4-H at the Porter County Fair:
There’s no question that the Porter County Fair is one of the most anticipated events of the summer. People from all across Northwest Indiana gather to enjoy food, rides, fun, and 4-H. 4-H is a large part of the fair, especially for kids from Morgan. Students spend the school year preparing for the extensive projects they plan to create and then display at the fair. Everyone, grades K-12, has the chance to sign up for projects around November, then attend workshops to learn more about the requirements of each assignment in the spring. Once fair season rolls around, 4-H members are putting on the final touches and getting ready to display their works. Projects cover all forms of creativity, ranging from cooking to showing animals, creative writing, fashion design, photography, landscape design, and more. Even after their projects are done, the work still isn’t over. Students have to volunteer for either building watch or concessions. However it all pays off in the end because students are rewarded with cheaper wristbands for rides, punch passes for free fair entry, and special parking for those who show animals. On top of that, nothing beats the reward of ribbons and grades given for students’ great dedication and hard work.
Dance Team Holds “Dance Camp”:
Even though Dance Team doesn’t perform until winter, it’s not stopping the girls from planning their routines for the year. July 13th-15th they held a “dance camp” from 9-3. The girls practiced a new routine introduced by a guest dancer from Valparaiso University. They also started learning a dance created by their captain, Naomi Walker. The team is even more excited for the year because they have more time to get ready for the season. Dancer, Melissa Bensinger, revealed that last season the team had less than a month to prepare for their first dance due to the awkward timing of hiring their coach, Ashley Duttlinger. As a team, the girls are looking forward to trying new things, such as costumes and themes for dances, and more intense dances. They hope to be more confident while performing, and even have a team goal of being able to do the splits by the first dance!
Morgan Welcomes a New Vice Principal:
The 2015-16 school year is welcoming a new Vice Principal, Gaelyn Mylnarcik. This is her first year as an administrator. Before joining Morgan’s staff, she worked for 7 years as an English teacher at Fegley Middle School in Portage. Fegley is where she learned about the Vice Principal opening from her colleague, Morgan teacher Matt Wellsand.
Although Mrs. Mylnarcik hasn’t been involved with Morgan as an adult, she attended the school from kindergarten through 2nd grade! Now that she’s reconnected, she loves seeing how involved everyone is in the school.
“People can be a parent, a teacher, and a coach and it’s cool to see because it gives everyone a nice investment,” she said.
Gaelyn hopes to continue the legacy of impressive commitment in the administration that allows the school to run so smoothly.
“I see administrators as a resource and I want to be that resource,” she says.
When she’s not working, she spends her time with her husband and son.
Yearbook Is Year Round at Morgan Township:
Many people believe the misconception that Yearbook is a “blow-off” class when in reality it’s a 24/7 class that even keeps going throughout the summer! As a yearbook member myself, I can say that yearbook is not a class, it’s a lifestyle. Morgan is lucky enough to have a group of extremely dedicated students that keep that lifestyle alive, even if there isn’t a book in the works.
At the beginning of August, a few students ventured back into the halls of Morgan Township to get the yearbook ball rolling. These students, myself included, had the opportunity to see the yearbook that was created last school year and will debut this September. After we relished in our work, the time came to sort the hundreds of books for the upcoming distribution event. The rest of the day was spent cleaning and styling the yearbook room for the year to come. The following days of that week was registration. Yearbook members volunteered to help students and parents sign up to order the yearbook that will be created this year. The “yearbookers” as we call ourselves, spent hours filling out forms, sorting payments, and even taking some free time to start creating next year’s shirts.
Although the yearbook staff is very dedicated, the busiest member this summer has been Editor Sarah Randall. She has been working online all summer to create templates and designs that will become the framework for the upcoming book. On top of that, she had to organize the ladder, which is a page by page list ordering what will be covered in the book. Sarah revealed to me that when she learned of her editor status she was terrified. However now that she has her hands on it, she’s becoming much more excited about what’s to come.
“I’m trying to do a lot of weird design tricks that you usually can’t do on Jostens (the website that the book is designed on). I want to make the book more visually unique and appealing,” she said.
