May 2015The Glen Ridge High School Student PublicationCommunity Service DayThe Journalist

Students Spread ALS Awareness

Promoting Feminism through Writing

Crush ALS.

The students at GRHS would like to thank all faculty members who served as GRServe2015 committee mem-bers, including Ms. Purciello, Mr. Erickson, Ms. Andorko, Ms. Dobbs, Ms. Gatsch, Mr. Phillips, Mr. Liddy, Mr. Heitmann, Mr. Mazzarella, Ms. Kobylinski, Mrs. DiCondina, Mr. Pfister, Ms. Dessipris, Mr. Majewski, Ms. Waltz, Ms. Hamer, and Ms. Johnson. We also thank the donors that made this day possible: the Glen Ridge Ro-tary, Bagels Abroad (Bloomfield), Starbucks (Glen Ridge), Rita’s (Bloomfield), Fitzgerald’s, Home Depot (Clif-ton), Boiling Springs Saving Bank (Glen Ridge), Turtle Pizza (Bloomfield), Lois Bridge (Lakeview Farms in Hawthorne NJ) Panera (Montclair), the Glen Ridge Home and School Foundation, and the Glen Ridge Munici-pal Alliance Committee (MAC).

Feminist Club.

This GR Serve Day, Crush ALS opted for an artistic community service project. The newly created club, headed by sophomores Nell Steinmetz and Taylor Kulik, created a large-scale mural to liven up the bare wall adjacent to the 3rd floor staircase. The mural, designed by active club member Abbie Robik, features a fist bursting through the wall with the words CRUSH ALS on

top. Originally, the club was planning on painting this image at a location in town, but after input from the town council and the GRHS administration, it was decided that somewhere within the high school would be more suitable.

Crush ALS members weren’t the only ones who could have participated in the creation of the mural. For a $1 donation to help fight

Lou Gehrig’s Disease, club members had been going around the school encouraging others to make a handprint on the mural. This opportunity was available to middle schoolers as well as high schoolers. Sophie Bronstein said, “The 7th graders are very excited about it.” Thank you Crush ALS for your efforts in creating a beautiful mural for a great cause.

Wrestling Team Completes Courtyard

Clean-up

For their activity on Community Service Day, the members of the Glen Ridge High School Feminist Club are separating into two groups. The first group stays at the High School, and is working on creating a newsletter to talk about feminist terminology, ideas, and memes to educate the students and faculty at the High School about feminism, in hopes of gaining more support

for their cause. The second group is located at the Glen Ridge Pharmacy, and has set up a drive to collect basic toiletries for the residents of the Safe House Emergency Center in Bloomfield, which provides shelter, food and medical attention for victims of domestic violence. Senior club member Wynne Zalewski says that she thinks Community Service Day

has been, “a really great experience, especially doing the drive for the domestic abuse shelter,” and that she is having, “lots of fun,” while helping a great cause. The president of Feminist Club is Kathryn Prouse, and the vice president is Olivia Broderick, who have also been integral members in organizing the day’s events for the club.

For GRServe, the Glen Ridge High School Wrestling Team had volunteered to clean up the courtyard between the new and old wings at the high school. Coach Southerland decided to make this the Wrestling Team’s activity, because he found the courtyard to be untreated, and realized cleaning it up would be a great way to

give more attention to the green space, which is often overgrown with weeds and unkempt plants over the course of the school year.

The clean up consisted of a variety of garden work, mostly consisting of raking leaves, trimming overgrown bushes and trees, and weeding the majority of the courtyard. Sophomores

Chris Harris and Carter Travia, who were working on weeding, are excited to be taking part in the clean up as it made them “feel like they’re helping the community.” The wrestling team’s beautification of the courtyard will be a great addition to the school.

Wrestling Team.

Community Service DayPage 2 May 2015

The Journalist StaffEditor-in-Chief:

Madeleine Granovetter

Staff Writers:Nora Berry

Lindsay FreedSonia Kinkhabwala

Lev KolinskiHaleigh Pine

Contributors:Margaret Marino, Leslie Jaiyesimi, Wynne Zalewski, Maddy Broderick, Caitlin Prinsell, Miranda Byrne, Kyle Mason, Erin

Vogel, Mr. Dimeck, Mr. Hansen, Mr. Cannici, Nathan Agarwal, Colin Gilmore, Olivia Pagano, Nick Vecchione, Coach Sutherland, Carter Travia, Chris Harris, Ms. Baker, Beth Anne DeKeizer, Ms.

