School briefs School briefs (December 05, 2003)

Graham Holiday Bazaar

Graham Middle School will host its holiday bazaar Dec. 6 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the school's multi-use room.

There will be about 40 vendors -- including Girls Scouts, PTAs, Mountain View High's choral group -- selling jewelry, pottery, watercolor note cards, hand-knit sweaters, holiday gifts, handmade pet supplies, and home decor.

Students will give choral and instrumental performances and there will be a bake sale, featuring tamales.

Book fair at Girls' Middle School

The Girls' Middle School will host a book fair Dec. 8 to Dec. 12. On Dec. 11, three authors -- Julie Orringer, Joel ben Izzy and Ann Packer -- will be on hand, starting at 7 p.m., to do a reading and signing of their books.

This event is free and open to the public. The book fair features free gift-wrapping, a wide range of books for adults and children of all ages, special bargains and sale books, calendars, diaries, and other gift items.

The book fair is open Dec. 8, 9, and 10 from 11:30 a.m. until noon, and from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m.; Dec. 11 from 11:30 a.m. until 9 p.m.; and Dec. 12 from 7:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. The fair will be held in the Parish Hall of St. Athanasius Church, 180 North Rengstorff Ave. in Mountain View.

Winter concert at MVHS

The Mountain View High School Music Department will present a Winter Concert featuring the symphonic band, wind ensemble, and string orchestra Dec. 10 at 7 p.m., in the school's Spartan Theater, 3535 Truman Ave. Tickets are $7 for adults, $5 for students, seniors and children ages 12 and under. Tickets will be available at the door.

St. Francis gives away 400 turkeys

St. Francis students collected $3,500 and food to provide Thanksgiving dinners for 400 needy families.

Over the course of two weeks, each homeroom collected boxes and bags of food and cash donations. On Nov. 21, 145 students sorted and organized the food into individual family meal boxes after school.

The food boxes were distributed to families in need by the St. Vincent de Paul Society of St. Athanasius and St. Cyprian's Parishes, Catholic Worker of Redwood City, El Camino Hospital and Rose Garden Dialysis Center volunteers. In addition to the food drive, St. Francis students also served meals to community members in Mountain View on Thanksgiving Day.

St. Francis students named Hispanic scholars

Eight seniors at St. Francis High School have been recognized by the College Board's National Hispanic Recognition Program. National Hispanic Scholars include: Marco A. Cerna, Tasio R. Baserga, Kevin T. Hogan, Paul A. Hogan, Nathaniel D. Kent and Calvin Genna. Honorable mention finalists are: David F. Blanco and Kevin G. Chaves.

The National Hispanic Recognition Program is a College Board program that provides national recognition of the exceptional academic achievements of Hispanic high school seniors and identifies them for post-secondary institutions. Students enter the program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test as high school juniors and by identifying themselves as Hispanic.

MVHS Marching Band's 'Lady'

The Mountain View High School Spartan Marching Band successfully defended its title as Grand Sweepstakes winners and retained the trophy known as "The Lady of Lodi" at the Grape Bowl Classic in Lodi, Nov. 1. The coveted "Lady" represents the best all-around performance by any band in both parade and field show (combined scores). In addition to the Grand Sweepstakes award, the band was awarded the General Effects Sweepstakes trophy.

Drum majors Henry Freedland, Astra Bryant, and Andrew Eglen, led the 190-plus members of the band and color guard in "The Elements," an original musical composition by Adam Beck, assistant music director.

College newspaper wins 22 awards

La Voz, the De Anza Community College student newspaper, won a record-breaking 22 awards at the Journalism Association of Community College's Northern California conference on Oct. 25.

The newspaper was honored with an award for general excellence for online journalism. Ann Valta, a Mountain View resident, received fourth place for a sports profile feature story.

Other awards included first place for spot news writing, opinion story and advertisement; second place for column writing and inside page layout; third place for advertisement, critical review, news story and opinion; and 11 honorable mentions in a variety of categories.

Walkathon raises $5,000 for German school

Ninety students at the German International School in Mountain View raised $5,000 during a recent walkathon at Whisman Park.

Each lap was about a third of a mile, and students had two hours to walk or run as many laps as they could. Fifth grader Julius Barth was the school's fastest runner and won first place. He ran 40 laps in two hours. Alexander Lill, a sixth grader completed 33 laps. Lasse Wichmann, a second grader ran 27 laps, and Gustav Barth and Hanna Bruels, both 6, completed 22 laps.

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