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A small group of THS students took a spring break trip to Paris and Barcelona. The students were taken on several guided tours of the cities. Their trip took approximately a week to complete. This trip had been planned since Spring of 2011. 

Students had to begin their payments last spring. Any student who didn’t make the first payment, couldn’t attend the trip. The preparation for this trip took a full year and required students to be fully dedicated and prepared for the trip. “I was debating between having my quinceañera or going to Paris and Barcelona and I picked the trip because I thought it would be really neat to go and see a different part of the world,” Alondra Trujillo (10) said.

The Parisian guided tours included seeing museums, art galleries, churches, and the Eiffel Tower. “The Eiffel Tower was my favorite part because it’s really big and it’s unbelievable to see when you’re standing in front of it,” Trujillo said. While touring the city, the group saw the famous Mona Lisa painting. “My favorite parts were seeing the Eiffel Tower and the Mona Lisa because I’ve always wanted to see both of them,” Sadey Komandosky (11) said. 

The students also traveled to Barcelona after their Parisian adventure. They visited a beach and other common tourist hot spots. “I would love to go back to Barcelona because it’s a lot calmer than it is in Paris. Paris is so fast-paced that you have to move fast all the time and Barcelona is much calmer,” Trujillo said. 

This trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and will be a very unique high school memory for these students. “It made me realize that the world is bigger than just Taylor and it made me want to go out and explore as many places as I possibly can,” Komandosky said. Going into the trip, the students were expecting a vacation. However, the students left the trip as changed people. “It changed me, my way of thinking, and my attitude,” Trujillo said. 

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KCET Departures asks, Whats your or your familys Los Angeles arrival story?

Today, we hear from Michael Mattice, a student at Cal State LA:

I was born in Utah. I lived in Park City until I was two years old.

Then I was raised in Corona, California until I was ten. When my parents divorced, I moved to Nuevo, California — which is the ghetto boonies. Its in the middle of nowhere, near Lake Parris and Moreno Valley. Its a one-horse town.

Because of the economy, our house was foreclosed and we had to move to Ontario. It turned out to be a great experience because I got to go to Chaffey High School and I met my partner, Nicole.

The high school is historic, its like 100 years old. Its a great school. You can do as well as you want there or as poorly as you want — as many of the students have shown.

Because of Chaffey, I got to take a trip to New York City. That made me come back and want to be part of something. Los Angeles was the closest big city, so I wanted to have an LA experience.

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The Windham Theatre Guild has announced its 2012-2013 season, which kicks off this summer in the Burton Leavitt Theatre, 779 Main Street, Willimantic, Conn.

The Guilds summer musical this year will bring to the stage L. Frank Baums classic story The Wizard Of Oz. Travel down the yellow brick road with Dorothy and her friends July 20-August 4.

In fall, the Guild will present another funny play written by Norm Foster, Canadas own Neil Simon. From September 14-23, the WTG will treat you to Bedtime Stories, a series of comic vignettes that all take place in a bedroom.

Coming up November 2-17 is a country music lovers dream, Always, Patsy Cline, by Ted Swindley. The show features Patsy Cline singing her hit songs, the story of her life as told by her best friend Louise and a hot honky tonk band on stage heating things up.

For the first time ever, the Windham Theatre Guild will usher in the holiday season with a December special event. For four days only, December 13-16, youll take a trip back to the days of old time radio when Guild performers present Its A Wonderful Life, a Live Radio Show, adapted by Philip Grecian and based on the film by Frank Capra.

The first show of 2013 starts off with the fast-paced whodunit The 39 Steps. Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning treat running February 8-17.

A drama special event will now be a permanent part of the season. March 2013 will feature Arthur Millers classic All My Sons, running for four days only, March 7-10.

From the playwrights that brought us Dearly Departed comes another great rural Texas comedy, Dearly Beloved, running April 5-14. Closing out the season will be one of Ken Ludwigs hit comedies Lend Me A Tenor, running May 1-9.