Zepp, Anna Valerian, Mia Hildebrant, Nell Steinmetz, Kevin Sherry, Henry Martin, Briyanna Richardson, Connor Lewis,

Margo Scanlon, Eva Hanan, Sajan Ramanathan, Marco Oliveri, Patrick O’Neill,Anna Whitney, Mr. Levine, Tyler Wolski,Owen

Fawcett, Taylor Kulik, Zeynep Mamak, Sophie Bronstein, Camryn Kobylinski

Advisers:Ms. Abrahamsen & Mrs. Gallo

NAHS Creates Mosaic for Senior Patio

The National Art Honor Society is making their contribution to GRServe Day by doing not one, but two service projects. The first was finishing a mosaic of Vincent Van Gogh’s famed painting “Starry Night” that will be put up on the half wall on the Senior Patio. This was funded by the Home and School Association, and was proposed three years ago by a student who has since graduated. The second service project was to create bookmarks for the charity Students Rebuild

to Promote Literacy. The bookmark project is one of many challenges held by Students Rebuild each year in an effort to raise money for literacy awareness throughout the world. For every bookmark donated by the NAHS, one dollar will be given to Students Rebuild to provide funds for books, school supplies, reading programs or anything else to further literacy in our country and across the globe. The students working on the bookmarks feel wonderful about their project, such as sophomore

Dylan Blue, who says that “this is a positive and creative way to help the community.” Freshman Isabella Blanda is excited about the projects as well, saying that “it is really nice to do a community service project that allows me to use my art skills.” The projects done by the National Art Honor Society are truly making a difference; giving both money to a great cause as well as making Glen Ridge High School an even more beautiful place.

National Art Honor Society.

Students were not the only ones involved with Glen Ridge High School’s Community Service Day. Teachers Mr. Dimeck, Mr. Cannici and Mr. Hansen worked together to create a fifteen minute video about

Community Service Day. According to Mr. Dimeck, “the goal of the footage is to highlight and catalog the whole day.” The video was shown to the school in the Ridgewood Avenue School auditorium, and the students and

teachers were able to see what other activities did during the day to help the community. The video was a compilation of clips submitted by the students, and was put together using YouTube Capture and iMovie.

GRTV Gets the Scoop On Community Service Day, the Glen Ridge High School Book Club’s goal was to spread the importance of reading to younger children. The Book Club, which is advised by Mrs. Savio and led by president Missy Dreier, was stationed at

Book Club Helps out at Public Library

the Glen Ridge Public Library. At the library, the club helped to spread the word about the Library’s Summer Reading Program by making copies of the fliers advertising the Program, which is designed to keep children reading over the summer.

When asked about how she liked working with the Book Club, sophomore member Nora Berry said, “It’s a lot of fun helping out the Library today. We are working on the Summer Reading Program...It’s been really great.”

Book Club.

Tennis Cleans Courts

Tennis Team.

The Journalist spent GRServe Day by creating this newsletter featuring all the community service activities done by the clubs and sports at Glen Ridge High School. Writers Lindsay Freed,

Lev Kolinski, Sonia Kinkhabwala, led by Editor in Chief Maddy Granovetter and advisor Mrs. Gallo, were busy making phone calls, taking photos, and writing articles showcasing the hard work done by each and every

Glen Ridge High School and Middle School student. It was a great experience for these school newspaper staffers, as Maddy Granovetter said, “It’s a like real newspaper, where we have to work quickly to get the articles out.”

Journalist Writes Newsletter

Community Service DayPage 3 May 2015

The GRHS Key Club did their part of Community Service Day by assembling paracord bracelets for our soldiers. These thick bracelets serve the double purpose of unraveling to become a strong, but relatively thin rope or stitching material to suture wounds. Both of these uses make paracord bracelets great tools for soldiers to use in the dire

Key Club Makes Bracelets for Soldiers

situations they encounter on a daily basis. President Anna Whitney says, “Paracord Bracelets are used for practical purposes, but they also show troops we care.” The creation of these bracelets is in support of “Operation Gratitude”, a non-profit organization that sends soldiers care packages. It was active member Clark Edwards

who brought “Operation Gratitude” to the attention of club advisor Mr. Levine. In addition to the bracelets, club members are also writing notes to the soldiers who will eventually receive their bracelets. Member Patrick O’Neill says, “Making the bracelets is a bonding activity.”

Key Club.

For Community Service Day, the National Honor Society made an effort to clean up Freeman Gardens. The Society weeded, mulched and raked the Gardens, which have been a favorite spot for the townspeople of Glen Ridge since it was founded in 1967. In addition to tending to the plants themselves, the

Society also cleaned the statues in the Gardens and set up a new sign. When asked about how he liked working at the Gardens, co-president Nathan Agarwal said that, “[gardening] is something that hopefully the community can help out with in their free time. If someone were to take an hour out of their

weekend to do the weeding in one single bed, it would make a huge difference.” Freshman guest-Society member Colin Gilmore said that, “a little work goes a long way,” and because of the work that the National Honors Society put in, the Gardens will be be healthier and better-looking than before.

