Good Shoes for a Good Cause

 

Think about all of the shoes sitting in your closet right now… Can you imagine living without any shoes? Unfortunately, for children living in less fortunate communities, this is a reality. But the company TOMS strives to change this. One sale means more than just new shoes for a customer; it means a new pair of shoes for a person in need.

TOMS was founded by Blake Mycoskie, who while traveling in Argentina, discovered the hardships of children living without shoes. Blake knew right away he had to help. Then came the idea to create TOMS. The catchphrase of the brand is, “one for one”. This is because the idea of the company was that for every purchased pair of shoes, another pair of new shoes would be sent to a child in need. What started as a simple idea, soon became a booming business that helped children in many developing countries. The idea of TOMS supports the idea of helping others in need and advancing the opportunities for children and communities all around the world.

Along with providing shoes to those in need, the company offers additional services that are very important to the lives of others. For example, TOMS sells eyewear, and with each purchase, customers have the opportunity to help restore sight to people who need it. Also, with each purchase of TOMS Roasting Co. Coffee, they help deliver clean drinking water to places who don’t have any. TOMS sells bags inspired by the different cultures of the villages and communities they help, and with a purchase of one bag, they provide a safe birth for a mother and baby who require it.

TOMS is a simple but great way to give to others who need it. Next time you are at the store and see a TOMS product, think about the good it could do for someone around the world and consider helping them out with a simple purchase. Every time you put on those shoes, you will think of the good that YOU have done for a person in need.

~Caroline

Bakery Story: The Online Baking Revolution

Bakery story is an online game available on the app store. It’s free, and creates a world where easy, electronic baking is possible. In this game you have a job to run a bakery. You must constantly leave food on the counters, or you’re at risk of customers leaving with broken hearts. The food on this app takes a variety of time to cook, ranging from five minutes, to two bakery story days (forty-four hours) There are dozens of ovens to choose from, each creating specific foods, related to the oven name. For example, the shaved ice machine creates red, blue, and rainbow shaved ice, and the deep fryer adds donuts, and other fried food onto your counters. In this game you can continually expand your bakery, leaving room for more chairs, tables, and other decorations. You are also able to decorate the bakery in a variety of themes, or create your very own style, mixing and matching chairs and tables. All of these luxuries may be purchased with the coins and gems that your bakery earns for feeding happy customers. These coins and gems can also be purchased using real world money within an in-store purchase, but your bakery can survive without spending real money. Finally, bakery story allows people to make friends with other bakery’s. The benefits of having friends is that your friends may give your bakery six tips a day, providing the Bakery Story owner with extra coins to buy items. Also, your friends give you a daily gift. This gift may help when trying to build an oven that you don’t have all the parts for. Overall, Bakery Story is a game that leaves millions happy as they are provided with the entertainment of online fun.

I am a fellow bakery story lover. I have reached level 70/99 and have over three million coins. I love how I am able to redesign my bakery, and put my creative mind into play, using the app. I’ve made beach, autumn, movie, Paris, and winter themed. My friends are always leaving compliments on my wall about my fabulous bakery. I have over 100 neighbors, who give me fully tipped tables each day. Normally, I check my bakery twice a day. I bake eight-hour foods in the morning, that will be finished in the afternoon. Then, I bake twelve-hour foods to cook through the night. My favorite part of Bakery Story is the goals. Every week this app comes out with new goals for the bakers to complete. After you have finished a goal you earn a prize of either coins, or a decoration. I know many people who have bakeries, and love it just as much as I do. Amelia Pellegrino, a level 63 baker says, “Bakery story is one of my favorite apps, it’s so simple and easy to use.” Everyone loves this game! Bakery story is mostly of interest to the teenage group, mostly girls, but many boys as well. It entertains the daily life of many of todays people in this electronically filled World. In conclusion Bakery Story is an amazing app and I suggest that everyone gets it, because I know that they will enjoy it just as much as I do.

~Lucy

Math-a-Thon

It’s the time of year again to help out St. Jude’s Children Hospital. Every year many families go in and out of St Jude’s without having to pay a penny. For more than 30 years, Math-a-Thon has been America’s largest education based fundraiser. This program includes a free math curriculum supplement for grades K-8 that students can complete after getting sponsors from family and friends. All the proceeds go to St Jude where doctors and scientists work to eradicate childhood cancer and other childhood diseases. Our school is participating in this fundraiser,arranged by NJHS students. Students from NJHS were each assigned a homeroom throughout the school and have gone into the classrooms to talk about this program. Not only Dodd, but many other people have taken their time to donate to St. Jude and talk about it. People on twitter/social networking sites have also been trying to get people to donate.

