Achievement

Spring is filled with school activities, and this week was no exception for Blue Ridge High.

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Jacob spent Wednesday and Thursday at a state competition for FEA (Future Educators of Arizona) in Mesa, AZ. He designed this t-shirt for his project. He got the idea for hands holding an apple-shaped earth from the cover of the novel Twilight. Underneath it says, "Teaching the world one child at a time."

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Forty high schools from around the state took part in this competition. This was our school's first year with FEA, so the kids were just excited to take part, with no expectation of winning anything.

Imagine Jacob's excitement when he came home two nights later with this silver medal! His t-shirt design came in second place out of forty schools!

To top it off, they received the award for FEA Chapter of the Year! The students were stunned, being a new club and all. They received a beautiful etched-glass trophy for this honor.

Our Chess Club also deserves a mention. They spent 5 days in Nashville, TN at the chess Super Nationals. The team stayed and competed at Opryland Resort, the biggest non-casino hotel in the USA. It has about 2,900 guest rooms! While there, they experienced a tornado warning and spent some time waiting in a shelter. Exciting stuff!

Ours was the only rural school (and only 3A school) to compete against 243 other high schools, all private or public schools from large urban areas.

Plus our chess team is less than 3 years old and had never been to the Super Nationals. Many of our boys had never even been on a plane! Their Sensei is the amazing Mr. Robinson (yellow shirt).

You can see that they came home with 5 trophies! The team won 13th place in the Blitz (speed chess); 8th place for under 1600; and 8th place for unrated. (This has something to do with the players' rankings. Mr. Robinson explained it to me, but I don't understand it well enough to pass it on! Sorry!) Anyway, they placed 8th in the nation!

Now you understand why the boys are holding up 8 fingers in the photo! (That's Wyndie's oldest son on the far left.)

The other 2 trophies were won by individual boys, a 7th and an 8th place finish. Keep in mind that this competition had more then 2,000 competitors! They all did an outstanding job!

Of course, not every achievement is earned on the field of competition.

Here we have Wyndie and Nicole bravely attempting to save the hard-pressed school district money by transferring ink from one printer cartridge to another, all by themselves, with no personal regard for life or limb or light-colored clothing! What could be more admirable, more courageous, more foolhardy?

When I mentioned their deed to one of our tech people today, he gasped in dismay. Really, he did--an actual gasp! Then he recommended quietly but firmly that I not tell anyone else. (I'm not sure why...)

But they did it! The old cartridge that fits our printer now registers at 80% full. The day was saved and we were back in business!

Of course, I had to escort these gals to the restroom to wash up since they couldn't touch anything with those nasty hands.

Good job, ladies! I think you both deserve a trophy!

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P.S. My brother Darryl and my niece Ashley commented on my last post and shared their memories on the passing of my mother 7 years ago. I found them very touching. If you're interested, please feel free to have a look (just click on "comments" at the end of my last post).