ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP —
For Edgewood Senior High School, 2012 has been a year of firsts, with new classes being offered next fall and clubs creating fun-filled fund-raisers to try out. One example is this year’s Student Council hosting Edgewood’s first talent show to benefit The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Edgewood’s Student Council became interested in the society after receiving a phone call from one of its representatives.
“In the past, the society had a good relationship with the school,” said Christina Fischer, the Student Council adviser. She said that Edgewood was contacted about possibly hosting some sort of fund-raiser for the society because the school has often been a contributor to their cause.
The idea of the talent show was agreed upon by the majority of Student Council members. They have been the driving force behind every aspect of the event. Posters have been hung around school, announcements have been made, and participants are scheduled to audition April 11. There will be roughly 10 acts participating in the talent show that include groups and individuals from all four grades.
Many of the Student Council members have high expectations for the fund-raiser.
“I would definitely love to give over $1,000,” Fischer said.
Admission to the event is $1 for students. Participants are paying $5 to present their special skills. Also during the weeks leading up to the talent show, all students and faculty members are encouraged to donate to the society.
The talent show has been well accepted by the student body. It is the hope of the Student Council that this will become an annual event. Fischer said that the anticipation from year to year will help boost participation levels, as well as bring in donations from students and faculty.
The talent show will be held April 20 during the last period of the day in the Edgewood auditorium.
Science fairs have been long running traditions at many schools, and Edgewood is about to join the tradition. The first ever science fair at Edgewood, organized by Elizabeth Simpson of the Science Department, will occur on April 28. Fifteen to 20 groups of students and a handful of individual students will compete against each other for awards provided by the community, who, Simpson says, seemed very excited.
Advertisements of the fair have been hanging around the school for a month and the response from the students has been positive.
“It’s a learning process,” Simpson said.
Being the first year, Simpson said she is getting her feet wet and learning what to do for next year.
The idea came to Edgewood’s staff after a faculty member was asked to judge at another science fair in the county. Principal Karl Williamson liked the idea, and approached Simpson about running a fair. Unfortunately, the fair was started later than most. Because of the late start, students won’t be able to go on to compete at the district level, but will get some experience so that next year, they will know what to expect.
Simpson hopes to see the science fair grow and evolve into something bigger that will continue every year and become another one of Edgewood’s traditions. Her goal is to see it become a “STEM,” or Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics type fair. STEM fairs and the STEM curriculum have recently become popular at the university level.
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