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At Mooseheart:
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‘I Got Everything
I Wanted - And More’
Children who remain on campus for the holidays find plenty to be happy about on Christmas morning.
by DARRYL MELLEMA
Sarah Perry was happy with the football she got on Christmas morning.
> As she worked through opening her presents on Christmas morning, Sarah Perry’s face kept breaking into a smile. Whether it was the football she received or any of a number of other presents, she found something to be happy with.
After opening all her packages, she summed up her feelings in one simple sentence.
“I got everything I wanted - and more!” she said.
Sarah Perry is a 16-year old high-school junior at Mooseheart. On Christmas morning, she took time to remember some of the other gifts she’s received--none larger than her chance to live and go to school thanks to the kind hearts of the men and women of the Moose.
“This place does a lot for you, a lot more than people actually realize,” Sarah said.
One of the things Mooseheart provides is a place to celebrate the holidays. While most of the 240 residents of the Child City return home to spend Christmas break with guardians, there are always some for whom a trip off-campus is not an option.
This year, around 20 children spent Christmas at Mooseheart, including middle-school and high-school-age girls who stayed at the Washington-Northern Idaho home.
That was where Sarah Perry, her sister Jessica and four other girls opened their presents on Christmas morning.
Jessica Perry has been at Mooseheart for a year and a half, and the 15-year high school freshman said she still misses Christmas at home. But she was still enjoying the holidays.
“Last year, I wasn’t that positive, but I’m trying to be more positive this year,” Jessica Perry said. “I think it’s a great time to be around families and to get together.”
In the spirit of the season, Jessica Perry said she was thinking about more than the things she got, although she was quite pleased when she found a number of new books to read under the Christmas tree.
“It’s really important to realize what God has done for us throughout the year,” Jessica Perry. “We always think, at Christmas, that God did so much for us. We should be thinking that all year round.”
Debbie Aharoni, the director for Community Two, which includes high school and middle school girls, said Mooseheart’s students also participated in community service projects through the holiday season.
“The kids receive a lot of gifts,” Aharoni said. “We want to make sure they understand appreciation for those gifts and giving out to other people too.”
But there is also a committed effort to make Christmas as special as it can be for the students, whether or not they leave for home at the holidays.
“It’s a great opportunity for these kids to have a true sense of Christmas, because a lot of them haven’t had much before they came here.”
Those students who remained on campus through the holidays stayed in four residence homes. The six girls at Washington-Northern Idaho Home, for example, all live in different homes throughout the school year. “I notice, every year, more and more kids are going home,” Aharoni said. “It gets quieter and quieter at Christmas time.”
Kayla Wood, a 12-year old seventh-grader, was happy with CDs she got for Christmas. “I like giving and seeing other people get gifts,” she said.
Kayla’s 14-year old sister Tessa is a freshman at Mooseheart High School. Among gifts she was especially happy with was a digital camera.
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Please click on any photograph below to view a larger image.
Christmas morning means opening presents by a Christmas tree, and the same held true at Mooseheart for girls staying at the Oregon/E. Idaho residence home.
Tessa Wood opens one of the many packages she received.
Jessica Perry looks over some of the packages she received while opening presents on Christmas morning.
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Gift From Interlochen is Musical to Marco
Marco Namowicz removes his new clarinet from its case. The instrument is a gift from the Interlochen Center For the Arts.
> Somewhere between the box and the bubble wrap, 17-year-old Marco Namowicz came to realize what he had received in the box marked “Interlochen Center For The Arts” on the address label.
The gift from the country’s premier music camp to the Mooseheart junior was a clarinet. Not just any clarinet, but a well-refurbished professional-level instrument.
Over an over again, Namowicz repeated the same word: “Wow.”
“It’s something from Interlochen, so it’s something to bring back those special memories,” Namowicz said. “I’m really excited and it’s really awesome that they did this for me.”
Namowicz attended Interlochen in northern Michigan in 2007, the first Mooseheart student to attend the camp. He said he hopes to return in summer 2008, and now he has a clarinet of his own on which to practice.
“It’s a good brand and a good instrument,” Namowicz said. “Wow. There’s nothing else to say.”
Namowicz said he thinks about Interlochen on a daily basis.
“First the scholarship that they gave me and now this,” Namowicz said. “Wow. To do all of this for one person. It means a lot.”