NHS Cleans Freeman Gardens

National Honor Society.

For Community Service Day, the French Club and the French Honor Society banded together to write letters and to make a video for children at an orphanage and school in Haiti called Espwa. We learned about this school at the Congregational Church

French Club Writes Letters to Orphans in

Haitifrom a couple of women there who have planned trips and previously visited the orphanage. Club members saw a video and photos of children at the orphanage, and now we are writing them letters in French.

French Club

member Maggie Ba said, “We made cards for the kids in the “Pwoje Espwa” orphanage. We made a video to show the kids to communicate with them, as they just got computers pretty recently. It was chouette!”

French Club.

The Band and Chorus stepped away from their sheet music and took up paint brushes during Community Service Day. The two groups, along with guest members, worked in the large gym to paint a mural to show

Glen Ridge pride. On one side of the bleachers, the students painted “Ridgers” in red, and on the other side, the word “Visitors” was painted in black. In the middle of the two, the club painted a large zebra, the school’s

mascot. When asked about how she enjoyed the activity, sophomore Leslie Jaiyesimi said that, “she had a lot of fun painting and working with the other kids.” The activity was supervised by Mr. Bogert and Ms. Lynch.

Band and Chorus Paints Mural in Gym,

Promotes School Pride

Band and Chorus.

Community Service DayPage 4 May 2015

Sharing the Arts, Community Service Club, and Model UN

Team Up Giving back is always a collaborative effort, but for Sharing the Arts, Community Service Club, and the Model UN club, GRServe proved to be even more so. During the day, these three clubs worked together to set up a Hollywood-themed dance for developmentally delayed adults. This dance, planned for tonight in the small gym, features

ring toss, bowling, a prize table, and even a photobooth for the attendees to capture the fun night. The clubs are also providing snacks to munch on like chips, baked goods, and soda. The guests of the dance will be coming from different developmentally delayed communities, one being HANDS - an organization with which

Community Service Club advisor Mr. George is involved. HANDS is located in North Arlington, NJ and members meet once a week to have movie nights, crafts, and other fun activities. The event begins at 6:30 tonight and will wrap up around 9. Zeynep Mamak says, “It’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

Sharing the Arts, Community Service Club, Model UN

Middle School Participates in GRServe

Environmental Club.The

Environmental Club has been making good use of time on GRServe Day by cleaning up the Glen, as well as emptying the recycling bins and organizing the lost and found. The cleanup of the Glen, led by advisor Mrs. Zepp, took about an

Environmental Club Cleans Up Glen

hour and half. The club spent that time picking up the trash that had been collecting on the banks of the Glen. “It was really fun,” said sophomore Anna Valerian, “we went to the glen to pick it up because it was really dirty and there was a lot of trash.” Items found on the banks of the

Glen included everything from ladders to rolling pins. When they returned from the cleanup, the Environmental Club spent the remainder of GRServe emptying the eyeglass and cartridge recycling bins as well as organizing the items in the lost and found according to season.

GRServe Day is a way to give back to the community and help the environment, according to math teacher Mrs. Waltz. The middle school advisor organized the seventh and eighth grade activities to help “beautify” the school. She sees GRServe Day as becoming a biannual event because, while it is important to improve the community, it takes a lot of prep work. The seventh graders participated in a bee presentation which gave students interseting

facts about the species and how they could help save them from extinction. Julia Kolinski stated that “it was very informative, but I’m kind of scared of bees.” However, she enjoyed the hands-on experience she had after.

Next, individual groups took turns inspecting a bee hive with honeycombs and got to taste a bit of honey. Gretchen Gilmore said that she liked this better because “we got to interact with the bees.”

The projects the seventh graders got to work on include a butterfly garden and other environmentally friendly activities. All in all, the day was a success and many students are looking forward to participating in raising money for charity next year. Madeline Crockett said she is looking forward to raising money because she doesn’t really like to garden. However, one thing we know is that the school will be “beautified” after the day is done!

The Chemistry Club exploded with enthusiasm during GRServe. Led by advisor Mr. Erickson, the students went over to Linden Avenue School to host a myriad of fun science-related activities. These included a Jeopardy-themed game, a scavenger hunt, and even an

interactive robot race. The race was the result of collaboration with GRHS’s Robotics Club. As a special treat, the Chemistry enthusiasts provided the Linden kids with Ice Pops made out of dry ice.

