The 2020 senior class of the Brockway Area School District hosted the Snowball Dance on Valentine’s Day.

Mr. Bret Zimmerman, the senior class adviser, has helped the students put the dance together.

“As the senior class adviser, I was put in charge of the event that they are sponsoring, but the class officers did the bulk of the work preparing for the dance,” Zimmerman said.

The semi-formal dance was open to students in grades 9-12.

The annual crowning of the Snowball King and Queen and Snowball Princess and Prince took place as well. The names of all the students were pulled out of a hat at random to determine the titles. Eric Johnson and Salem Murray took the crowns.

Around 200 students usually attend the event.

“I think this is a special high school experience that students really enjoy coming to,” Zimmerman said. “No matter your grade, friend group, or interests, students are coming to the dance to see people dressed up, listen to music, and just have an enjoyable time.”

All of the profits from the dance will be returned to the senior class and used for their later needs.

-Madison Marzullo (2023)

The Sensory Room at Brockway Area Elementary School helps students, especially the ones who need additional emotional support, settle down if they get too stressed.

“They both have the idea of calmness, but the Sensory Room is more focused on a specific need,” explained Mrs. Yvonne Ransbottom, Brockway’s school psychologist.

The high school shop teachers Kyle Norman and Robert Bateman, had their students make activities for the kids. Brockway junior Riley Welsh painted the room and had Mrs. Beth Stoltz and the kids in her class put their handprints on the wall.

“The Sensory Garden is beautiful and gives students a place to sit down and be calm,” Mrs. Ransbottom said.

The Stoltz Family of Dealerships in DuBois donated $1,000 for soft flooring and community members have donated money as well. The Brockway teachers have donated items to be used in the room to complete the garden.

“The Sensory Room has research-based activities to engage students with specific needs, and the room is getting there,” Mrs. Ransbottom added. “Everyone has been super supportive. Our hope is to have completely done by the end of the school year and the fact that the community is involved and so many people are working on this project makes it even more special.”

-Hailey Ruberto (2021)

The Brockway Center for Arts and technology, or BCAT, has a metal program, which proved to be popular with the art classes at Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School.

While the BCAT seminars at the school change each year, this year, the person in charge of the metal department in BCAT, Melissa Lovingood, helped the students make metal key chains.

“Most of the time, I help kids use the torch,” Lovingood said. “It’s really exciting. They really like doing that.”

Lovingood also brought in Resident Artist Mary Kay Palazzo. The residency program grants Palazzo the use of the studio for her own work while also helping with classes and outreach.

“I think this is really cool,” Palazzo said. “I’m fresh out of college, so it’s interesting to see the concepts I learned in college being brought into high school. I never got to learn these techniques until I got to higher education.”

First, the process of fold forming begins with cutting thin copper sheets into rectangles and squares. Then, use steel hammers to design a crease into the metal. Next, a torch is operated to soften the metal. Following, hammers are used to compose a decorative pattern. Then, sanding is done to the metal to cause it to rise at the top. Next, the metal is slightly heated to provoke the orange color to red, to a pink-red, to purple, to blue, and then silver.

“It’s a good thing because it gives the students self-confidence,” Lovingood said. “It’s kind of nice to see students blossom because they wanted that opportunity to make art and create.”

Abby Rhed-Latshaw is a student in the 3rd period art class, and it’s her first year taking the elective course.

“I appreciate the time Melissa took out of her day to show us what she does at BCAT,” said Rhed-Latshaw. “It’s a good way to introduce students to new materials and how to work them.”

-Madelyn Schmader (2023)

Backpack Program Update

The Brockway Area School District has made a priority to focus on their “Backpack Program” to help students in the school that need extra support.

Brockway and surrounding schools joined together to realize that many students need extra support with their lives at home, and getting food necessities is one of the most critical needs for them.

“The backpack program is where we get nonperishable food items to fill backpacks with to give identified students every Friday,” Senior High Guidance Counselor Heather Anderson said.

The program was organized by the guidance department and is mostly managed by the Anderson. The elementary school had a program before the high school got on board.

The items are collected from community donations and are pushed with school events, like The Shaving contest that took place in the school recently. The students who donated the highest amount of items got to shave a Brockway staff member’s head or beard.

Each year, the district has more families who need the food.

“Here at the high school, we have about eighteen families that we provide the donations for,” Anderson said.

Anderson said that most of these families are very hard-working, but they need the simplest type of support. The backpack program gives these families a chance to not stress about not having enough food for their children.

“Being able to have a good breakfast and dinner is a key for students to do well in school,” Anderson mentioned.

The program is constantly collecting donations, and anyone can donate non-perishable foods at the high school or elementary school.

-Madison Marzullo (2023)

“It’s Not About Me,” or INAM, is a program at the Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School designed to help students to not let other people's issues get in the way of how they feel about themselves.