Season tickets will become available in June 2012. For more information, call the Burton Leavitt Theatre office at 860-423-2245, or visit http://www.windhamtheatreguild.org.

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MyR6 had been given the royal mechanical treatment the weekend prior, which included new tires, fresh fluids, brake pads and a smoked windscreen. The preparation was for naught, however, when – just after unloading her on Friday morning – myYamaha began the most troublesome of annoyances in that it would simply cut out and stall without warning. Suffice it to say I was treated to a weekend of watching both the track day and pro event in my lawn chair. I did, however, get a decent farmers tan and, as for the bike, its next owner discovered a faulty ignition box after I ran out of cash trying to pinpoint the issue.

Even recently my early spring racetrack enthusiasm was put to the test a few years back when my cousin convinced me to take a trip out to a race facility that catered to shaggy, tattooed motocross racers. In other words, he and I expected to be the veterans of the affair at 30. In that regard we werent disappointed and as further proof of our combined inadequacy, I found myself getting landed on during our first qualifier. I was glad to have escaped the affair with only cosmetic damage to the machine and just barely regrouped in time to give it a go in the LCQ.

Just as our class was given the clear to line up at the gate, I found my path being barred by a track worker holding a pair of flags across my bars requesting, for whatever reason, to see my wristband before allowing me entry. In a panic I scrambled to produce the band I knew had been there two-minutes prior, and even resorted to heading back to my pit and tearing the place apart in vain when pulling the sleeve of my jersey up didnt reveal the thing. Finally, as the gate dropped and the final qualifier got underway the band

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Music spanning the past six decades can be heard up and down the hallways of Delta Jr. High, as students practice in the library for an upcoming performance.

The performance is part of their fifth annual Blast From the Past March 29, in which Delta invites Morehouse Parish residents to join as they take a trip down memory lane.

All the children at Delta grades Keighth, who have not had a write-up in the past six weeks, are performing skits from the past, present and future.

This is part of our positive behavior program, said Delta librarian and Blast From the Past co-coordinator Pamela Benton. This gives the students the opportunity for cultural enhancement and lets them express themselves through music and dance.

Benton, along with co-coordinators Shadonna Bonner and Lisa Reese, have choreographed a variety of performances. The presentation will include dances, singing, skits, a Power Point presentation and excerpts from historical events. The students will perform musical acts by artists such as the Temptations, James Brown, Beyonce and Justin Bieber.

Delta fifth grader Cynthia Washington performed in the show last year. Shes looking forward to doing it again this year.

Im in three dances, Washington said. Im doing wop (hip hop), line and Zydeco dances. Ive been practicing almost a month.

Admission to Blast From the Past is $5. The proceeds from the event will help fund the Delta Beta Honor Societys state competition field trip in Lafayette May 3-5. Twenty-two students will be competing this year at the state level in math, public speaking, spelling and a poster contest.

Delta eighth grader Decartiza Pates is among the students in the Beta Honor Society. Hell be performing choreography in this years Blast From the Past.

Its an honor and a privilege to have been selected to go on the trip and participate in the show, and be a part of something bigger than myself, Pates said.

In addition to the students performing in the show, Benton said local entertainer Ricky White will be making a special appearance.

Hes a nationally recognized blues performer, Benton said.

Blast From the Past will begin at 6 pm in Deltas auditorium.

We want everyone to come out for a night of family fun and entertainment, Benton said. Well have something for people of all ages to enjoy.

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The ultimate aim is for people to get a real sense of the effort that went into constructing that ship… from design and technology, but also from the sheer manpower, the skill of the workers.

Once through the streets of Belfast, visitors take a trip up a replica of the Arrol gantry – at 100 metres, the largest crane of its day.

Next comes an interactive journey on the shipyard ride, where the visitor can get a sense of what life in the shipyard may have been like.

You are assailed by the sights, sounds and smells of a turn-of-the-20th-Century drydock – even the heat from welding irons.

The story of Titanic is not entirely one of tragedy, but is also what lead project manager Noel Molloy described as one of the greatest stories of human endeavour.

