similar value. The gifts are then

placed in a central location and participants deter-mine in which order they will take turns selecting them.

On subsequent turns, each person has the choice to either unwrap a new present or to

“steal” another’s. When a person’s gift is stolen, that person can either choose another wrapped gift to open or can steal from another player. Each gift can only be stolen once per turn. The game is over when everyone has a present.

These two festive activities are sure put the fun in Christmas! If you’re looking for something

new to try this Christmas season be sure to check these two holiday festivities! Have a great Christ-mas season Bulldogs! Merry Christmas!

Christmas ParadeBy Sabrina Hunter

Every first Saturday of December, Hemet holds the Christmas parade! The parade was

from the staging area off of Palm Avenue all the way to Gibble Park off Kirby Street. Over 100 floats, horses, community service organizations, dance teams, Jeep Clubs, First Responders, old car club, or elected officials participated! Oth-er schools were participating as well. Which, of course, means that Hemet High had some par-ticipants too. Hemet High’s own Band and flag team, Bulldogs Finest, Dance, and Varsity and JV Cheer brought some festive spark. AFjROTC brought rifle and drill team to the annual parade. Theatre also had a wonderful display! The Theatre Department was Grand Marshall

this year! As the theme was “Holiday’s from the Silver Screen”, the theatre had designed their float to be from “ A Charlie Brown Christmas”. This is a 1965 animated TV special base on the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz. The float was Snoopy’s Dog House, with the “little tree”. Snoopy danced on the float, which was followed by Charlie Brown and friends dancing and talking just behind it. The float even had arti-ficial snow! Elliott Tate portrayed Charlie Brown, Sylvia Torres played Lucy van Pelt, James Craw-ford played Linus van Pelt, and Cole Bagby was Schroeder. Schroeder held the bust of Beethoven as he walked down Florida Avenue. All of the main characters mentioned above were played by Thespians from Hemet High’s Troupe 4015, but the theatre welcomed everyone to dance with the group. They also had people passing out candy, and holding banners as well.

Everyone did really well in the other groups, which made us all very proud to be a Bulldog

as we watched on. Which, doesn’t even mention that the parade also had some HHS Alumni in it too. Our 2017 Homecoming Queen Dyana Villa was seen as Miss Hemet along with Morgan Law-rence, the reigning Miss California. Both of these Alums were also former HHS Yearbook students.

Our groups did amazingly and we couldn’t be prouder. The Hemet Christmas Parade real-

ly showed off our skills here at Hemet High and made a wonderful start to our holiday season!

Dancing With The StarsBy Sydney Amestoy

It was a night to remember as seven members of our staff lit up the dance floor in hopes of win-

ning the Golden Star Ball in the annual Dancing With The Stars competition!

Although it was chilly outside, things started getting hot inside the theatre on Friday, No-

vember 30th. The contestants were paired with members of the HHS Dance Team and Bulldog’s Finest. 200 people were in the seats as a battle of dancing superiority was fought in front of them.

Our Staff Contestants were, in order of ap-

pearance: Mr. Mosqueda, Mr. Cotrell. Mrs. Crosby, Mr. Estrada, Ms. Burnett, Ms. Espinoza, and Mrs. Scott. Master of Ceremo-nies for the evening was Mr. Walsh, who kept the night going with corny jokes and one-liners. This year’s judging panel was made up entirely of for-mer contestants, Sunshine Palamo, Jamie Killebrew,

Movies For The Season! By MJ Vargas

It’s almost holiday time Bulldogs! Only a few more weeks to go and then we can celebrate!

Each Bulldog has their own tradition that they do for the holidays and that also includes watching festive movies! If you’re a Bulldog that does this tradition or would love to start something new, then here are a few movies for the holiday season that should be on your movies-to-watch-for-the-season list! Home Alone Elf A Christmas Story National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation The Polar Express Miracle On 34th Street

Angela Valentine, Rosanne Villarino, and Nyesha Williams.

Mr. Mosqueda did a wonderful job as a rap-per. Mr. Cotrell did his best version of Bill

Nye the Science Guy. Mrs. Crosby danced to various popular line dance numbers. Mr. Estrada proved that disco isn’t dead with a twist ending. Ms. Burnett brought the sunshine while Ms. Espi-noza had fun with some old time beats and Mom-bo Number 5. Mr. Scott engaged the audience and the judges with his show-stopping moves.

Based on the level of applause given to each contestant, the People’s Choice award was

presented. After a quick redo for confirmation, Mr. Walsh declared Mr. Mosqueda as the winner. Mr. Mosqueda was also awarded run-ner up for the grand prize. However, it was Mr. Scott, who’s move brought the house down, who took home the Golden Star Ball. Will this be the be-ginning of a dancing dynasty of Mr. Scott? We’ll find out next year Bulldogs, but in the meantime, congratula-tions to Mr. Scott!