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Christmas Time
At Mooseheart
From the annual lighting of the Mooseheart Christmas tree (sponsored by the Wisconsin Moose Association), the holiday season is a time of festive good cheer at the Child City. A group of employees at BP America decided that, rather than a traditional Christmas party, they would support an area organization, and picked Mooseheart.
Suriah Randolph happily opened one of her gifts.
The annual band concert showcased the musical talents of many students, including Blake Mason.
As in past years, Brownie and Girl Scouts came to the Moose International headquarters building to sing carols.
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Josie Stone gets acquainted with Santa’s beard. St. Charles East High School principal Robert Miller donned the red suit and beard for the fourth straight year and brought a massive number of toys to Mooseheart. The toys were purchased thanks to a toy auction at the school which raised $11,500.
St. Charles Toy Auction Raises $11,500 To Fill
Santa’s Pack
> Carved on the entrance to the Mooseheart campus is the phrase: “Enter to learn, leave to serve.” Though the admonition is intended for Mooseheart students, the students in St. Charles East (IL) High School’s woodworking program make good on the words as well as any visitors to the Child City.
For the fourth straight Christmas season, those high-schoolers crafted beautiful new wooden items--then saw them sold at auction to enable them to buy Christmas presents for Mooseheart’s elementary-school residents.
“You get involved in the program, and there’s so much more than learning how to work with wood,” St. Charles East senior Bill Diamond said. “There’s working with people. There’s a lot more behind it than just the project.”
On Thursday, Dec. 20, Diamond and his classmates turned into elves as Santa Claus delivered the toys purchased from the toy auction. And this year, Santa Claus, played by school principal Dr. Robert Miller, needed a larger pack to carry the toys.
In the fourth year of its relationship with St. Charles East, Mooseheart benefited from an even greater level of money raised at the annual toy auction. This year, the amount raised was $11,500, $3,000 greater than in 2006.
“It’s one of the best feelings in the world,” Diamond said. “It’s Christmas and it’s about giving. Seeing the kids’ faces and knowing it’s what they want. I’m a people person. I like pleasing people, seeing them happy. This is a life lesson, making them happy.”
In addition to toys for all of Mooseheart’s elementary school students and Target gift cards for the middle school and high school students, Miller presented Mooseheart Superintendent of Education Gary Urwiler with a check for more than $3,000. That money will be used to purchase needed equipment.
“You may be two towns away, but you are part of our family,” Miller told Mooseheart’s middle school and high school students.
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Ramblers are Subject of Major Newspaper Series
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At the end of its football season, the West Virginia Moose Association sponsored a banquet for the team at Walter Payton’s Roundhouse restaurant in Aurora. The Ramblers used the occasion to thank a number of people for helping make the season a success. They reserved a special bit of thanks for Chicago Tribune reporter John Keilman (above) and photographer Stacey Wescott (below) for their efforts in producing a three-part series on the team’s exploits. Keilman (left) received a pair of miniature autographed helmets for his children while Wescott was given an autographed football.
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> The exploit’s of this year’s Mooseheart football team were covered in great detail by the Chicago Tribune, North America’s sixth-largest newspaper.
The Tribune assigned reporter John Keilman and photographer Stacey Wescott to accompany the team to all games, most practices and across campus as they progressed through their season.
The Tribune showcased the Ramblers in a three-part series that ran Thanksgiving weekend. The series focused on football, its relationship to Mooseheart’s residents, and the challenges the team experienced as it surged toward the playoffs.
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Ramblers’ 2nd Straight Postseason
Gabe Kendor was one of the rushing stars this year for Mooseheart’s football team.
At midseason, there were many questions surrounding the fate of the 2007 Mooseheart football season.
Among these were whether or not the team would qualify for the IHSA playoffs for the second consecutive year--indeed, whether or not the team would be able to finish above .500.
The Ramblers surged in the second half of the campaign and answered a resounding “yes” to both those questions. Starting with a thrilling Homecoming win over North Shore Country Day, Mooseheart won its final three games to ensure playoff qualification.
The team gained a bit of good news along the way-- in the form of a forfeit win from one of the three teams it lost to, as that team had used an ineligible player.
So Mooseheart took a 7-2 record and many high hopes 85 miles west to Milledgeville on Founder’s Day for the opening round of the Class 1A playoffs.
Nearing halftime, Mooseheart only trailed 14-7. But the Ramblers then surrendered a touchdown from a kickoff, the first time that happened all year. Milledgeville proceeded to complete a 36-6 victory that ended Mooseheart’s season.
