Local/School Events

Project Climb Overview

by Sawyer Willett

Project C.L.I.M.B is a program that provides amazing opportunities and experiences that should not be looked over. Because of this program, experiences like staying in huts in the beautiful white mountains, learning to canoe, or belay while rock climbing are made accessible. Being a part of a C.L.I.M.B trip brings people of all grades and backgrounds together. Everyone is incredibly inclusive and expected to help out, creating a community where everyone does their part with tasks like cooking and cleaning and also gets to have fun in games and hikes together in groups that otherwise wouldn’t exist because of grade or background barriers. From mine and many others personal experiences, lifelong friends and experiences are made because of the unique possibilities provided on C.L.I.M.B trips. I know many people who were hesitant to join C.L.I.M.B on a trip, either because they were scared they couldn’t do the trip, or that they wouldn’t fit in. These same people are accepted and helped in every way possible, quickly becoming part of the group. I have never met anyone who regretted stepping out of their comfort zone to go on a trip, only people who have made lasting friends and memories.

Theater Overview

by Layla Morgan 

As the school year winds down, so too does one of the most memorable and dynamic seasons of theater our Kearsarge community has seen. From the dazzling musical Beauty and the Beast to kick off the year, to an intimate exhibition performance, Forests of the Night, and alongside this several small fun shows, including the student run senior show our own Calvin Smith directed! This year’s theater program was a celebration of creativity, commitment, and connection.

Now, in the final stretch of the school year, the theater department surprised audiences with a twist: an improv-based murder mystery performance that took place this past weekend called “Death By Dessert” which proved to be unpredictable and uproariously fun, the show gave the cast the chance to stretch their creativity and instincts one last time before the curtain closes as they performed not only on the stage but within the audience as waiters and waitresses. Both of the show nights took place on Friday and Saturday of last week, driving the 24’-25’ theater year to a close. 

But more than the performances themselves, this year was defined by the love and dedication within the cast and crew. They poured countless hours into rehearsals, built each other up in moments of doubt, and celebrated each other’s victories—on and off stage. The growth, the laughter, and the late-night run-throughs  made this season unforgettable. As the lights dim and the costumes are packed away, the cast is looking forward to the upcoming event KAGS, a final parting gift of a get together where awards are given out, food is served, family attends, and goodbye’s are said. It has been one crazy year for Theater, we’ll see you next year!

End of 2025 Theater

by Calvin Smith 

We are three months into 2025 and the Kearsarge Actors Guild is booked and busy. After their success with the fall musical Beauty and the Beast, the momentum from this musical has continued with the Actor’s Guild presentation of a  night of one act shows. There were two shows presented on March 7th and March 8th. How to Get Away with a Murder Mystery written by Don Zolidis and directed by junior Emma Geraghty. The other show In The Forests of the Night was written by Del Martin and directed by Sandra Nelson. The ladder was brought to the annual 2025 New Hampshire Educational Theater Guild’s regional festival at Merrimack Valley High School. Some students were awarded for their efforts in the show during the festival. Both Elie MaCarthy and Emma Geraghty took home awards for acting. Abigail Griswold, Karl Overik, and Calvin Smith were awarded in their efforts with technical design. The show did not move on to states, but it was held in high regard by fellow schools and educators. 

The next venture for the Kearsarge Actors Guild is a dinner theater presentation. The show is Death by Dessert. This is an interesting concept, the cast will be serving the audience an Italian meal as the play progresses. The show is filled with murder and Italian intrigue, set in New York City the show focuses on two rival restaurant families. This is a unique show because the actors will be within the audience, not on a stage. 

At the end of May the Kearsarge Actors Guild will hold their 10th annual KAG awards which awards multiple actors and technical crew members. 

France Trip 

By Josefina Eliessetch and River Cook

As soon as the plane landed in Paris that first Saturday of April Break, we—the French students at KRHS—started to walk around, sightseeing. It was a funny, somewhat odd group: twelve jet-lagged teenagers and four equally exhausted chaperones, all fueled by thirty minutes of sleep and at least two cups of coffee each, led by one very eccentric tour guide whose energy somehow transferred to all of us. In other words, your typical tourists. Our tour guide was like positivity come to life, and in that moment, that was all we needed. Like a walking encyclopedia, he recited facts about every monument with ease, making the eight days fly by.

