Issue 55

Cookie Party by Janey

The cookie party was really, really fun. It’s a girl scout party that celebrates all the girl scout that sold cookies. They put my name up on a screen, because I sold 500 boxes of cookies. We ate lunch and played real carnival games and won prizes, and went in the bounce house. I didn’t like the cookie party, I LOVED it!

Teen Writer's Conference

Whitney with a favorite author, James Dashner, at the teen writing conference. All of the authors donated their time for the day long conference that taught teens how to become life long writers. Whitney loved the conference and came home on fire about the novel she has been writing. Here is an essay that she wrote for the conference:

ALPACA

They say you are in trouble when the alpaca puts its ears back. I’m inclined to agree. At least I was, when I was holding onto the back of a baby alpaca and an adult put her ears back at me. At the time I was living in New Zealand. I was volunteering at an alpaca farm with one hundred plus animals. It was feeding time and we where trying to catch and separate all the babies from the herd so we could halter train them. We did this every Tuesday, but this time I did something wrong.
When you are catching an alpaca you want to get your arms around the base of its long neck. If you get that you have control of the animal. Then you can get a halter over its head and clip on a lead. Bet you didn’t know you can halter lead an alpaca did you? Well any way, you usually approach it from the front, but I approached it from the back. That was mistake number one. Mistake number two was grabbing two hand holds of fleece in my desperation. I had been trying to catch this one for fifteen minutes. And then I let out a triumphal yell to let everyone know I had finally caught her.
The end result was me being dragged across the corral, holding onto the back of a panicked alpaca. Ouch. To make matters worse when it finally slowed down, as to not crash in to the fence, an adult alpaca named Perfection came up. No doubt I looked like some fearsome predator that had attacked her grandbaby, holding onto its back, making it squeal in terror. I got a barrage of alfalfa cud spat in my face. Twice. Then she started kicking me! I had to high-tail it to the fence before she could get me again. Of course everyone was laughing their heads off as I vaulted over the rail. Perfection paced by the fence with a smug expression. Yes, alpacas can look very smug when they want to.

Simulations Week by Whitney

(Note by Mom: American Youth Leadership Institute joined forces with Whitney's high school for Simulations Week. The youth had 8 different simulations to choose from. The music simulation composed, performed and recorded beautiful music for the rest of us. The art simulation created an amazing mural on a wall at the high school that promoted peace. Their was a legislature simulation, a mock trial intensive and a city council simulation, among others. Steve L. picked the Olympics simulation, where the year was 2025 and their group was in charge of promoting peace through the Olympic games. Their job was to invent new sports and play them for the Olympics held at the high school. It was truly an amazing opportunity filled with lots of unique learning.)

This week I had the opportunity to attend the Constitutional Convention simulation (The Con Con.) This is a week long simulation, where you are given a scenario where the country has been almost destroyed and you have to wright a new constitution for it. This year we were dealing with the aftermath of WWIII.

We got to the school building at 6:30 every morning because my Mom had the keys to the building and she was in charge of all the meals for the simulation.

It was an amazing "hands on" lesson on how the constitution works and it's different functions. The simulation ended at 2:45 every day, but there was a different activity that went on after. Things kike game night, a concert, a talent show, and a formal banquet.

The banquet was cool. You got all dressed up, and a boy escorts you to your table. You get etiquette lessons before and everyone's served by waiters.

In the actual meetings you are a delegate from a state. Emotions ran high a lot of the time, but it was amazing. I can't wait until next year.

Girl Scout Day Camp

Janey attended her first girl scout day camp this week, paid for by her hard earned cookie credits. It was three days full of arts, relay races, story telling, Olympics, service projects and performances. Her favorite part, she said, was learning and performing a salsa dance!