GCHS progress
Happy Friday, blogosphere.
Before I leave for the weekend, I wanted to share with you a pretty cool photo that Gary Gibson sent me via e-mail this week.
Gibson flies for recreation and took this photo of the new high school site in a 1976 Piper Archer II, a 4 seater low ring (i.e. – a plane).
Have a good weekend!
Subscribe to the comments for this postExtreme home makeover
Home Depot was filled with teens and pre-teens on Wednesday looking at lighting, bathroom fixtures, wood floors, and gardening items.
Each year Wendy Hill, a math teacher at Lakin Middle School, takes her students on a field trip she calls “Extreme Home Makeover,” where students have to figure out which item is the best buy for Hill’s home.
Some of the interviews I did on Wednesday didn’t make it into the paper. Here’s some information from another group of kids I interviewed.
Adrianna Morgan, Lizeth Diaz, both 12, and Yennifer Jauregui, 13, started to look at counter tops on Wednesday. They were looking at the different types of edging and discussing which one they wanted.
The group of girls said they liked the field trip.
“I like math so it’s all fun,” Morgan said.
About 20 parents also traveled with the sixth graders to Home Depot to help with the project.
“This is every day life,” said Yoka Ritsema, a parent volunteer. “It gives them an idea that money matters. It’s great to get away from the classroom and put them to work.”
Graduation details
Next Saturday is going to be a busy day in Garden City and Holcomb. Garden City High School, Garden City Community College and Holcomb High School are all holding their graduation ceremonies on that day. Below are the particulars.
Garden City High School
The Garden City High School baccalaureate ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. May 15 in Clifford Hope Auditorium, 1412 N. Main St. This will be the start of a day of celebration for the commencement exercises that will be held that evening.
Commencement exercises for the 123rd Garden City High School Senior Class will take place at 7 p.m., May 15 in Memorial Stadium on the campus of Garden City High School, 1412 N. Main St. The GCHS administration is requesting that guests do not bring air horns or other noise making devises to distract from the graduation ceremony.
The graduating seniors are being asked to follow a few guidelines to make their final experience at Garden City High School a dignified and memorable occasion. The guidelines for seniors include:
- Dress will be semiformal or business casual. (No shorts, tank tops, etc.)
- Shoes or sandals are required. There are to be no beach flip-flops.
- Do not bring purses and/or bags. All unnecessary items will be collected and locked in the principals’ office and can be picked up on May 17.
- Please do not bring cell phones. They will not be allowed during the ceremony.
Guests are asked to enter the stadium and to be seated in the grandstands. The audience is asked not to move from their places unless they are leaving. The graduation ceremony will also be broadcast live on Buffalo Broadcasting System cable channel 21.
Project Graduation will take place at the YMCA, 1224 Center St., May 15, from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Project Graduation is a safe, positive night-long festivity that keeps graduates from participating in risky and dangerous behaviors such as parties that may allow alcohol consumption.
Garden City Community College
The GCCC Commencement, honoring associate degree, certificate and GED graduates, is set for 10 a.m. May 15 in the main gymnasium at Dennis Perryman Athletic Complex.
Holcomb High School
Holcomb High School will hold its graduation ceremony at 2 p.m. May 15 in the high school gymnasium.
Three years later
The S.D. Robinett building, as seen in this photo from May 2008, is the only building that survived the 2007 tornado in downtown Greensburg. The building today is an antique store, and attached to it is a string of other retail shops.
I’m in the middle of writing two stories about Greensburg and doing some multimedia pieces, and I’m getting a tad bit nostalgic.
I went to Greensburg this weekend, partly for pleasure and partly for business.
When I drive through town I rarely go off of the highway. I knew I wanted to see more than just that, so I decided to get a tour guide (which really means I convinced my Dad to go with me). 
Hey, being from southwest Kansas has its perks.
He has worked there in the past, including right after the tornado, and he took me through town and showed me various landmarks.
We both tried to remember what the town looked like pre-tornado, but we couldn’t.
I don’t remember where the Dillons store was, the store that was left half-standing for weeks after the tornado hit.
I don’t remember what downtown looked like, I only remember what the one building looked like that survived.
Now there’s a strip of retail shops, including one in the only original building that survived downtown.
Now there’s a grocery store inside the convenience store, and when we stopped there is was a hopping place.
The entire town, it seemed, was busy on Saturday. People shopped at the new retail stores downtown and groups of people toured green houses that have been built since the tornado.
It seems to me that there’s been a lot of media hype surrounding the tornado about how the town is going green. I was worried that the town would lose its identity since the tornado.
But I found out on Saturday that the town is still typical small town Kansas. Everybody still knows everybody. There’s still that small-town atmosphere.
It’s nice to know that some things never change.
Remembering.
I can’t help but take a moment out of my morning to remember something very real and very emotional for a lot of people.
Fifteen years ago today the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City was bombed, killing 168 people.
Media coverage of this isn’t hard to find. Check Yahoo, or go to Oklahoma City’s newspaper for more information.
Read up on what happened and why it happened. As a source I talked to last week said, you don’t know where you’re going unless you know where you’ve been.