Here in Belfast 100 years ago, 3,000 men took three years to build the largest vessel the world had ever seen, he said.

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Spring is in the air in Centre County, with warm weather and sunshine teasing residents to take a stroll outside.

Spring is also the one word Danielle Piacente would choose to describe the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, DC, just roughly a 4-hour drive away from the region.

It signals spring across the country, so its the changing of the seasons and gives us a sense of rebirth and renewal, said Piacente, communications manager for the festival.

And what better way to kick off this years spring than to take a trip and stroll around the event billed as The Nations Greatest Springtime Celebration?

This year the National Cherry Blossom Festival will commemorate its centennial and the nations capital has plenty planned to paint the town pink. The events begin Tuesday and continue through April 27 but the trees are set to hit peak bloom when the blossom display is predicted to be at its height between Tuesday and Friday.

Held annually, the Cherry Blossom Festival celebrates the gift of 3,000 cherry trees from the mayor of Tokyo to Washington, DC, in 1912. It all began with a simple ceremony 100 years ago and today it features dozens of different events to entertain visitors, including music and dance performances, presentations on Japanese history, art exhibits, a 10-mile run, Family Days, fireworks, a kite-flying event, a parade, and of course the main draw thousands of stunning cherry trees and their blossoms beaming with color.

The trees are located in three different areas around Washington around the Tidal Basin, the grounds by the Washington Monument and in East Potomac Park.

If staying for a few days, the best way to get to the festival is on the metro via the blue or orange line and exit at the Smithsonian stop or on the blue, yellow, or green lines, exiting at the LEnfant Plaza stop. Cabs are readily available in the city as well.

The YMCA of Centre County has a bus day trip planned on April 15 to take local residents of all ages to Washington for the event. Although the bus is full right now, Cameron Frantz, teen services director of the YMCA of Centre County, said they are still taking reservations in case of cancellations, and if they get enough interest, theyll likely schedule another bus.

Its something I think that everyone should see, she said, Its one of those things you hear about it and read about it. We were excited about going to DC and decided wed coordinate it with Cherry Blossom Festival.

Known as sakura in Japan, cherry trees are well-known and well-respected.
Penn State professor of horticulture Bill Lamont said the flowers are very significant in Japanese culture as they stand as a metaphor for life.

They look at the cherry tree and the cherry blossom as a life cycle and they relate it to their lives, he said. They represent the blossoming of the human life and use them a lot in their art.

Lamont said while they are cherry trees, the blossoms are what truly make them a sight to see especially when theres such large clusters of them.

Theyre a very pretty flower and very profuse thats whats very striking, he said. They are just beautiful and so many of them, they just take your breath away.

There are more than 100 varieties of cherry tree and the areas around Washington, DC, boast dozens of different types. Cherry trees each grow differently, come in varying shapes and forms, and also produce blossoms in a spectacular assortment of colors, ranging from immaculate white to bubblegum pink to deep magenta.

And if flower-gazing isnt quite up your alley, dont worry.
The 100-year anniversary marks a spectacular milestone in the history of the United States, said Piacente. And to highlight this remarkable achievement, the city is pulling out all the stops.
This years signature events are elevated, theres more for people to do while theyre here and its all in the spirit of the gift of 1912 of international friendship and good will, and how it endured for a century, she said.

The festival was expanded from 16 days to five weeks and has integrated a number of commemorative initiatives. The event becomes a citywide celebration with shops and restaurants getting involved and the City in Bloom campaign bringing the spirit of the Tidal Basin to the entire region including blossom decals, big signage and posters decorating all of Washington, Piacente said.

The best part? Theres something for people of all ages and the majority of the scheduled activities and attractions are free to attend.

The first main event is the opening ceremony, which is March 25 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mount Vernon Place NW, Washington, DC It will feature singer Sara Bareilles, Japanese Ramp;B and pop stars, and traditional Japanese performances as well.
The fireworks special on April 7 will showcase hundreds of fireworks lighting the night sky, with special fireworks from Japan for the first time.

