2 News

December 2012

After many types of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and blizzards, victims depend on the government for assistance. If a killer snow-storm hit Conifer, residents here would likely expect the same. On October 29th, Hurricane Sandy made landfall on America’s northeast shore. Arriving within days of Halloween, residents in the area and meteorologists nicknamed the storm “Frankenstorm.” It devastated people from Maine to South Carolina with a radius of over 1,000 miles. There are several public agencies in place to help the victims of storms like these. The Red Cross assists victims by providing shelter, food, collecting donations, and clean-up. FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, helps by providing financial assistance, restoring the area, and informing victims on the current state of recovery. Many people from neighboring areas have travelled to the affected zones and aided victims as well. Here at Conifer, several students were affected by the storm. Sophomore Cory Chacon said, “My aunt lost her house.” Sophomore Michael Sylvester

said, “My dad’s friend lost everything. Boats, cars, everything.” While FEMA personnel are typically the first to arrive and aid victims, this was not the case in the northeast. Volunteers from the Red Cross arrived very shortly after the storm had passed, well before FEMA. FEMA personnel arrived four days later, on Thursday, November 2nd. Many people are now curious as to why. FEMA claims that due to the storm approaching from the northwest, they were unable to get on location as quickly as usual. President Obama commented on the state of the recovery after FEMA’s arrival. “There’s still a lot of cleanup to do, people still need emergency help. They still need heat. They still need power. They still need food. They still need shelter.” Despite the delayed response from this agency, donations are still being accepted. Information on how to help can be found at redcross.org and fema.gov. The Red Cross accepts donations online and by sending “REDCROSS” in a text message to 90999, while FEMA recommends donating through the Red Cross.

Little White Schoolhouse, open since 1923, was one of the first schools to open in Conifer. After 89 years of being at the original location, Little White recently moved to the elementary up the street, West Jefferson Elementary. The Elementary teachers weren’t very affected by the preschool kids coming into the building. Kindergarten teacher Alicia Beabout said, “It has not affected me in any way. They are here but we don’t work with them at all.” The students that attended Little White are sad that the colorful classrooms moved to West Jeff and remember many of the fun things that were at the original location: the caterpillar that was located on the playground, the

Elmo rug, where storytime was, and Pooh corner, named after the Winnie the Pooh painting. Kids also remember the library and the different colored classrooms. The preschool moved to West Jeff because of budget cuts and security concerns. Some favorite memories from the kids that attended Little White: -“My favorite memory was making the tissue art where we glued tissue paper to a piece of poster board,” said Freshman Evan Van Auken. -Senior Shannon Craig said,“I remember drinking salt water on purpose, I also remember ‘helping’ my dad figure out their computer problems which was fun.”

Jessica Ball and Kim Pease

ReportersMoving Memories

Frankenstorm Tayen Madsen

Reporter

Above Left: Hurricane Sandy washes over a highway.

Lower Right: Hurricane Sandy satellite image

Photos from: The Atlantic News

3

December 2012

News

Echo Mountain, a ski resort near Evergreen, was put on the market in June 2012 after operating for six seasons at a loss. It was auctioned off on August 28th, 2012, and was sold, at an undisclosed price, to Pykkonen Capital LLC, which is a group that will be

turning Echo Mountain into a private ski race training area. The new owners decided to open Echo Mountain on November 1st for the new ‘Front Range Ski Club’. Race programs at the new Front Range Ski Club include the Rocky Mountain Division Club (RMD), the Rangers Junior Team (for racers as young as five) and a high school program.

“I think it’s cool they have a club, but it should still be open to public at the same time,” said Sophomore Elyn Barkmann. The club will focus on training ski racers of all ages. “It’s stupid, it should be for everyone,” said Michael Sylvester, a sophomore who snowboarded at Echo Mountain before it became privately owned.

Many students had skied/snowboarded there, but some don’t feel that the closing was all that bad. “I feel like it’s fair enough that ‘they’ got it. But it could have been used for a greater purpose,” Freshman Titus Cheshire said.

Echo, also known as “the little terrain park that could” in most winter activity guides, had a small terrain park which housed the iconic Tucker Snow-Cat, built around a relic from the former Squaw Pass Ski Area. The Tucker Snow-Cat, however, was not sold in the auction, and was given back to the previous owner, Jerry Pettit, who might later auction that off like he did the 226-acre Ski Resort.

Changes Echo Throughout Echo Mountain

Clarksons Automotive Major and Minor Repairs

Scheduled Maintenance

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