This is a different approach to bullying, which helps focus the victims on the reality that their bully may be the problem. There are about 10 students involved in INAM, and they host several events to get the positive message out to other students. One of those ways was a dance at the high school.

“We had the dance to get kids to hear about INAM and to get them to interact with other people and to get to know the INAM team better,” TINAM team member Karissa Holt, a high school junior, said.

The dance was a big draw, bringing in 75 students.

The group is not done with the INAM Dance. Next, they plan on painting the bathroom stalls, adding inspirational quotes to encourage students to do great things. Something similar was done at the elementary school. They also have an assembly for seventh graders as well as act as peer mediators.

“The dance went really well -- much better than last year,” Senior Sylvia Pisarchick said. “Kids need to put themselves in a bubble, focus on self-confidence, and realize that the person bullying them has something bad happening in their life. They’re hurting. And they don’t have to hurt you.”

-Phil Shifter (2020)

Throughout the winter, Brockway students in ski club don’t just head to Vermont, they participate in attending trips to Holiday Valley.

For 2020, the club is able to go to Holiday Valley more often.

“Holiday Valley notified me about the benefits of the passes, and I passed that information on to the club,” Ski Club Adviser Matt Oknefski said. “The passes include free lessons, a lower fee no matter how many times you plan to go to Holiday Valley, and a free day in March.”

Every other week, the club goes to Holiday Valley, but some students use their passes to go every week. Usually 100 people attend Holiday Valley through the club.

Oknefski and select students go to Okemo Resort in Vermont every year, a tradition that has many larger schools’ ski clubs envious. The ski club pays for the trips, and the extra days at Holiday Valley make everyone a better skier. Junior Sydney Manno said that the ski club is a great way to build friendships and lifelong skills.

“It’s more than just skiing,” Manno said. “It’s a skill that you can use the rest of your life. It is important to find skills like this that can be used for the rest of your life.”

-Madelyn Schmader (2023)

Mr. Tim Chelednik, the chemistry teacher at Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School, is making Christmas ornaments to give away as presents.

But before the ornaments can be given as gifts, they are judged.

“We line all of the ornaments up on a table and get a few teachers to judge them,” Chelednik said.

The ornaments are laid out on tables and numbered, so the teachers judging the ornaments do not know who made each ornament. They are to judge them based on how they look, not on who they think created the work.

“Whoever has the best ornament gets bonus points,” Chelednik added.

The ornaments are made out of galvanized steel. The steel is then set in a solution to dissolve the zinc layer off of the galvanized steel. They then treat the steel with a wire copper solution to transform the ornaments bulbs into metallic copper.

The Advanced Placement Chemistry and Chemistry II classes get the privilege of making the ornaments. Chelednik has been doing this project for almost 16 years. The lengthy process takes about three days to a week for the ornament to be shaped and processed before they are judged. The ornaments have always been given as gifts by the students, taking them home for family or friends.

“It’s a fun project for students to do, and they get a present out of it,” Chelednik said. “It’s a good way to start out the holiday fun.”

-Hailey Ruberto (Class of 2021)

All around the Christmas-celebrating world, children have made advent calendars and Christmas countdown chains. In the Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School German classes, that chain is also a lesson on German culture.

The German students create a countdown chain using toilet paper rolls with a gift inside. The roll is then wrapped and hung from the ceiling as a chain. As each day passes, a student takes down the day’s link and gets the prize inside.

German teacher Eric Stawecki said he got the idea from his world travels.

“Being in Germany at Christmastime, I saw that they had advent calendars all over the place,” he said. “I thought it would be a fun way to count down to Christmas break.”

The students bring in the gifts for the advent calendar. It just has to be small enough to fit in the toilet paper roll, so Stawecki said they have had everything from chocolate candy to a fortune from a fortune cookie to pencils. Everyone gets something from the calendar.

“It depends on the size of the class,” Stawecki said. “Smaller classes get more than one prize. The bigger classes get one.”

Stawecki has been doing the advent calendar for seven years. While he brought a German tradition to America, he said that America is starting to take traditions to Germany.

“Christmas in Germany is a lot like Christmas here, but it’s not as commercialized,” Stawecki said. “Over the years, they have been getting more commercialized. They have Black Friday sales now.”

However, like in America, Christmas is an important time for families in Germany.

“Christmas is a time to celebrate family,” Stawecki said. “Santa comes Christmas Eve, and then the next two days are spent with your family. They celebrate both days.”

The countdowns hanging from Stawecki’s ceiling will run out December 20 after the school board added December 23 as a vacation day, taking a day away from Thanksgiving Break.

-Mr. Andrew Bundy

The Brockway Wrestling Booster Club is currently hosting a fundraiser to support the wrestling teams of the Brockway area.

The boosters are selling raffle tickets to support the varsity, junior high, and Junior Olympic wrestling teams. These profits allow the boosters to help pay for tournaments, team clothing, and overnight hotel stays for two-day tournaments.