An annual favorite, the parade will be held on April 14. If you cant be there in person, you can catch it on TV as the festive floats, giant balloons, marching bands and performers moseying down Constitution Avenue will be broadcast live. Katie Couric and Alex Trebek will be the hosts along with local news anchors.

For the older crowd, the Cherry Blast event offers an eclectic evening full of art, dancing and drinks. Tickets cost $10.

People with children can get excited about the Family Days weekend, March 24 to 25, which features hands-on activities, art demonstrations and performances geared toward helping kids learn a little more about Japanese culture.

More than a million people flock to Washington to experience the festival each year, Piacente said. But what makes it so special?

People make it so personal no matter what youre interested in, everyone has a story and traditions and memories are made here, Piacente said. Theres something unique for everyone and it all ties back to the visionaries of 1912 who had the foresight to work really hard to bring the trees to Washington.

HISTORY: This is a centennial year for the trees. The first set arrived in 1910 but had to be destroyed because of pests. The second set, 3,020 trees of several varieties, are planted around the White House and the Tidal Basin. On March 27, 1912, two Yoshino trees were planted in a small ceremony. According to the Park Service, these original trees still stand.

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:

• The opening ceremonies of the festival are March 25, but it runs five weeks, from March 20 to April 27, National Arbor Day.

• The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, one of the two Smithsonian museums of Asian art, has a rare exhibit of the complete set of Hokusai: Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji wood block prints. The 46 prints have been borrowed from seven museums and two private collections. It opens March 24 and ends June 17.

• The National Gallery of Art will have Colorful Realm: Japanese Bird-and-Flower Paintings by Ito Jakuchu. For the first time all 30 scrolls will be on exhibit for only a month, March 30 to April 29. They are being lent by the Japanese Imperial Household

• The Blossom Kite Festival will be held on the National Mall on March 31.
• Southwest Waterfront Fireworks Festival is on April 7.
• The National Cherry Blossom Parade is on April 14.
• There are two exhibits at the National Geographic Society. One is the Japanese Samurai: The Warrior Transformed and the other focuses on Eliza R. Scidmore, who helped raise money to buy the trees and have them brought to America.
• The Japanese Information Society has Serenity in Silk, a display of 30 works of Japanese embroidery including cherry blossoms.

• The Library of Congress has Sakura: Cherry Blossoms as Living Symbols of Friendship. The show exhibits photographs, wood block prints and even political cartoons from their collections.

FEATURED SOUVENIRS: For the centennial year, the festival has produced a special poster by renowned artist Peter Max, a silver blossom necklace, black long-sleeved tee shirts decorated with the five different sorts of blossoms, and Cherry Blossoms: The Official Book of the National Cherry Blossom Festival. Both Japan and the US have created commemorative postal stamps.

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Pio Pico Womens Clubs Pala Casino fundraiser

PICO RIVERA – The Pio Pico Womens Club will take a trip to Pala Casino on March 28.

The cost is $20 per person and each participant will earn a $5 Pala gaming card.

Proceeds will benefit scholarships for local high school students.

The bus will leave at 8:30 am from 9214 Mines Ave.

Checks can be made payable to: Pio Pico Womens Club and mailed to: 9632 Haney St., Pico Rivera, CA 90660.

The deadline for reservations is today, March 19.

For information, contact Priscilla Rodriguez at 562-833-2643.

Groovy movies and immunizations this week

MONTEBELLO –

Beverly Hospital, 309 W. Beverly Blvd., presents Groovy Movies with a free screening of The Help from 3 to 5:30 pm Wednesday in the hospitals Tower Basement Rooms.

For reservations, call 1-800-618-6664.

Free childhood immunizations will be offered from 2 to 4 pm Wednesday at the Beverly Hospital Womens Care Center, 1920 W. Whittier Blvd.

The vaccines are offered for newborns and youths up to 18 years.

All vaccines are available with the exception of tuberculosis or varicella.

For information, call 323-725-1519.