The Santa Clause 1,2 and 3 It’s A Wonderful Life Christmas with the Kranks The Grinch

The Christmas Calendar A Christmas Prince The Christmas Chronicles  A Dogwalker’s Christmas Tale Christmas Inheritance

There are of course many more holiday movies out there but

these make the top list for now! But then again almost every holi-day movie is great!

Have a great holiday season Bulldogs and remember the

reason for the season!

KwanzaaBy Sabrina Hunter

It’s the holiday season Bulldogs! This means we should embrace all the holidays this season. So

in order to do that, we should learn about some holidays that are celebrated this time of year, like Chanukah and Kwanzaa (see Chanukah story).

Dr. Maulana Karenga, a professor of African Studies, created Kwanzaa in 1966. It’s a sev-

en-day cultural festival, which begins on Decem-ber 26th and ends January 1st. It celebrates family, community, and culture. Kwanzaa joins commu-nitarian values and practices of Continental Afri-can and African American culture.

During Kwanzaa, families and communities h a v e activities around Nguzo Saba, or

The Seven Principles. These principles are Umoja (unity), Ku-jichagulia (self-de-termination), Ujima (collective work

and responsibil-ity), Ujamaa (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose),

K u u m b a (creativity),

and Imani (faith).

Kwanzaa is also celebrated with feasts (kara-mu), music, dance, poetry, and narratives.

The last day is dedicated to reflection and re-com-mitment to The Seven Principles and other cen-tral cultural values.

So Bulldogs, have a happy Kwanzaa and a very happy holidays to everyone!

ChanukahBy Sydney Amestoy

Christmas isn’t the only December holiday, folks! Chanukah, the festival of light, is cele-

brated this winter-y month as well!

This holiday celebrates when the Greeks were driven out of Jerusalem, and the small amount

of olive oil used to light the Holy Temple’s Me-norah for a whole eight days. The Menorah is the infamous candelabrum used for Chanukah. It has eight sockets for candles, and one central socket for the candle that is used to light the others. A new candle is lit each day from December 2nd to the 10th. The Menorah is placed in the window.

One of the festivities of Chanukah is to spin

the dreidel. The dreidel is a four-sided top that has different Hebrew letters on them. Depending on which side you land on, you can win chocolate coins or nuts.

Since oil is one of the more important aspects

of Chanukah, most foods served are fried in lots of it! Latkes, fried potato pan-

cakes, are served with sour cream and apple-sauce, (way better than it sounds). There are also sufganyas, which are basically fried jelly-filled donuts.

There is a gift given on each of the eight days, but traditionally it is supposed to be money

that is given. Today that takes the form of choco-late coins.

If you celebrate this holiday, I hope you had a happy Chanukah! Have a great break Bulldogs!

Christmas TraditionsBy Sabrina Hunter

Every family has some sort of tradition, and during Christmas that is especially true. Some

families have a simple tradition, others more com-plex. No matter what the holiday spirit is truly prominent during this time of year.Some traditions are classic and we can’t help but enjoy the magical part of the hol-idays as we take part in them.

There are Christmas dinners. The family all gathered

around the table, for some fam-ilies this being the only time that they do, eat-ing a large home-cooked meal that follows that tradition. For some of us this means that all of

our extended family there as well. With cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, nieces, and nephews this is a great,big bunch of people to hopefully

make the best out of the holiday. For others, this is only your im-mediate family, our your house-hold. Some may even celebrate with friends.

Some families throw parties. Others open one single gift the

night before Christmas. There’s white elephant, and secret santa.

Some go caroling. The holiday season is filled with endless traditions. Have a Merry Christmas and happy holidays Bulldogs!

Winter Animals By: MJ Vargas

There are so many animals around the world and some of them are even our favorites! We

love how they look and we just feel like petting them even though they could be dangerous. There are animals for almost every season however and they are so amazing and act in the most fantastic ways. Here are some animals for the season of winter that look amazing and are just amazing in general!

Snow Leopard ~ These beautiful wild cats are also known as ounces and they are most

known for their elusive nature. They are one of the most mysterious species on the planet and are referred to as “mountain ghosts” or “the ghost of the mountains” because of their gorgeous coat. These gorgeous wild cats can be found in 12 different countries which includes 65 percent of their habitat being found in China. Asia and Chi-na is where these wild cats can be most found. Today, scientists believe that there are between 4,500 and 10,000 adult Snow Leopards that re-main in the wild.

