Thursday, November 27, 2014 PANTHER POST/THE LIBERTY HILL INDEPENDENT Page 11A

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Annual festival with a causeBy HANNAH BERTLING

   Every year during the holiday sea-son, the town of Liberty Hill hosts a Christmas Festival, which over the years, has served as a reminder of the time of giving and an oppor-tunity for the community to come together.    The festival is a collaborative ef-fort of the City of Liberty Hill, the Liberty Hill Chamber of Commerce, the Liberty Hill Ministerial Alliance, and the community itself. Heather Willard, a festival organiz-er, said the event is a time for com-munity fellowship. “Our continued goal, is providing an attraction for an event that do-

nates to charities,” she said.    The festival also includes a five ki-lometer race. Local charities, such as Operation Liberty Hill, benefit from the event by receiving dona-tions for the OLH Angel Tree, the food drive, and monetary dona-tions taken from the registration of the five kilometer race partici-pants. The race takes place at the beginning of the Christmas Parade each year, running in front of the parade groups on Loop 332. This year, there are reported to be 100 participants registered. “In years past, the City of Liberty Hill donated a free present to each child visiting Santa, but when the

economy struggled three years ago, the team voted to spend the money on the influx of struck fami-lies,” Willard said. “We continue to offer this service to 125 families of children, as well as coordinating with the Williamson County Sal-vation Army to provide a holiday meal for them.” Willard said that funds and food items are also given throughout the year.   The Christmas Festival draws on the joy and merry feeling of the holiday season, but gives back by spreading the cheer to everyone, including those in need.

By OLIvIA GuTIERREz Thanksgiving is a holiday in which we step back and appreciate all that we have. The food is a major part of this American tradition. Every year, Liberty Hill High School offers a Thanksgiving lunch when the holiday break draws near. This lunch includes all the customary fixings: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, rolls, and of course, gravy. And for dessert they serve vanilla pudding. “Thanksgiving is my favorite holi-day, so being able to have it just a few days earlier is awesome,” said Allie Child, junior. “The kids always get excited days before,” said Michelle Bordelon, the LHHS cafeteria manager. The Thanksgiving lunch is a major occasion at the high school. Once students get in line for food, all they can talk about is how excited they are. “It’s kind of a symbol that Thanks-giving is right around the corner, which means the break is coming,” said Xavier Williams, a junior. What the faculty and students

may not know is how long it takes for this lunch to be prepared. “We started planning in Septem-ber so we could order everything in,” said Bordelon. “We go through such a mass amount between all the school districts, we have to notify our dis-tributer, so they can bring in all the supplies to have available in house to deliver to all the individual schools,” said Mary Sheffield, the cafeteria director. The cafeteria staff started making rolls the day before the lunch was served; they then arrived at school early that morning to get a head start on the cooking. With so many amazing food items, it’s difficult to pick a favorite, but many students do have one. “I really like the pudding,” said Gio Salazar, junior. Other students say they really en-joy the more savory parts of the meal. Said Child, “Definitely the stuffing. It’s my favorite part of Thanksgiv-ing. Every year I just fill up on stuff-ing.”

Summer Castillo, junior, agreed, “The stuffing was so good, I look forward to it every year.” Williams also loves the food pro-vided by the cafeteria staff, and also has favorites. “Obviously the turkey and stuff-ing with gravy. It’s the staple of Thanksgiving,” said Williams. Like Salazar, many students love the pudding, and it is their favorite. “The stuffing and pudding of course,” said Paige Harrison, senior. “Unfortunately even though we have a wonderful school district, we do have some kids that may not get a traditional Thanksgiv-ing meal when the holiday comes around, so we do this to just to make it a little extra special,” said Sheffield. “It’s a great tradition,” adds Borde-lon. “I know how lucky and blessed I am to be able to have a school that provides this for me,” said Child. This year the lunch was held on Nov. 12. Students and faculty say they enjoy this LHHS custom.

LHHS Cafeteria prepares annual Thanksgiving lunch

Liberty Hill High School students enjoyed Thanksgiving lunch prepared in the school cafeteria Nov. 12 while some preferred to bring a lunch from home. LHISD cafeterias served the traditional meal and invited families to each campus last week. (Justin Johnson/Yearbook Photo)

By MATALIN SANdERS The Lady Panther volleyball team dominated Sealy on Nov. 15 to earn themselves a spot in the state tournament. It was the first time in school history that the Panthers went to State in volleyball. And although the team fell short in the State semi-finals on Friday in Garland, the Lady Panthers fin-ished an incredible season over-coming challenges at every step along the way. The road to the championships was not easy. One of the challenges was beat-ing Wimberley for the first time in 23 years. “It felt awesome to make history and beat them for the first time in a while. It gave us a lot of momen-tum going into the regional tour-nament,” said senior co-captain, Peyton Redmond. All throughout the season, the Panthers have faced difficult op-ponents. “We haven’t taken any teams lightly,” said head coach Gretchen