This is a great cause. Math-a-Thon can help improve math and comprehension skills and donate money to help saving lives! This is a way to benefit yourself by doing the math problems while helping thousands by making the money that goes to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

~Sophia Qiu

Should Teens Work?

 

As teenagers we are constantly asking our parents or grandparents for the latest gadget or article of clothing.  We would be able to buy these things on our own if we had our own money, and I’m not talking about our college savings, but our own earned money.  The cost of raising a child born in 2011 to age 17 will cost a family an average of $235,000 and that doesn’t  include the cost of college.  Activities and special clothing alone can add extra expenses to a family budget.  If jobs were available to teens then we could help with these extra costs.

Do you think teenagers should have jobs?  What types of jobs are available for teens who are still in school? If teens had jobs they would earn money while learning new skills and proving to be responsible citizens. Teen jobs help you to discover what you’re good at and help guide you in your decision for a future career.  Earning our own money will also help us to learn about finances and how to budget our money as well as our time.  I think some of the best jobs for teens would be babysitting, working in a grocery store, restaurants, library, veterinary clinic, or helping at nursing homes like Elim Park.  These jobs can be very rewarding for both the teen and the employer.

~Felicia Rosadini

NHL Lockout Affecting more than the Players

 

The NHL has been in a lockout for 86 days and it doesn’t look like they’re coming to any agreement soon. At this point 526 regular season games plus the Winter Classic and all-star game all have been canceled. The league is reporting $236 million lost from ticket sales so far.  In addition, according to The Greater Boston Convention and Visitors Bureau, local businesses and restaurants are losing between $850,000 to $1 million for every missed game.The problem is that the two sides NHLPA (National Hockey League Players Association) and the NHL (National Hockey league) can not settle on some issues. One issue is length of contracts.   The players want to have the contract be 8 years while the owners feel it should be 5 years. They are also arguing about how to get teams under the salary cap as well as the how to split the revenue.

The NHLPA and the NHL should have figured this deal out over the summer instead of waiting so long to negotiate. The lockout is not good because a lot of people that work at the rinks
and in the vicinity of the rinks are losing a lot of money. The economy is the worst its been in 30 years and for a professional hockey league to add to the declining economy is not helpful. There is two things I would like to see happen.   First I think that if the season gets canceled that the NHL should award the the stanley cup to a minor league hockey team. The second thing that I would like to see happen would be if the NHL came out of the lockout all fans should boycott the first week that they come back.  Although we all want to see the games return, there should be something the fans can do to let them know we disagreed with the way they handled this.

~Will DePalma

The Inauguration is Coming Soon

In this past election, Barack Obama was elected to be president for another 4 years. He won 332 electoral votes and the other presidential candidate, Mitt Romney won 206 electoral votes. Since Obama has been elected, there will be another Inauguration address for him in January. An inauguration is the act of starting a new operation or practice. Basically what happens at the inauguration is that the President is starting his term and where there is the swearing-in ceremony, inaugural address, and inaugural parade. But if this is what an inauguration is; and Barack Obama has been president for the past four years, then why should there be another inauguration?

I personally think that there should never have been a second inauguration for anybody that was president for a second term. The inauguration costed 170 million dollars for president Obama. They really shouldn’t spend another 170 million dollars for another inauguration when it really isn’t an inauguration. This is because president Obama is not starting a new operation. They can just donate the money to a children’s hospital instead of wasting it on a second inauguration. So the question that I have been wondering is this: Why do they have a second inauguration for presidents that are reelected?

~Nick Ratliff

The Fall of the Town Pool

The town pool is a “waste of money” says a Cheshire citizen quoted in the Cheshire Herald.   Every year millions of dollars are spent on the Cheshire pool.  Does it have perks? Of course it does, it’s a pool. But does it also have a lot of bad things about it?   For example, this year we are spending 7 million dollars on a machine that will make it so the pool will not use as much energy.  A lifeguard who represented the pool at a town meeting stated that 500 kids were taught how to swim in 2011. The real question is whether 500 kids learning how to swim is more important than millions of dollars that could be going to other essential needs of the town.

In my opinion the Cheshire public pool is a HUGE waste of money. I think that millions of dollars of Cheshire’s money should be going to more important things like education or healthy eating. Yes, I do believe that it is attractive to have a town pool, but I do not think it looks good to the town if the roof covering it is falling down every single winter!   Did you know that 1.3 million dollars of the schools budget was cut so that there was more money to spend on the pool?  I doubt it. There is no way that we have this much money to just throw at the pool and hope that it survives the year.  Even if does survive then you just hope you won’t have too much trouble putting the bubble up and down. I have been a citizen of Cheshire ever since I was born and I think that I have been to the pool all of 3 times. There are way too many problems to worry about when dealing with the pool. I think that it should be closed for good.