Snowy Owl~ Many Harry Potter fanatics would love to have this stunning bird as a pet! But

you don’t have to be a Harry potter fan to known this gorgeous bird. The Snowy Owl has caught the hearts of many including those from the pre-historic era. The more white that the owl is it is most likely that it’s a male! Heavily barred owls are likely female. Snowy owls are diurnal which means they are active during the day and at night! They hunt at all times during the Arctic’s 24 hours of summer daylight. Due to the changes in food, large numbers of snowy owls visit southern Can-

ada and the northern part of the U.S., some even fly as far as south Texas!

Arctic Fox~ These adorable little wild cats love the snow and enjoy the winter weather.

These foxes can survive the Arctic temperatures that reach as low as 58 degrees. Arctic Foxes have beautiful white coats and they can sometimes be a blue-gray color as well which makes them very effective for winter camouflage. They live in bur-rows and during a blizzard, they will make a tun-nel into the snow to create a shelter. As the sea-sons change, their coat changes as well. During the summer their coat will turn into a brown or gray coloring. A female arctic fox gives birth to a litter of up to 14 pups in the spring.

Emperor Penguin~ These are truly amazing and marvelous birds. Emperor Penguins are

the largest breed of 18 penguin species and adults can weigh up to 40 kg at the start of breeding sea-son. Some emperor penguins live to be more than 40 years old but most do not live that long in the wild. They breed in colonies scattered around the Antarctic continent. Penguins are flightless birds and are highly adapted to life in the water. Larg-er penguin species are found in colder climates while smaller penguins inhabit warmer climates.

There are so many more animals for the win-ter season and many are endangered. These

animals do so much for us and we need to try our hardest to keep them alive. Have a great winter season Bulldogs!

“Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened”

Christmas SongsBy Sabrina Hunter

It’s Christmas Bulldogs! The time of year for hot chocolate, warm sweaters, sitting by the fire,

and listening to Christmas music! There’s plenty to listen to, and a lot of singers have covers of the classic songs. So, here are some of the many Christmas songs we have to listen to.

1. All I Want for Christmas is You – Mariah Carey

2. Holly Jolly Christmas- Burl Ives 3. Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Gene Autry4. You’re a Mean One Mr. Grinch- The Brown

Derbies5. Santa Claus is Coming To Town- Bing Crosby6. Last Christmas – Wham!

7. Jingle Bell Rock- Bobby Helms8. Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

-Elmo and Patsy9. We Wish You a Merry Christmas – Bing

Crosby10. It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas –

Meredith Wilson11. Jingle Bells – James Pierpont12. Silver Bells – Bing Crosby13. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town – Bing Cros-

by14. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year-

Andy Williams15. Winter Wonderland- Bing Crosby

Junie B. JonesBy Sabrina Hunter On January 24th, 25th, and 26th Hemet High’s

Children’s Theatre will be putting on Junie B. Jones: The Musical. In the Children’s Theatre class, shows are put on during the day for young kids to watch. If you had read Junie B. Jones books when you were a kid, you know this will be an adorable show. It combines several of the books to show one big, amazing story! There are scenes such as Junie learning to juggle, Junie riding the bus, Junie getting glasses, and so much more! All aspects of the show are going wonderfully!

Hannah Jacks plays the lead role as Junie B. She loves

the character because she says that her and Junie are similar in that they are both dramatic. She’s excited for ev-eryone to come out and see the show and to just perform it. It’s a challenge for her because she hasn’t taken on a leading role yet, so she wants to make sure nobody is disappointed. Kolten Berg plays Herb. He likes the character because he also feels like he can relate. Herb is the outcast and the new kid, and Kolten feels like he can relate since he has been the new kid before. He is very excit-ed for the whole show, but a few numbers stand out in particular. He is excited for the number with Gladys Gutzman (played by Elliott Tate), who is the lunch lady. He is also excited for the number he has with Junie called “You Can Be My Friend”. His biggest challenge is playing a little kid because he hasn’t done that before.

Tech is also doing amazingly! The assistant di-rector is Jessica Bruce. The production man-

ager for this show is myself (Sabrina Hunter). The stage manager is Matthew Hughes. The assistant stage manager is Aubrie Arthur. Nicole Robinson is the dance captain and assistant choreographer.

Then, there are the fantastic crews! Kyle Hinojo-sa is the crew head for stage crew. Stage crew is responsible for building sets, moving things on and off the stage, and using and hooking things up to the fly rails. Currently, he is excited to see the benches being used during the show. They are used in a lot of cute songs and the show in gener-al is going to be fun with fun choreography. For

now, the crew is only made up of four people. The biggest challenge has been to meet all the deadlines and find all the materials. Emma Quinte-ro is in charge of props. The biggest challenge is time and deadlines for this crew as well. She is really excit-ed to see how happy the children are to see the show.

