What’s recently happened:
One of Lake Central High School's (LCHS) bands, Lake Central Winter Winds, finished their second year of performing. They placed second in their last competition at the Indiana Percussion Association (IPA) Winds State Finals at Avon High School on March 19.
“I feel like this season was an absolute success. I hope next year that we consistently improve our scores again and just all around have a good time for it being my last year,” said student Maxton Swanko.
Throughout the entire season, Winter Winds placed in the top three at each of their competitions. They placed first once at Carroll High School.
“I’m very proud of our performance throughout the season. Sometimes it felt like we could have been better, but we never let that hold us back and we continued to improve throughout the season,” said student Jacob Doreski.
What’s Coming up?
Lake Central is hosting a craft show on April 2 from 9 p.m. to 3 p.m. There will be raffles containing one or more products from vendors. Admission will be $2 and raffle tickets vary. All proceeds go towards the Lake Central Band Boosters, a non-profit organization that raises money for the band program.
The LCHS Senior Banquet is almost here. The banquet will be held on Friday, April 22 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the Halls of St. George. Tickets are no longer available. The entrance opens at 5:45 p.m. and the dinner starts at 6:15 p.m. Senior best awards will be presented at 7 p.m. and dancing is until 10 p.m.
Varsity (V) and Junior Varsity (JV) Baseball continue the beginning of their season. On April 5, both V and JV are heading against Crown Point High School (CPHS) at 4:30 p.m. at the CPHS baseball fields.
Staff Spotlight
LCHS math teacher and St. Baldrick's representative Angela Ohlenkamp is in her 19th year of teaching. She currently teaches precalculus, trigonometry, and geometry along with raising money for finding a cure for children’s cancer.
“In college, I was given the opportunity to teach a summer course to kids from Indianapolis. I was a strong math student and the program needed instructors. My husband, not married at the time, had already accepted a position and given them my name. The course was only six weeks long, but I learned so much from the experience and enjoyed my time working and helping the kids,” said Ohlenkamp.
She hosted the St. Baldrick's event in front of the seniors this year with 12 volunteers ready to shave their heads. As the event went on, she helped encourage and raise more money for students and staff shaving their heads. She enjoys the students' reactions to their newly shaved heads.
“The most rewarding thing is seeing the kids kind of put themselves into an uncomfortable situation or an unsafe situation and in the end, they realize that what they were able to do and the hard work that they put in was actually worth it when they hit the finish line,” said Ohlenkamp.
Now Ohlenkamp is going to be finishing up her 19th year of teaching. Next year, her oldest child will finally be coming to LCHS.
“My biggest thing I’m looking forward to right now is my oldest child will be a freshman next year so I can bring my own kid to LCHS. I’m very excited to see him in the LC blue and watch him experience all the cool things at Lake Central that I’ve been seeing other students do,” said Ohlenkamp.
Student Spotlight
Kai Blankenship is a junior at LCHS and has been doing Lake Central Publications and St. Baldrick’s for multiple years. Kai has hit a new record in donating for St. Baldrick’s.
“I decided to start St. Baldrick’s in third grade. My teacher gave a presentation about cancer. I remember going home and telling my mom, ‘Hey, I want to shave my head!’ and she was like 'Okay, I love it, but let’s not do it tonight.' I wanted to do it that day. She did some research and she found St. Baldrick’s, and I’ve been doing it ever since,” Blankenship said.
Blankenship has raised $38,479 in charity for St. Baldricks in total since third grade. Hitting his all time new record this year, he raised over $11,000 for charity.
“I just want to keep doing it and try to help out because the goal is a cure for kids cancer. There are treatments for childhood cancer right now but then ends up killing the kid. The goal is to have a modular system, a treatment specified towards children so that they can make it through the treatment and not suffer from the symptoms of that in the future,” Blankenship said.
While Blankenship has done a lot to raise for charity, he also participates in the Lake Central Publications.
“Freshman year, I wanted to take photo and journalism writing and I got all the journalism classes at once. I loved the teachers Mrs. Wadycki-Cruz and Mrs. Verpooten. I was really excited to be a part of publications. Then sophomore year, I had a good experience with my team and so then I became a team leader,” said Blankenship.
He hopes in the future he can gain either a minor or major in journalism. He has another year to make more of an impact on his school.
“I love telling stories, especially of people who don’t get their stories told. I think I like spreading the word about people who don’t get talked about and deserve a spotlight that don’t get that. That’s a really cool thing publications allows me to do,” Blankenship said.