Whittier Place plans to celebrate its anniversary

WHITTIER – Whittier Place will be celebrating its anniversary with a party

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ONE of the vital concepts in industry, business, development, government is the concept of synergy.
When I was a pastor in Johannesburg I was about to start a Sunday morning service and just as I stood up to read the Bible passage at the start of worship a tall young man accompanied by his wife and two children entered the door and made their way slowly to the centre of the church. This was their first visit.
They soon became regular worshippers and when I met with them in their home on an initial pastoral visit, I discovered that the man had come to Johannesburg to head up a division of a major soft drink company. In this new appointment, he hoped to open happiness for many people!
The couple settled into the life of the church and was appreciated by many within the congregation, and, as you might imagine this man was a pretty high energy type of fellow, who had been set very specific targets by the multi-national corporation for which he was working.
Break
Now it happened that my wife and I, after a particularly heavy period of work, decided to have a break for a week, and since for the first time in a few years our family would all be together, we decided to take a trip into the bush. Just as we were thinking this through a friend who has a major investment in a luxury game reserve, approached us and said I hear you are going on leave. I happen to have some unused time available. Would you help me out by using it up?
I had actually been to this game reserve by invitation previously, and the prospect of being able to have a whole week in the fantastic surroundings of the place was really exciting. I shared the news and every family member tuned into the experience that was to come.
We set off and after less than three hours we were at the reserve, unpacked and just starting to breath in the atmosphere. We had looked over the plain from the balcony of the huge house in which we were to spend the week, and had seen two of the big five.
I decided to take a walk before we had our evening meal and set off on the route I had worked out. This involved going past the reception area, and as I did this I saw something I had never expected to see at this venue. Coming down the road was a large bus, a brand new state of the art bus, something of a mega coach and it was travelling quite fast. It came to a halt at the reception and I could see that it was full of people who were mostly in their mid to late twenties. They looked like a lively bunch.
The door of the bus opened, and I was standing about four metres from it. The first person started to get off the bus and as he did so, his eyes met mine. It was the man of whom I have been writing, the young dynamic executive from the multi-national company.
When he saw me he smiled and said Pastor! I didnt expect to see you here. Are you on leave? When I confirmed that I was, I then asked And I didnt expect to see you. Why are you here?
He then told me that the company had hired part of the reserve for several days and they would be spending the time being involved in team building exercises.
Proceeded
And this is what the company proceeded to do. The fact of the matter was that someone in the management of the reserve had misunderstood the nature of the booking because this private reserve did not ordinarily facilitate this kind of activity, but the booking had to be allowed to stand even after the mistake was discovered because it was too late to get a new booking.
And so to the disquiet and annoyance of other residents and shareholders the team building got under way and the annoyance grew to the level of protest to the board of the reserve, when the team building included four by four biking, orienteering and competitions which involved the use of loud speakers. And of course there was the obligatory end of event bash, with noise going on late into the night.
Enough to say the experience will never be repeated in the reserve because it not only violated the entire ethos of the reserve but the rangers had serious objections about the distress that this event caused to the animals.
When I returned to Johannesburg and met up with this new member of the church, I asked him how he felt the week had gone from his point of view. His response was that it had been a huge success, because what he was hoping to achieve he felt had been substantially achieved. And what had he been hoping to achieve? He had been hoping to achieve a measure of synergy among the work force to which he had been assigned.
What is synergy? Synergy is the interaction or cooperation of two or more organisations, substances or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. Any leader who inherits a team of workers, who are meant to be focused on a project will try to establish an effective synergy so that the best possible results will be achieved, and to do this some corporations, industries, government will spare no effort or expense in the necessary development of as much synergy as possible.
It is never enough for any leader to be blessed with a number of people who may be individually exceptional or even brilliant in their particular discipline, but who simply do not know how to relate to or communicate with people who are not within their own narrow field.
