July 31, 2013 The News-Record & Sentinel Page 9

When Jacie Buckner andAlexis Wills met in middleschool, they didn’t know that arandom encounter over icecreamwouldblossomintoa life-changing friendship.

Since meeting again at thePartnership for AppalachianGirls’ Education (PAGE), thethe quiet Jacie and the self-de-scribed "rebel" Alexis havebonded over school, fun slee-povers, and the deaths of theirbeloved grandfathers.

Fourteen-year-old Bucknerof Laurel and 14-year-old Willsof Spring Creek shared theirstory in a collaborative "digitalstory," a shortmovie about theirlives. Their story, "More than aFriendship," was shown Tues-day, July 23, as part of the finalexhibition for the PAGE sum-mer enrichment program.

PAGE is a free summer liter-acy program for rising sixth-through ninth-grade girls fromHot Springs, Laurel and SpringCreek. It is sponsored by DukeUniversity in partnership withthe Madison County Schools.Founded four years ago by edu-cator Dr. Deborah Hicks, theprogram encourages middle-and high-school girls to read,develop leadership and digitalliteracy skills, and finish highschool. More than 30 girls at-tended this summer’s two ses-sions, complete with trips toarea colleges and a certified or-ganic farm. Working with un-dergraduate students fromDuke University and two localhigh school interns, each had tocreate her own digital story us-ing complex computer soft-ware, digital cameras and audioequipment.

Hicks said, "PAGE hasreached a milestone in that wehave the first ‘graduating class’of girls who have joined us ev-ery summer. With the supportof friends and neighbors inMadisonCounty,we started as asmall program in the SpringCreek Community Center. Now,we’ve had the pleasure ofwatching four girls grow frompre-teens into talented, creativeyoungwomenwhowill be start-ing high school empowered to

make real differences in theirlives and the larger communi-ty."

The four-year participantsare Buckner and Wills, HaileyMoore of Spring Creek, age 14,and 13-year-old Katie Wills ofHot Springs.

Their mini-movies wereamong those featured in theJuly 23programatHot Springs’Solid Rock Full Gospel Church.The event also included aMadi-son County adaptation of Wil-liam Shakespeare’s "The Tem-pest" and a 90-second version of

Charlotte Bronte’s "Jane Eyre."Bothclassicbookswere readbysomeof the girls duringPAGE’sthree-week sessions.

The digital stories are an op-portunity for girls to share therealities of their experiences,and topics ranged from a being

a tomboy to quilting with Ma-maw. Moore’s piece describedhow she uses basketball as anoutlet for her energy and tem-per, andKatieWills detailedherrecovery from a serious car ac-cident.

For Buckner and AlexisWills, their digital story was avaluable chance to innovate.

"We did the first joint digitalstory, so it was kind of PAGEhistory," said Buckner.

Her best friend, Alexis,chimed in: "Which was harder.We definitely had to work to-gether and couldn’t do what wewanted to do. We’re both veryindependent people."

"So we had to compromise,"added Jacie.

Though the four-year gradu-ates will no longer be eligiblefor the program, they all planhope to returnashigh-school in-terns in future years.

Empowering lives through literacyCreating life-changing bonds

Staff Reports

PHOTOS SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-RECORD & SENTINEL

Alexis Wills Hailey Moore Jacie BucknerKatie Wills

PARTICIPANTS:RISING 6TH GRADERS

Nora AllisonPeyton Biggerstaff

Sylvia BrownAutumn Buckner

Chloe MetcalfDestiny Rice

Tiana RobertsMackenzie Stills

RISING 7TH GRADERSCassidy BelcherNicole CutshawMonica LopezEmily Moore

Brittany NortonKristen ShannonAngela SheltonAllison SnyderKursten Wills

Jessica YelvingtonRISING 8TH GRADERS

Mikalah CreasmanJessie CreagerKristina Dixon

Faith LoflinMorgan Stills

KimWillsErika Yelvington

RISING 9TH GRADERSJacie BucknerHailey Moore

Alexis WillsBrittany Wills

Katie Wills

To watch the video please visithttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10200300440649502&set=o.272727879501492&type=2&theater

"I'm not sure. The win-ters used to be a lot colderthan thisand itwassowet,I couldn't get my potatoesin the ground on time.”

Conversations like thisare the usual fare anyplace where folks cometogether to talk aboutwhat is going on. But inthis time of climatechange, these commentsare more than idle specu-lation. There is concernthat the way things aresupposed to happen in na-ture is going awry. Flow-ers will bloom before in-sects are around to polli-nate them. Birds may mi-grate north only to findthat the berries that havealways nourished themhave already come andgone. Species such ashummingbirds may showupafter the flowerson thepoplar trees are longblown away.

A group of scientists

called Phenologists is or-ganizing and training or-dinary people to go intothe woods and meadowson a regular basis andgather data to help an-swer some of these ques-tions.No, phenology is notthe study of the bumps onpeople's heads.Phenologyis the study of whenthings occur – when flow-ers open, birds migrate,trees bud out, and Phoe-be's appear fromnowhereto call out their ownname.

The Appalachian TrailConservancy is trainingcitizen volunteers to ob-serve trees that growalong the entire length ofthe Appalachian Trailfrom Georgia to Maine –the RedMaple, the Amer-ican Beech, the Dogwoodand the Eastern WhitePine. Along the trail inHot Springs a sample ofthese trees have been

tagged and volunteers goout several times a weekto note what is going onwith each tree. Are thereunopened leaf buds,breaking leaf buds, col-ored leaves, flowers orflower buds, etc.? Obser-vations are recorded andentered into an online da-ta base along with obser-vations from other ob-servers across the coun-try that are observingspecies of plants and ani-mals native to their area.As these observations aremade season after season,year after year, scientistswill begin to have a moreaccurate picture of whatis happening in the natu-ralworlddueto thegradu-al rising of the earth'stemperature and the re-sulting change in weatherpatterns.

When I retired, I start-ed doing watercolor. I no-ticed colors, shapes andpatterns I never saw be-

fore. Participating locallyin the Phenology Projecthas had the same effect.Walking to my mailbox Inote new buds on theblackberry bushes andgreen berries on the hollytrees where only a fewweeks ago, small whiteflowers bloomed.

If you would like toknowmore about the Phe-nology Project visitwww.appalachian-trail.org/phenology. Toconsider participating inthe project as a volunteer,call JohnOdell at theATCoffice, 828-254-3708.There is much to see andunderstand about thisbeautiful place where welive.

Maxine Dalton and herhusband, Jack, live onSpring Creek in a homesurrounded by an 80- acreconservation easement.Comments or ideas? Sendan email to: neigh-bor2neighboredi-tor@gmail.com

Didn't the Dogwoodsbloom earlier this yearByMaxine Dalton

Joe Pye weed SPECIAL TO THE NEWS-RECORD & SENTINEL

Product: ASHBrd PubDate: 07-31-2013 Zone: NRS Edition: 1 Page: MetroCov User: lbarker Time: 07-29-2013 14:58 Color: CMYK