All of their activities culminated with an exciting demonstration. Together

with Mr. Erickson, the club members dropped Ping Pong balls into a bucket of liquid nitrogen. This mixture promptly exploded, exciting the Linden students and no doubt piquing their interest in Chemistry. Members Marco Oliveri and Sajan Ramanathan agree, “It was really cool and fun.”

Chemistry Club Shows Science is Fun

Chemistry Club.

Spanish Club Collects Clothes

In the spirit of GRServe, the Spanish Club is doing a clothing drive for the Dominican Republic Relief Organization. Over twenty people have worked with the Spanish Club to collect more than ten boxes full of donations. They have been collecting everything

from summer clothing for people of all ages, and have also received donations of summer shoes such as sandals and flip flops, as well as children’s toys and hygienic products. Senior Mia Hildebrandt feels the drive is perfect for the Spanish Club, as “there is a connection with

the language and culture in the Dominican Republic.” She also says the drive will “bring awareness to how teenagers in the Dominican Republic are so similar to us, but many of them do not have access to same amount and quality of basic necessities like clean clothes.”

Spanish Club.

Community Service DayPage 5 May 2015

Glen Ridge High School’s Community Service Day reached students of every age, even those who are in preschool. A group of students from the High School visited Pilgrim Nursery School in order

to play with the preschool students, and assist the teachers. The group read to the students in their classrooms, and gave out popsicles to them outside. Among the students who visited the nursery school was senior Olivia Pagano,

who said that, “it was a really great day. We talked about Frozen a lot and we sang and danced around.” Both groups of students, young and old, had fun, and learned from the experience.

Students Visit Pilgrim Nursery School

For today’s GRServe Community Service day, the Glen Ridge High School Baseball team volunteered to clean out the Herman Street baseball shed. This

is where they store all of their equipment. The team cleaned out the entire shed, assembled three shelving units and organized the equipment. It looks great!

In addition to

cleaning the Herman Street shed, the team plans on donating used equipment to children in the Dominican Republic.

Baseball Team Cleans Baseball Shed

During Community Service Day, Girls Learn International took their global message local by talking to the students at Ridgewood Avenue School about the importance of education for women and girls throughout the world. The club members did

not want to make the students wait until high school to become aware of the issue of the lack of female education in the world, and by talking to younger members, students at Ridgewood could get involved now. According to sophomore club member Kyle Mason,

Girls Learn International is, “an important cause, and [he] wants to make a difference in something bigger than [himself].” The Club is advised by Ms. Ramos, and is led by president Cooper Mason, who worked hard along with other club members to organize the activity.

GLI Teaches Importance of

Educating Females

Girls Learn International.

The Glen Ridge High School Softball team spent GRServe Day over at Hurrell Field tidying up the ticket booth. Many Varsity players volunteered for this activity, making the event

Softball Team Cleans Ticket Booth at Hurrell

a success. These players include Brittany Maguire, Mikayla Haas, Sydney Carey, Emma Wolski, and Meaghan Thompson. Junior Margo Scanlon was enthusiastic about the

team’s part in Community Service Day. She says, “We had a lot of fun and would definitely do it again next year.”

The Glen Ridge High School Softball team spent GRServe Day over at Hurrell Field tidying up the ticket booth. Many Varsity players volunteered for this activity, making the event

Softball Team Cleans Ticket Booth at Hurrell

a success. These players include Brittany Maguire, Mikayla Haas, Sydney Carey, Emma Wolski, and Meaghan Thompson. Junior Margo Scanlon was enthusiastic about the

team’s part in Community Service Day. She says, “We had a lot of fun and would definitely do it again next year.”

The Robotics Club joined up with the Chemistry Club for Glen Ridge’s Community Service Day to educate students at Linden Avenue School. The club introduced demo robots to the children

and had them play easy games by moving blocks. Advisors Mrs.Bachrach and Mr.Shohen hoped to involve the first and second graders in using technology at an early age. Club speaker Briyanna Richardson

wants to inspire the younger generation and looks forward to “doing it again sometime soon.” The Robotics Club hopes to increase an interest for robotics in children that will bring more people into the field in the future.

Robotics Club Teaches Kids

The track team hit the pavement this Community Service Day and cleaned the well used fieldhouse. Their work included painting and getting rid of old equipment. Along with Coach Ford, the students worked to benefit Glen

Ridge sports teams. The interior of Hurrell’s fieldhouse is now red, white, and black, showing off the team’s school spirit. When asked about the project, Junior Connor Lewis says that the team “has wanted an excuse to clean up the equipment in

the cage for quite some time” and is looking forward to practice running more smoothly. Senior Henry Martin agrees, happy that the newly cleaned equipment will be “significantly easier to access”.

Track Team Cleans Fieldhouse