~Adler Demac

Lights of Hope Takes Action

 

Since 2005, Cheshire’s neighbors have turned to each other to find hope in the midst of darkness.  All while raising more than $310,000 for local charities that are important to our neighbors including Cheshire’s Food Pantry, Cheshire Youth and Social Services, Petit Family Foundation,  American Cancer Society and Multiple Sclerosis Society.   The now-annual Cheshire’s Lights of Hope event has brought together neighbors to help neighbors all with the simple act of lighting a single candle in a bag and illuminating our wonderful town. Upwards of 100 volunteers turn out every year to bring the event to fruition.  From street captains to clean up crew, the town has made this event its own and has helped hundreds of area families with donations to local charities. 100% of proceeds raised go directly to charities.

I feel like this is a very good activity for everyone is Cheshire and its helping and making Cheshire look nice at the same time. My family helps and we put them on the edge of our driveway to make a difference.  I think every family in Cheshire should do this because then we could show that Cheshire cares and we can make a difference. This goes out to tons of people and organizations. Questions I still have for this, is, how can our town make even a bigger difference and show that we care while still keeping the same subject, The Lights of Hope. Another Question that I have is what are some other things that our town is already doing to help and is there any openings for volunteers?

~Vicki Palmer

Money Pit or Fun Activity?


In 2006, when the Cheshire Public Pool, located on 520 South Main Street opened, the public was ecstatic. They would not only be able to have a fun and enjoyable way to cool off on those humid summer days, but they would also be able to take a plunge in the  deep end on the cold frigid days.  The town made it possible for residents to swim in the winter by utilizing a fabricated bubble as the roof rather than one made wood or metal.   Using fabric for the roof made it possible for the Park and Recreation to take it down in the summer and place it back up in the winter.  From the start, this sounded like a very convenient method, but even before the pool had opened, there were many problems with the bubble, causing large financial hardships for the taxpayers of our town.

 I believe that the pools’ bubble is not worth keeping up; it is just a money pit.  Part of the tax money paid by the people of Cheshire goes toward the running and maintaining of the pool. When there are problems with the pools bubble, it cannot operate in the colder months.  Therefore, the residents feel as though they are throwing their hard earned dollars away.  As the pool continues to break down, taxes will continue to rise.  Since keeping the pool open in the winter months relies on the functioning of the bubble, I feel that eliminating the bubble and having a public pool only open in the summer would save the town and it’s residents more money in the future.

Leaving the Cheshire Public Pool only accessible in the summer would allow the town of Cheshire to put the tax money, paid by the townspeople, to better use. Instead, the town could use the tax dollars on more important factors that could strengthen our society and economy as a whole. Putting the tax dollars that went toward keeping the bubble open all year could now go to strengthening the public school system in Cheshire.  This money could also be used to create more sports teams on different levels. For example, Cheshire High School could bring back the junior varsity golf team to allow more students to play.  Lastly, money could go towards buying new technology for the Cheshire Public School Systems.  As you can see, taking down the Cheshire Public Pool bubble once and for all would only assist in more savings.

With all things considered, I feel as though the town of Cheshire shouldn’t keep the public pools’ bubble up.  We could put our tax money towards more important and essential things for the growth of our economy.  In the long run, keeping the bubble up would not be for our benefit.

~Lauren Clements

A Big Waste of Money

Do we really need a pool in our town? Each year the town of Cheshire spends millions of dollars on the pool. Is it beneficial? Maybe, but there is no reason that the town should be spending their money on the pool. Every year there is some kind of problem with the pool that just makes the town spend money like crazy. One year we had such a bad winter that the roof collapsed! Well there goes about two million dollars trying to fix that. The money we spend on this pool can go to much better needs for this town.

In my opinion, the Cheshire town pool is a total waste of money. The only people that use it are the boys and girls swim teams in the town.  But they are in their swim season right now and they can’t even use it because of course there is a problem with it. I know that I have only been there about three times ever since it opened. Cheshire needs to be spending their money on something the town will use. For example, give some money to the school systems or make something useful like a shopping center or movie theater where kids and adults will actually go. Recently a Cheshire citizen who has been living here for their entire life told me that when she was a kid there was an ice skating rink and a movie theater  Well what happened to those?! They are gone. Now we live in a boring town that wastes their money on a pool.

~Jacqueline Allard