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 Senior Floyd Mays ponders the end of his season and career after the loss to Milledgeville. |
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Volleyball Team Improves, Wins Opening Playoff Match
What could have been a difficult season ended with some very positive moments for Mooseheart’s volleyball squad.
Koral Evans, the middle school volleyball coach, took control of the team at midseason.
After an adjustment period, the Ramblers began to play solid volleyball, culminating in a victory in the team’s playoff opener.
Seniors such as Carmen Avila (6 hitting at far right) graduate, but there is plenty of hope for continued improvement from the team in 2008!
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Boys Basketball Team Streaks to Holiday Break with 7 Wins
Brandon Moreno
Hopes were high for Mooseheart’s boys’ basketball team this winter, and losses in the team’s opening two games did nothing to deter the squad.
The Ramblers surged following those two defeats and won seven straight games as they went their separate ways for Winter Break.
The Ramblers have a solid core returning from the 2006-07 season, a campaign which featured the team’s first playoff win in a generation, and that core has gelled quickly.
With high-scoring Mike Tovar, sharphooting Brandon Moreno and Ethan Grasty in addition to Floyd Mays, Chris Morones and Gabe Kendor, this year’s team maintains its hopes of achieving great things.
Coverage of the conclusion to the team’s season, as well as a wrap-up of the girls basketball and wrestling campaigns, will appear in the next issue of Moose Magazine.
Ethan Grasty
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2nd Place Finish at Genoa-Kingston Tournament is Highlight for Rambler Girls
Ruthfee Kollie
It wasn’t just that Mooseheart’s girls basketball team won back-to-back games heading into Winter Break and moved to 6-7 for the season.
More importantly, it was what those victories represented. The Ramblers gained second place in the Genoa-Kingston tournament thanks to those victories.
This year’s Ramblers roster has a massive 32 girls, making the sport the female equivalent to football, in that over half the high school girls are participating. Beyond mere numbers, there is substantial talent on the roster, including solid scoring from Ruthfee Kollie, Basheeba Mays, Kim Phillips and freshman Katie Stryker.
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NEW CITIZENS of the Child City
Everett Ellsworth
born Nov. 29, 1994
ARRIVED 9/24/07
Sponsor: Medina Valley, TX
Lodge 2196
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Hannah Sersha
born March 25, 1995
ARRIVED 10/1/07
Sponsor: Lakes, WA
Lodge 1865 |
Musulyn Yarngo
born May 17, 1992
ARRIVED 10/15/07
Sponsor: Maplewood, MN
Lodge 963 |
Noel Yarngo
born Dec. 3, 1992
ARRIVED 10/15/07
Sponsor: Maplewood, MN
Lodge 963 |
Jasmyn Singleton
born May 15, 1991
ARRIVED 10/15/07
Sponsor: St. Charles, MO
Lodge 1513 |
Bridge Towalid
born March 9, 1994
ARRIVED 10/22/07
Sponsor: Indianapolis, IN
Lodge 17 |
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Mooseheart’s elementary school received a large donation of books from Grace McWayne School in nearby Batavia. The books will be used to supplement the classroom texts used by Mooseheart’s students. The children and teachers were so pleased with the gift, they gathered for a group photo with the books!
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Kris Barnard Rises to National Honor Society
Kristofer Barnard lights a candle during the November ceremony that marked his induction into the National Honor Society.
When he arrived at Mooseheart as an eighth grader, Kristofer Barnard went to the National Honor Society induction ceremony -- an impressive event on the Child City campus, conducted within the majestic House of God -- and liked what he saw.
“I thought to myself, I’d like to be up there and make everyone proud,” Barnard said.
Now a senior at Mooseheart High School, Barnard realized that dream on Nov. 15, when he became the latest inductee into the school’s chapter of the National Honor Society--one of the oldest chapters in the U.S. “It was a little nerve-wracking, especially being the only one up there,” he said.
Sponsored by Brooksville, FL Lodge 1676, Barnard said he has worked hard to reach the academic standards required of the National Honor Society.
“In my freshman year, I wasn’t doing so well in school,” Barnard said. “I really applied myself after that.”
Barnard is a member of the Mooseheart football team, wrestled for two years and is an academic standout. He is also active in the leadership of the school’s NJROTC program, is a morning tutor at the school, is gaining vocation proficiency as a hairstylist, and is a member of the Peer Ministry team at the House of God.
“I do a lot of things on campus to help out,” Barnard said. |
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February/March/April 2008
