SpringFest Volunteers
SpringFest is almost here! This event is way more than just a fun fair for families and children to attend to have a good time. This is a special event that is responsible for funding Building Brickies, which is a program for children in Hobart from birth to age five. Building Brickies, as of right now, includes 55 families (74 children). There is a waiting list that includes 111 families (131 children).
Focusing on the volunteering aspect of SpringFest, the event is successful every year because of the Hobart High School students who choose to volunteer and help out.
Working the event allows students to gain community service hours.There are many options of what you can actually volunteer to work for the event! Possible activities one can work include painting faces, monitoring the bounce houses and working the many games provided.
Hobart student organizations such as JROTC, the football team, and the wrestling team all assist in setting up the games for the event. The wrestlers serve the fish fry dinner, and the other students who volunteer are responsible for taking down and cleaning up everything. More than 400 volunteers help with SpringFest, and of those 400 individuals, only 15% are adults!
SpringFest will be four hours long, but students will have a break to join the fun fair activities and eat some dinner. Participating in such a special event not only helps out the Building Brickies program, but it instills the value of being helpful and the significance of the beneficial and valuable experience that comes with volunteering. Students who choose to volunteer at SpringFest will receive a food ticket for dinner, entry to the fest, and a t-shirt! It will definitely be a good time!
Homecoming: Winter Sports
The week following President’s weekend, Hobart celebrated our winter homecoming! Once again, the classes fought for the ‘Spirit Brick’, competing in dress up days, Jar Wars, locker bay decorating, and the competitions during the pep rally. One of the competitions during the pep rally included determining which class was the loudest throughout all of the cheers.
This week was only a four-day week; therefore, the dress up days were: Tuesday- Tie-dye, Wednesday- favorite Disney character (or other characters), Thursday- decades day, and finally on Friday- purple and gold day. Jar Wars was a fundraising activity put on by Team Lead, a community service group at Hobart.
This is what the week is all about: appreciating all winter sports and supporting the boys’ basketball team for the big game on Friday night. After everything, the ‘Spirit Brick’ was awarded to the junior class and the senior class due to a tie. The boys’ basketball team played Highland Friday night and ended up winning 56-42! It was an extremely fun week and ended with a bang. This year’s winter homecoming week has really set the bar high for future homecoming weeks at Hobart High School.
DECA: Making an Impact
DECA creates High School students as upcoming leaders in finance, hospitality, marketing, and management. For those who are not aware, the DECA competitions include different categories where students involved have to present the solution given to them on the spot. This type of intelligent spontaneity prepares these students for the real world. DECA provides many benefits that include: networking and meeting new people, leadership, scholarships, and fundraising and volunteering experience.
Miracle a Minute is when one minute goes on the clock, and all students donate what they can within that minute. Hobart’s community service project was a written entry for Mr. James Kammer’s son. Mr. Kammer is one of the guidance counselors here at Hobart. His son, Greyson, has been diagnosed with Duchenne, a form of muscular dystrophy. Three particular students from DECA: Natalie Giangiulio, Abigail Gonsiorowski, and Katie Hardlannert were one of the groups from Hobart.
Although DECA did not advance to Nationals, they accomplished something even greater and have helped the Kammer family as well as the other individuals struggling with muscular dystrophy.
Teacher Spotlight: Miranda Barber
Recently, one of Hobart’s loved staff members has gone to work somewhere new. Mrs. Miranda Barber is now a 7th-grade teacher at Pierce Middle School in Merrillville. At Hobart High School, she taught United States Government and Economics for four years. She said that she enjoyed every moment of teaching at the school!
She has stated, “I am so proud to have had the privilege to teach them [my students]. I hope they go on to be game changers… like I taught them.” Many students are very sad to see her go but are happy that she was able to be a part of their lives. Students knew that expectations were held high, but students also knew that these standards were only so high because of how much Mrs. Barber cared for them.
Finally, Mrs. Barber adds, “The truth is that regardless of who you are, what you may look like, what you have been through, the poor decisions you have made, the actions that you are not proud of, or anything else, you deserve love. I let my students know from day one that I love them and that I am here for them, and once they accept that love, learning will then take place in the classroom.”
Hobart is lucky to have had the opportunity to know and love Mrs. Barber back!