Indeed having people who may be incredibly gifted but who cannot be team players may even be a liability rather than an asset, and may lead to individuals feeling isolated, or disgruntled because their work is not understood, nobody has made the attempt to get alongside them, and they start to believe that even their best effort will not be taken seriously. The development of a synergistic environment tries to eliminate this kind of possibility with its loss of significant resources.
But let me move beyond the theory of synergy and come to the practice of it as I have experienced it in action right here is Swaziland.
In the last two weeks, a multi disciplinary team was brought together to address the issue of the provision of palliative care in this Kingdom. Palliative care is the care of people who are suffering from life limiting illness. It is care that is holistic care dealing with the physical, the social the psychological and the spiritual aspects of care. Palliative care begins as early as the initial diagnosis a patient receives and continues up to and including death itself. It is care that is directed not only to a patient but includes the need of the family of a person who is sick, and assists families to come to terms with the loss of a loved one. It involves bereavement counseling and dealing with grief as well as offering help with many of the practical, social and legal issues that surround the death of any person.
You may be surprised to know that in terns of the African continent, Swaziland is making considerable strides in the understanding and practice of palliative care.
For more than thirty years there has been some form of this care going on right here in the country and there are many different expressions of this care being exercised on a daily basis.
After four years of hard work, a palliative care policy, along with strategies and guidelines, was produced and now in conjunction and co-operation with major partners the government is doing a great deal to roll out palliative care, at this stage particularly bringing health workers up to speed on this subject.
In this respect workshops have been carried out for the last two weeks involving more than forty health professionals and I had the privilege of being part of this, being asked to deal with some aspects of the spirituality of palliative care.
Now I have to tell you this turned out to be an incredible experience because in the first place those participating worked hard right from the start.
Under the guidance of consultants from Uganda a big work load was offered and addressed, and what was the most impressive part of this activity was the sheer range of skills in evidence. Indeed the people from Uganda said that they had not previously had the opportunity of addressing or leading such a multi disciplinary group.
Gruop
The group that was assembled was not only a multi disciplinary group it also turned out to be a multinational group as well. Swazis worked alongside Ugandans, Ethiopians, Rwandans, Americans, Asians and even a Scot! There were many advantages in working in this way, giving and exchanging different perspectives and at the end of the time the task of preparing was achieved. This work will be refined several times before it is finally written up, but behind the final documentation will lie a real expression of synergy; people worked together and achieved more than they could ever have done separately.
Now lets be practical and say that there are many ways in which the exercise and expression of synergy could transform life for many of us. If for example NGOs worked together how much duplication could be avoided. If in schools staff was co-operating more than competing, the learning environment could be changed dramatically. If there could be synergy rather than suspicion in some board rooms companies in the country could flourish rather than struggle for survival, and if chiefs in their rural situations could achieve more synergy at the heart of their community life instead of simply showing solidarity for an occasional festival, then there could be more genuine advance in serving the needs of their people, and more progress in the upliftment of those who are longing for a change in their basic conditions.
It seems to me that synergy is not an option it is a necessity because unless we have a massive commitment to reading off the same page, the country will not find the direction or the drive that it needs.
Synergy does not of course require uniformity, indeed creative synergy celebrates diversity,but within the diversity there must be a fundamental unity of purpose and goal, and our goal is surely obvious enough. It even has a name. It is called survival.

Pastor Ken Jefferson cam be contacted at 76382290 or at revjeff@realnet.co.sz

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It takes a lot for us to gasp out loud during a horror movie, so imagine how surprised we were when a moment in THIS trailer made us SCREAM!

Check out the first preview for the new movie from Paranormal Activity creator Oren Peli, called Chernobyl Diaries, which stars Jesse McCartney as one in a group of friends who take a trip to the abandoned area devastated by the aforementioned nuclear disaster in Ukraine in 1986, only to find out that they are NOT alone (above)!

Sounds like a pretty neat spin on The Hills Have Eyes type of horror movie!

Plus, it looks EFFING SCARY!

We LIKE!

What do U think? Will U check this out when it drops this summer?

Tags: chernobyl diaries, Chernobyl nuclear disaster, creator, horror film, jesse mccartney, oren peli, paranormal activity, the hills have eyes, theatrical trailer, ukraine

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