Robin Brinkley is the head of the wrestling boosters, and she works very hard to support all age groups of the Brockway Wrestling Team.

“The raffle tickets are sold for $5 each, and you can win $50 a day for the entire month of January,” Mrs. Brinkley said.

One event that this fundraiser supports is the annual Brockway Christmas Break Brawl. This tournament is offered to younger wrestlers, twelve years old of age and under. Any child from anywhere is able to enter the contest by paying a $23 online registration fee.

The event will take place on Friday, December 27, and will begin at about 9:30 a.m. The admission is kept at a low cost, just at $4 for adults and $1 for students and children. Children under five years old get in free. A concession stand will be serving all day. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be awarded trophies.

Without the great amount of support from the Brockway Wrestling Boosters, special events like this one would not be able to happen.

Raffle tickets are currently on sale at the school.

-Madison Marzullo (Class of 2023)

In a class you can take at Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School, Land Management Class, the students participate in helping clean up or make nice things for the town.

This year, there are five students in the class, a little less than last year’s eight. This class can be taken by juniors and seniors, and has many things to offer. Besides the community project, the class works in the school’s greenhouse or on the property, which includes a small barn for chickens and newly-planted trees, while learning about pesticides, caring for the environment, and more.

Last year, for the project, the students chose to do projects like road clean ups, planting trees, and fixing habitats. This year, the students are coming up with ideas like “Welcome to Brockway” signs and a church cemetery sign.

Mr. Matt Holt teaches the class. He said the project is a way to get students involved in the community as well as teach time management skills.

“The students get to pick their project, and most of them already figured out what they want to do,” Holt said. “If they don’t complete the project, it not only impacts their grade, it looks bad on them.”

The involvement of others can be small. The students did the majority of the work themselves, but brought in others for little pieces of the project to fulfill the management requirement. Inspiration for the projects came from all over, and some have already completed their work.

For example, the empty sign post by Advanced Disposal will soon have a decoration thanks to Delaney Wineberg. Wineberg and her helpers will make the sign out of plywood and painted blue, the gold of the FFA emblem, and red. They will clear-coat the final product to preserve it. She hopes to have it in place by spring.

Ethan Freemer is making a sign for the Munderf Cemetery. He plans to laser-engrave the sign, put posts up, and then do a flower bed underneath

Gabby Resch already completed her project at the Brockwayville Depot, cleaning out flower beds and preparing for winter. She plans to lay mulch in the spring. This is similar to Michel Drall, who is trimming the bushes at the Hormtown Community Center as soon as spring rolls around.

Austin Pringle is connecting with Pheasants Forever to work on habitat for animals. He will plant trees at the game lands.

Right now, the students are reaching out and trying to get their projects in motion. After all, they have the whole school year to make a difference.

-Madelyn Schmader (Class of 2023)

Organic Chemistry students made Dippin Dots at Brockway High School.

Chemistry Teacher Tim Chelednik runs the class as completely student driven. This means that students get to choose the experiments they do. He encourages them to think outside of a traditional class and come up with new ideas.

This year’s Dippin Dots idea came when Kyle Norman, an agriculture teacher, went to Chelednik saying he has liquid nitrogen that needed to be used. Senior Lainee Swanson heard about the liquid nitrogen and emailed Chelednik with the idea.

The class used squirt bottles similar to ketchup bottles. They dropped melted ice cream into the liquid nitrogen, which had a temperature of -320 degrees. As each drop froze, it made Dippen Dots. All the class had to do was scoop the dots out.

“Projects like this create excitement in chemistry and science in general,” Chelednik said. “I really like that Lainee threw out the idea. The students are really good at coming up with ideas this year, and I love that they can think for themselves. They’re taking the initiative.”

-Justice Williams (Class of 2020)

Interact Club is a way to better the community through community service. Kids from around Brockway Area Junior-Senior High School can join, and they participate in different community service activities every year. This year, they are putting on a Diaper Drive to help moms in need.

Shaughny Richardson, the president of the Interact Club, explained the drive.

“I figured that Diaper Drive would be a great start to the year,” Richardson said. “We did the Diaper Drive a few years ago, and it was a success, so we figured we’d try it again.”

All of the donations they receive will be going to a women’s shelter in DuBois.

“I heard a statistic that just about 1 in 5 women have to decide between baby food and diapers,” Richardson added. “At least we can give them something to get by.”

The Diaper Drive has gone on for two years so far here at Brockway, and it might even be an annual thing due to the success it had in the past.

Interact is starting to involve the elementary students as well to get as many diapers as they possibly can. The drive was only supposed to last one week, but was extended due to high interest. When all the diapers are collected, Mrs. Erin Sciafone, Interact adviser, will take the diapers to the shelter.

-Hailey Ruberto (Class of 2021)