Laelle Ruiz is running sound for this show. With only a crew of two people, their jobs

are to gather sound effects and cues as well as setting up and controlling microphones. Her big-gest challenge is to find the sound effects that best fit with the tone and setting of the scene; mak-ing sure it fits all together. She’s excited to see how the show turns out because it seems cute and fun. Makayley Holcomb does the lights for the show; she programs everything, which she says is a challenge to do in her one-man crew. She’s excited for opening night. Emily Starr is the crew head for house and publicity. She’s in charge of decorating the lobby, making posters, cleaning the house, and making the program. Her biggest struggle continues in deadlines, but with making sure she remembers them. She’s excited to seeing the kids react and seeing them happy to watch the show.

Make sure to come out and support your fel-low Bulldogs on January 24th, 25th, and

26th because this show will be one you don’t want to miss!

Door Decoration ContestBy Sydney Amestoy

In an annual Hemet high tradi-tion, teachers across campus

set off to create wonderful winter scenes in the form of door art in hopes of winning the door dec-oration contest! Although there were many unbelievable displays, some of which you may have seen while wandering the halls, three doors stood tall above the rest.

In third place was agricultural chemistry teacher Ms. Salsgiver with her spooky “Nightmare Be-

fore Christmas” inspired art. It had all the right el-ements (Get it? Elements?), of an award-winner!

In second place was Mrs. Huck with an elaborate reindeer pull-

ing sleigh design. Definitely worth checking out yourselves!

In first place was a scene of the Eiffel tower in winter from our

very own French expert on campus, Madame Connell. There was also a mouse with a candy cane on this beautifully decorated porte, (That’s

French for door!).

While these doors may have won, all the doors that were decorated added a special

cheer around campus! Thank you to the teachers who participated, and congratulations to those who won!

Winter Sports Freeze the Competition!By Sydney Amestoy

As another fall season comes to a successful close, a new group of athletes on campus is

getting ready to go! The winter sport athletes are beginning their season with the hopes of CIF on their minds.

Boy’s Basketball is getting ready to rumble and started off with a slam-dunk against the

ravens of Vista Del Lago, (46-13). Although they stumbled against Palm Desert (34-49), this sea-

son is off to a good start. Things are just starting to fall in place for the Bull-dogs. The boys could use some cheers and chants, so make sure to head in-doors this rainy season to watch them play. Their current standings are at a solid 2-3.

Don’t forget about the Lady Bulldogs of

Girl’s Basketball! Though it started out rough, with two losses against King and Temescal Canyon, true potential was shown

in the win against Chaparral. That game was a nail-biter with a one-point edge over the Pu-mas for the win, (51-50). Things have only gone up for the Lady Bull-dogs, with three wins af-ter Chaparral. Don’t for-get to head to the gym for some exciting match ups! Current standing for the season is 4-2.

Something is in the air this season for Boy’s

soccer. So far, the Bull-dogs have done an un-believable job, with their first two games being wins over Vista Del Lago and Canyon Springs. Although their game against

Shadow Hills ended in a draw, that’s not a loss! There are some great players on the field this year that are definitely worth braving the cold to watch. The season stands at 4-1-1.

Girl’s soccer has also had a good start with a win over Vista Del Lago. It was a total victo-

ry as the girls scored ten points and stopped the ra-vens from getting even one point! The girl’s only loss came against Redlands East Valley in a very close game that went 2 to 1. Girl’s soccer always produces some all-stars, so check out the team as

they score their way into victory. Season currently stands at 4-1-1 as well.

Girl’s Wa-ter polo

is swimming through the frig-id weather to

make their mark. With wins against Jurupa Valley, Granite Hills, and Paloma Valley, along with one loss against Murrieta Mesa, the girls are floating with a 3-1 record. Great job, Bulldogs!

Boys Wrestling and Girl’s Wrestling had an un-believable season last year. This year is shap-

ing up to be similar. After taking 1st in a tourna-ment early on with fast pins and lots of individual wins, things have continued looking bright. In one of their first matches against Santa Rosa Acade-my, the JV and Girls team took the Rangers, 36 to 0. The Varsity team won with a tre-mendous 52 to 24. There is a serious chance for many of our wrestlers to rank in state again, so stay tuned!

This season is one of the most

exciting for Hemet High, so make sure to give our winter athletes your support, Bulldogs! Good luck!