Jessica Snider, SMT Writer
The Dexter FFA Chapter held their annual FFA Parent’s Night on November 8th. The event took place in the high school cafeteria.
There were fifty-seven Dexter FFA members and seventy-nine parents/guests in attendance.
FFA Parent’s night is an annual event in which FFA members receive various awards from the Stoddard County Fair. Top fundraisers are recognized and first year FFA members receive their green hand pin and certificate. Second year members receive their chapter degree pin and certificate as well.
The first year members that were present and received their greenhand degree pin and certificate were: Devin Aslin, Karlie Barnett, Madison Bishop, Chelsea Cox, Hannah Craft, Kristen Copeland, Matney Davis, Keaton Fransico, Alyah Goss, Tyler Heil, Dakota Holt, Michael Hurst, Karaline Keirsey, Garrett Kyle, Jordan Lacy, Trevor Link, Storm Massey, Moriah McLard, Seth Mouser, Taylor Page, Lindsey Parsons, Cody Pullum, Alexis Tankersly, Ethan Ward, Kyle Ward, Nathan Weathers, Alex Whitehead, Karlee Wright, Hannah Arthur, Austin Aldridge, Paula Hagy, Emily Petes, Tera Stitz, and Dennis Buck.
Second year members who received their chapter degree pin and certificate were: Colton Averett, Kaitlyn Eaton, Erika Mccoy, Dalton Rickel, Kylie Scott, Nicole Battles, Ben Dachs, Haylee Arthur, Alex Morgan, Jackson Hubbard Chance Jarrell, and Dalton Manuel.
The greenhands participate in an FFA Knowledge Spelldown and also present the Building the Emblem Ceremony. Madison Bishop won the FFA Knowledge Spelldown. The top fundraiser went to Jackson Hubbard.
Seven FFA members were also presented with their courtesy corps pins and certificates from participating in the National FFA Courtesy Corps.
The Dexter FFA Parent’s Night was an event enjoyed by all in attendance. Congratulations to all who received certificates for various accomplishments!
The middle photo on the right are the members who received their second year pin and certificate.
The bottom photo is of all who received greenhand pins and certificates.
Aleshia Flowers
Central Elementary celebrated Reading Week November 5th – 9th. The theme was designed to coincide with the national election by adopting the slogan “Vote for Books.” The week was full of an assortment of thrilling events to celebrate reading. The affair was coordinated by Mrs. April Aldridge, the school’s reading specialist.
Reading Week is designed to emphasize the importance of reading for success both as a student and in the future workplace. The children are also taught to relate reading to enjoyment through recreational and social activities.
Students were asked to dress in a new theme for every day of the week. The themes included, “Free to Read,” “Elect to Read,” and “Read to Succeed” to name a few.
One of the student’s favorite dress-up days lent them the opportunity to dress as their favorite book character; popular characters included “Elf on the Shelf,” “Fancy Nancy,” and “Junie B. Jones.” Students also had a blast wearing cozy pajamas, flaunting our nation’s colors, and supporting their favorite team by sporting jerseys.
Each day students participated in “Guess the Author.” Mrs. Richards, the school’s librarian, would read a clue to children in each class. The students would then guess the author’s name and victors were entered into a drawing to win McDonald’s Happy Meal coupons.
The winners were Tyler Holt, Skylar Oakley, Gaige Willems, Ryan Collier, Layne Medler, Chandler Shipp, Jayla Rudd, Adison Moore, Jacob Medler, Shelby Haynes, Ashlyn Cunningham, Carson Bell, Makenna Rodgers, Alex Fitzpatrick, Shelby Curran, Alex Townsend, and Clair Comfort.
Another incentive to read involved a competition between the classes. The classroom in each grade level that accumulated the most Accelerated Reading points during the week won a trip to Central’s School Store.
Every student in the winning class was allowed to select a free item of their choosing from the store. Ms. Strong’s classroom was the third grade winner, having acquired 110 points.
The fourth grade winner was Mrs. D. Warren’s classroom. Mrs. D. Warren’s students accumulated a total of 145 points. Lastly, Mrs. Allen’s classroom took the prize for the fifth grade having gained a total of 334 Accelerated Reading points by the end of the week.