Peterson. “We have been pushed at each round. Columbus had some great hitters, Guero had a strong defense, and Wimberley had some amazing servers. All three teams have brought something challeng-ing to the table.” Peterson says the team’s success has been due to their close-knit relationship. “They have a unique bond that makes them a strong team, and enjoy being around each other,” said Peterson. “I think since we have all played together for so long, and we are all really close,” adds senior Jaycie Pluenneke. “There is a lot of talent and experience on this team, so that helps a lot, but truly this team is the most focused, hard-working, and driven team that I have been a part of.” The team members say this is the experience of a lifetime. “It’s such an awesome feeling, es-pecially since it’s most of our senior year. It’s a very exciting experience to be a part of,” said Pluenneke.

Panthers make history with volleyball run to state playoffs

(LEFT) Peyton Redmond, Payton Walker and Jacie Pluenneke were looking forward to the State Tournament last week. (Courtesy Photo) (ABOVE RIGHT) Liberty Hill volleyball coach Gretchen Peterson is the first coach in the history of the volleyball program to take a team to state. (Matalin Sanders Photo)

What yearbook sounds like...

What yearbook really is...

A Texas-sized Sendoff Bevo joined a host of LHHS volleyball fans last Thursday morning in a grand send off for the Lady Panthers as they traveled to Garland for the State Tournament. Supporters lined the highway holding signs encour-aging the team as they were escorted out of Liberty Hill by a WCESD #4 fire engine and Liberty Hill Police. (Courtesy Photo)

COMIC by KAYLA WHITE

Our Favorite Thanksgiving Memories...by SAMuEL RAMIREz

My Thanksgivings are usually spent with my family. We’re avid supporters of eating. So much so,  we feel bloated and ashamed and yet continue to fork food into our mouths.; how-ever, my most vivid memory of the Thanksgiv-ing holiday involves me lazing around on the couch while absent-mindedly watching BBC’s Walking with Cavemen. It’s not like my memories of Thanksgiving aren’t desirable; rather, they blend seamlessly together and become a blur of warmth, com-fort, and food. The tradition offers me a chance to indulge and relax, sinking into the formu-laic ritual of gathering around the table. I don’t have to worry about unpleasant changes and surprises; I can simply enjoy the company and food that comes around every year. I think that’s why my most vivid memory is that of cro-Magnons wandering across the Kalahari desert in search of game animals. Not because I prefer it to my traditional Thanksgiving memo-ries, but because it was the only time I wasn’t distracted by the happiness of our family gath-ered around a bottomless supply of turkey and stuffing.

By MIkALA THOMPSON My Thanksgiving memory is from last year, when my brother and my uncle actually talked to each other. My aunt married my uncle a few

years ago, and he is a really reserved man. My brother is also shy, so they never really talked. When my brother got to middle school, he be-came more out-going, so last year he managed to get my uncle to talk to him. My brother drove my uncle crazy and made him really uncomfort-able. We always do name drawings for Christ-mas presents, and my brother didn’t get my uncle’s name at first. He was so mad; however, the name he drew was mine, and our rule is you can’t draw a name from your immediate family. So, he drew again and completely by chance, he drew my uncle’s name. My uncle flipped out because my brother said he was going to get him something crazy, like suspenders or some-thing. My brother ended up giving my uncle an emergency power thing, but watching him open it that Christmas was priceless. My broth-er has a talent for scaring people. Watching him freak my uncle out like that was definitely the funniest Thanksgiving memory I have.

By TERRA HOwARd  My favorite Thanksgiving memory is from a time when I went to my aunt’s new house a couple years ago. I had never been there be-fore, and there were several people from her husband’s side of the family whom I had never met. It was very cool meeting so many new people, and I was excited to find out I had many more cousins than I ever realized. It was amaz-

ing. Because we were all around the age of 10, we played tackle football in their back yard, boys against girls. My little sister got really into it and tried to tackle many of the younger boys, and we won, even though the boys had more experience with football.    Later, it was finally time for food. My cousin’s grandfather blessed the meal and we dug in. There are many great cooks in the family, so there was fantastic food, and a lot of it. We ate a full meal and then continued to snack on it for hours. After we had all eaten way too much, we ran around and played games until we were very sleepy. At that point, we just sat around and talked for a while. When we started to get hungry again, the ice cream truck came by, and we each bought some ice cream. As it started to get dark, we played hide and seek, and ran around outside. It was very fun to get to know all the new people, but eventually they all left, and it was just me and my sister and my cousins. My fam-ily had traveled for hours to Louisiana to get there, so we stayed a couple more days longer than the rest. We went inside and talked to my mom and aunt and ate some more and when it was time to go to bed, we pretended to go to sleep, but we made up a game and played that instead. I’m thankful for all the people I met and all the time I spent with my extended family.