 The Architecture in France was insane. Every building was covered in little details to make you appreciate it that much more. This was a foreign concept compared to the square, glass and steel buildings covering the US. Every building in Paris had some crazy history to it that was visible just by looking at it. 

Following years of restoration, Notre Dame was finally reopened in April of 2025, meaning our group was able to go in. The inside of the cathedral was even better than the outside. Massive, detailed, beautiful handcrafted stained glass windows all over the walls—one of which was original from the 13th century—angled so that the sun will shine through in big, long beams of light. Perfect marble columns held the ceiling up, and protected the holy relics shrined throughout the building. 

Josefina: To see the inside of the place that inspired one of Victor Hugo’s most famous works, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, was incredible—and, of course, to see in real life the places recreated in the Disney movie.

River: It was early in the afternoon, late in the morning, when I first saw Notre Dame Cathedral. I attempted to stare up at the tip top of the cathedral, but sunbeams were covering my eyes, causing me to tear up a little bit and look away. After letting my eyes adjust, I was able to take in the sheer scale and glory of the cathedral. As we were standing out front of it I was stung by a bee, and I had to remove the stinger and then sucked the venom out and spit it out, which no one thought would work, but thankfully it did. Then Mrs Newman was insistent I use antibacterial gel and a Band-aid, so I obliged. 

Following Notre Dame, we visited the Catacombs. Filled with bones from over 6 million people, the Catacombs were both impressive and disturbing. They were not included in the tour originally, so the French teacher, Gillian Twombly, coordinated with her students to buy the tickets on their own a week in advance. It was a balancing act, but she did it—and gave us the experience of a lifetime.

We also visited the Palace of Versailles; it was amongst the most beautiful places we visited, with its gardens and centuries of history. Built in the seventeenth century, the palace shows King Louis XIV’s desire to be admired by the people around him—and nearly four hundred years later, it is still regarded as a masterpiece. Thanks to the guided tour, we were able to take in the palace’s history, and somehow, nobody got lost in the vast building.

 The gardens were massive, well-kept, and somewhat mystical, with the gold inlaid palace observing them. 

Every day for lunch, we had anywhere from an hour to two hours to explore the area we were in. This meant interacting with the locals, trying our best to speak in French. As we were in mostly tourist areas, it was relatively easy to find someone who spoke English when we were struggling with French, but there were times when we had no other option but to speak French—and those were the moments to learn. 

One of those days, in Provence, we had nearly three hours of free time to explore Les Baux de Provence, where we could go shopping and explore its history. Even something as simple as ordering lunch or buying a bracelet was a learning experience.

Couper Gunn is a social studies teacher at KRHS, and he was one of the four chaperones. “Generally my favorite part was being able to speak French but I think my favorite location we visited was Baux de Provences,” Gunn stated. “It was … a really nice vibe where everything felt super close, wasn't too crowded, and the food and shopping were great.” Gunn is nearly fluent in French, and this trip was great for us to see him practice with the locals.

“[M]y favorite part of the France trip was going on the boat ride in the Mediterranean in Cassis,” French student Annelise DelGrosso said. 

In Cassis, we could not get our bus down into the city, the streets were too tiny, so we took a ridiculous-looking trolley, basically a golf cart designed to look like a train with some carriages in the back, down in the city on a very steep road. When we got out, we still had to walk half a mile to get to the lifesource of the city, the harbor. Nothing massive was docked there, but a lot of beautiful sailboats, wooden, fiberglass, even some catamarans and regular fishing boats were docked.

River: We had about an hour to go do something before we were supposed to get on a boat and take a guided tour of the coast. So I went fishing. I had brought a spool of 25-pound line with me, with some hooks, sinkers, bobbers, and I was going to use some deli meat I had snagged from the hotel for bait, until I saw the sheer amount of shellfish latched onto the dock. I was in a pair of khaki shorts that were technically a bathing suit and no shirt, on this small wooden dock next to the yacht club center and an ancient-looking lighthouse. I threw the line for an hour and caught nothing, even though I could see the fish. It was very disappointing.

Once on the tour boat, it was clear how beautiful the landscape was: giant limestone cliffs, dotted with dull green plants all above a crystal clear blue sea. There was a giant mountain in the distance that apparently a Frenchman had driven his car off of recently in an insurance fraud attempt. There were many coves along the coast with white sandy beaches that people had hiked some 7-8 miles to get to for the day, with people swimming, tanning, rock climbing, fishing, and cliff diving. It looked like a paradise. 