Students also had the chance to show their creative side with by participating in a poster contest. The subject of the students’ art work was their favorite book and teachers displayed submissions outside the classroom for the other students and teachers to admire. Also, a variety of guest readers from the community visited the third through fifth grade classrooms to help impress the importance of reading. Finally, students boasted their internet skills by voting for their favorite book online.
Throughout the week, parents were encouraged to take time to read aloud with their student and discuss the content of the book they were reading together. It was also suggested that parents encourage Silent Sustained Reading (S.S.R.) at home just as the students do in their respective classrooms.
With the help of teachers, parents, and community volunteers alike, each component of the week concluded with flying colors! The faculty of Central Elementary helped guarantee that Reading Week was a wonderful success-ensuring that students enjoyed learning the significant, essential role reading will play in their everyday lives.
Richland High School recently participated in the Penny Wars where the school raised over $300 for a local family in need. Richland has been participating in the Penny Wars for several years, where the students bring in rolls of pennies to count as positive points. The fundraiser gets more competitive when the different grade levels begin dumping dollars and silver coins into each other’s buckets, causing them to lose positive points and gain negative points.
This fundraiser is more than just a fun way to raise money, it is also a way for students and faculty to reach out and help a local family in need. Until this morning, no one actually knew who the money would be going to this year, so when the Condicts were told that they were the receiving family and the total amount of money that the students raised was announced, all of the students knew that their hard work had paid off.
Jordan Condict, a junior at Richland, was shocked to find out that her family had been chosen to receive the money. “I was trying to figure out who they were going to award the money to,” Condict explained. “But I definitely didn’t think that it would’ve been us, I was so surprised! We are very thankful.”
The Condict family has been caught in a whirlwind of events throughout the past couple of months where not only one, but two of their family members were diagnosed with two very different types of cancer. Mark Condict was recently diagnosed with Prostate Cancer and is being treated at Cancer Treatment Centers of America in Tulsa, Oklahoma and his father, Doyle Condict, was diagnosed with Small Intestinal Cancer and is being treated at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis.
The family has been very hands-on with this experience, including making ‘Team Condict’ t-shirts and sweatshirts that raise awareness for both types of cancers that they have in their family. All profits that were made during the fundraiser were donated to the Ben Kruse 18 Fore Life Foundation, an organization that offers financial aid to families fighting against cancer.
This Penny Wars is not the first time that the Condicts have been recognized by the community. Their oldest daughter, Jordan, played volleyball for the high school and they honored her and her family at the Hits for Hope game in October to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. The family was completely taken by surprise, just like they were with the Penny Wars results, when they were given flowers, the game ball, and inspiration from their friends and community in a chance to let them know that they are not facing this part of life all on their own.
Richland and its students were honored to give the money that they raised to such a great group of people. Although many tears were shed and there were many battles won, there is still a long road ahead for both of the fighters and their family. Richland is proud to support the Condicts and will walk with them as they head down an ever-changing road to recovery.
Jessica Snider SMT Writer
As many know, reading week is something that has been going on for many years and is a great way to get students more involved and more interested with reading books.
Dexter Public Schools have always been very involved with reading week and encouraging their students to pick up books; not only during that week, but throughout the rest of their lives.
The students have been enjoying activities all week while having guests and even “celebrity” readers come into their classrooms and share a book with them.
Today, however, a very special act went down as Mayor Weber visited some Southwest Elementary students and gladly signed the Reading Week Proclamation. Present at the time of signing were: Katy Tarbutton-Southwest Elementary, April Aldridge-Central Elementary, and a handful of Southwest students are shown in the photo as Mayor Weber signs the proclamation.
We hope the students of Dexter Public Schools have enjoyed their reading week!
Provided below is a copy of the proclamation.
Written by
Jessica Snider SMT Writer
Students at Southwest Elementary are continuing to enjoy reading week this week. As mentioned in a previous article, the theme is “Vote for a Good Book.”
Many young students are enjoying having guest readers come in the class and read a book to them. Students continue to vote for their favorite books this week as America voted on many issues earlier in the week.
Today one of the guest readers was Caitlyn Alsup who enjoyed coming into the classroom and reading a book to her little brother’s class. They are pictured in the photo to the left.
The students are enjoying reading week as it continues to persuade students into reading more books and enjoying it when they do so!
We hope the students have a great Friday tomorrow as they wrap up all the activities of "Vote for a Good Book" reading week. Hopefully they will be ready to dive into their next book!