After the boat ride, we had two hours for lunch. We had different options: there were restaurants, cafes, and even a market. Most of the food offered was seafood, but there were also many places to get gelato.

River: I wanted lunch first so I could go swimming for the rest of the time and not worry about having to rush swimming, but no one else agreed with me so I went and got lunch on my own. I went to a restaurant called “Monsieur brun” and ordered Beef tartare. It was one of the best meals I had ever had. It came with a fruit called a “Caper” which I had never had before it was a whole new flavor, it had horseradish, onions garlic and all sorts of seasoning that made it one of the most flavorful and high-quality meals I have ever had. I ordered it with it with fresh squeezed orange juice, I ate outside as well, I could smell the sea and watch all the boats and walkers as I ate my meal. Once I was done with the tartare I ordered 7 Oysters. They came with lemon squeezers, butter, and what I thought was a small jar of jelly. I was terribly mistaken. I took the “Jelly” with me to use for breakfast the next morning. The oysters were delicious though, I ate them, paid for my meal, then wandered off toward the beach to get changed. 

Josefina: For lunch, I went with two of my friends. We didn’t want to go to a restaurant and sit down because we wanted to walk around, explore, and go to the beach. So, we went to one of the gelato shops, where there were so many flavor options that it was impossible to choose. 

River:  I then hopped in the water and immediately got slammed into the sand of the beach. I had assumed it would be a shallow decline into the water, but about five feet from shore it dropped to 20 feet deep, and the waves were pretty strong so I looked like a fool in front of the whole beach. It was super salty water that made my hair extremely curly and coated everything in a layer of salt crystals. It stung at every open pore it could and immediately woke me up. When I got out I didn't have a towel so I air dried. When I started walking back to the bus Jakeb started saying I had a dandruff problem, So I shook my head to see if anything came off but nothing did, when I touched my hair though I could feel the hard little salt crystals all over, my hair was covered in salt. It was very funny. 

River (Cont’d): The next morning when I went to use the “Jelly” I noticed little ball shapes in it, I assumed it was tapioca or something so I stuck a butter knife in and scooped a little out and gave it a taste test. It was briney and tasted like nothing I ever had before, so I ate the whole jar with the butter knife. When I got home and told my dad the story he said that that was my first experience with caviar.

As our French teacher, Ms. Twobly, had said earlier in the year: “The goal [was] to have students experience the French language, culture, and cuisine first hand.” And it’s safe to say that the trip provided just that.

Every evening meant an authentic French dinner. One of the days that stood out the most was the fourth day, when we had dinner at the Troglodyte Village. Roughly seven or eight feet underground, it is famous for its mushrooms. There, a lot of the group tried snails for the first time. 

Josefina: Every meal had mushrooms in it, and I honestly wasn’t too excited about that at first. Trying the food made me realize that I was worried about nothing, though, and I ended up liking it.

“I think anytime students have an opportunity to go anywhere … they should take it,” Gunn stated. “[It’s] valuable for students to experience different areas of the world, especially other countries since the culture is different. There is so much to learn and experience and to do it with friends is a great opportunity. Those are memories that last for a lifetime.”

To know about the history, culture, and cuisine of France is something incredibly valuable for us French students; practicing the language with native speakers can push a person to fully click with the language in a way they hadn’t before. Not only that, but it’s a way to embrace the unknown and broaden your horizons to new points of view.

Personal/Pop Culture

Growing a Garden

by Sadie Cooper 

Summer can be an enjoyable, and energetic season-but at times, it can also draw out boredom, and restlessness. On occasion, the typical summer pastimes become tiring, and you simply just want to do or try something new. Growing a garden can be an incredibly rewarding summer endeavor! Despite the long winters, and temperamental spring weather, it is very possible to succeed in growing a garden in New Hampshire. A decent amount of time, and consideration should be put into creating a flower garden, but once it starts to grow, there isn’t too much upkeep. 

Before deciding to grow a flower garden, first consider your local climate and weather, as well as your flower selection. If you are planning on using a raised bed, you only have to select, purchase, and lay out the soil, but if you’re planting your garden in the ground, take into account the soil conditions-make sure to clear any rocks, weeds, or tree roots that could interfere with the growth of the flowers. When using a raised bed, make sure that there is proper drainage, allowing for excess water to make its way out of the soil. For a summer flower garden, make sure to wait until after the last frost, to plant the flower seeds. For Merrimack county in New Hampshire, the last frost is typically in late May to early June. 

Depending on the flowers that you chose, you may want to set your garden up in the sun, or shade. Be sure to notice those details on the flower packets, before finalizing a location for your garden. Once the soil is set up, and dampened, gently plant the seeds, lightly covering them with soil-some flower seeds do not require covering, so again, make sure to read the details on your seeds packets. Keep the soil damp, until the seeds sprout, and from then on, make sure that they are provided with the proper amount of water, nutrients, and sunlight.

A few flowers that tend to flourish in New Hampshire weather include dahlias, snapdragons, and irises. If you’re looking for flowers that will attract hummingbirds, and butterflies to your garden, consider planting coneflowers, sunflowers, black-eyed susans, zinnias, and lavender. You can purchase flower seeds at your local farm store, garden center, or plant and flower nursery!

Why To Kill a Mockingbird Should Not Be Banned

By Makenna Ellis 

The Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been around since 1960 and has been famously read throughout school districts. This book is about a young girl named Scout Finch and her experience growing up in a town plagued by racism. Despite its popularity, it has faced large accounts of hatred because of its themes of racism and rape, the concept of a “white savior”, and the fact that a white woman wrote about racism. Despite this, To Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned because it provides a realistic depiction of how racism was at the time for a young white girl. 

To Kill a Mockingbird has widely faced criticism for the amount of racism and rape mentioned throughout the book. One school in the U.S banned the novel because of an incident where a child was bullied by a white student after the class had read the book. I disagree with this because, “.. a teacher’s poor handling of a book’s subject matter is not grounds for banning the book itself” (National Review). I strongly agree with this because if an exemplary novel isn’t taught with care, kids may act unkindly, and there’s little anyone can do to stop that. Bullying happens constantly in schools across the country, not just because of the content of a book. I understand that some themes in To Kill a Mockingbird may be unsettling and alarming to kids, but the topics are essential for kids to understand life at that time. “Considering that this book deals thoughtfully with America’s history of racism, to ban it is to deprive us of a much-needed corrective to the deadlock and vitriol in debates about race” (National Review). This book dives deep into the truth of the past and discusses important subjects essential to a kid's understanding of history. 

Another popular reason for disapproval of To Kill a Mockingbird is the public’s opinion of having a “white savior” trope, in one of the main characters Atticus Finch. Atticus is the father of Scout Finch and one of the lawyers in town. This trope however, is non-existent because it is simply realistic to the time frame the book was set in. In the book Atticus defends Tom Robinson, a black man who has been accused of rape. Atticus is known for being exceptionally kind and strives to teach his kids about empathy. Reader’s were angry because in their mind, the author was implying that people can only be saved by a white man. “However, there are big issues with the “white savior” character. Not only does it promote the idea that the only way racial/ethnic minorities can achieve justice or empowerment is with the help of a white person, it unwittingly promotes another form of white supremacy” (CrimeReads). I disagree with that opinion because realistically during the 1930’s it would’ve been practically impossible for anyone but a white man to be a successful lawyer. If the whole point as to why this book is taught across the country is to give the students an image of life then, people shouldn’t take away one of the books that clearly brings that concept to life. 

An additional reason why To Kill a Mockingbird receives judgement is due to the fact that a white woman wrote about strong themes of racism. The problem society has with this is because people believe a white woman wouldn’t be able to understand the experience of suffering due to racism. “When white Americans write about race or colonization, we need to acknowledge these underpinnings. We enter a history in which people of color’s stories have been sidelined, co-opted, appropriated, misconstrued and exploited” (Literary Hub). Yet, that’s not what the book is even about. Harper Lee writes through the lens of a 9 year old girl and the confusion that racism brings to the mind of an innocent and naive child. She doesn’t try to write through the perspective of a black character, and the whole point of the story is to show how Scout navigates through her town, where racism is prevalent left and right. 

To Kill a Mockingbird is too much of an exceptional novel to let it get washed out of school curriculums. Regardless of the criticism the book has received in recent years, there are 30 million copies of this book, which has been translated into 40 different languages (Humanities Texas). We can’t let discrepancies about mention of rape and racism, too much of an alleged “white savior” present in the book, and the fact a white woman wrote about racism stop us from reading such an exemplar book. We shouldn't let people's discomfort about such vital topics prevent others from reading a much beloved and important novel about a young girl’s perspective on racism in her time.