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The Big Red Holiday Edition

Winter Edition

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December 2012 edition of The Big Red student newspaper

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Page 1: Winter Edition

The Big RedHoliday Edition

Page 2: Winter Edition

News

These gifts were collected for the Holiday Coalition. They kept them in black trash bags to keep the presents anonymous.

by Jordan Poirier Students have once again stepped in to sponsor local chil-dren and to make sure those children have a happy holiday. Hudson High School has been involved with the Holiday Co-alition for 12 years. It started out as a Public Policy Cluster project, and now it’s some-thing a whole class signs up for. “Over the years, it has

grown, getting over 55 sponsors two years ago,” early childhood teacher Patricia Noyes said. It directly benefits young people in our community. “The Hudson High School Commu-nity has been very generous to local families over the years. This will be the last year for this program,” she explained. Elaine McKenna, school nurse at Mulready, is one of

the coordinators along with Karen Henderson at Assabet Valley Chamber of Commerce. “Most classes contrib-ute more than the requested $75.00 asked,” Noyes explained. Hudson High School nurse Sue Bowen, who has a big part in this, said that they ask school nurses to identify people 17 years old and under that are in need. She’s been doing this since it started 12 years ago. They only assist Hudson res-idents, and all the nurses in the Hudson School dis-trict are involved. Classes who sponsor a child can-not buy expensive electron-ic items or extravagant gifts. “I 100% think that more districts should do this. It’s a really great cause.”

Hudson Continues Holiday Tradition

by Marissa Ogar

Musicians Begin Holiday Season with Concert

Most students will be prepar-ing for their finals in January, but the HHS band students will have their final a month early in front of a live audience. The Concert Band, Wind En-semble, Jazz Ensemble, Girls Glee Club, Chamber Sings/

Vocal Workshop, and Camer-ata will perform on December 19 at 7:00 p.m. in the auditori-um. Eighty to ninety students, grades 8-12, from these six groups will share their talents.“It is the culminating perfor-mance or a ‘final exam’ of all the work that our students have

done for the Fall semester,” band teacher Jason Caron says. The Jazz and Wind En-sembles have been work-ing on their pieces for most of the fall semester.Sophomore Edward Andrews feels that the biggest challenge is “being together and in time

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News

Concert NotesPerformances by the Concert Band, Wind and Jazz Ensembles, Camerata, and Chamber SingersString Quintet in C Major, D. 956 …………………………………. Franz Schubert (1797-1828) arr. Margery Ziegler Goldstein Jump, Jive, an’ Wail …………………………....……………………..Louis Prima; arr. R. HolmesTwo Hebrew Folk Songs (Songs for Chanukah) …………....……… arr. Norman WardThe Wexford Carol…………………………………………….……..arr. Anne McGintyPat-a-pan …………………………………………………………… arr. Tom WallaceQuietly Come and Whisper …………………...………...................... arr. Craig AlbertyPalladio …………………………………...…....................................... Karl Jenkins (b.1944); arr. Longfield

Musicians (continued) with everyone else in the band.” On the other hand the Concert Band has practiced their pieces since just before Thanksgiving. They have had a busy schedule this se-mester, playing at the varsi-ty football games, marching in Hudson’s Veterans Day parade, and performing at the Turkey Day rally and the Thanksgiving day game.In addition to their busy schedule, students have faced other challenges as they pre-pared for the concert. “Tak-ing on a new instrument and having to prepae for a con-cert with it right away is very challenging,” eighth grad-er Thaya Zalewski said. Za-lewski just learned this year how to play the bass clarinet.For senior Shannon Nu-gent, the biggest chal-

lenge is “being on stage. I have a bit of stage fright.”Despite these challenges, stu-dents love the thrill of doing something they love. “I end up with an adrenaline rush,” senior Shannon Nugent said. Caron agrees that the con-cert is both challenging and exciting. “It is like driving on the highway, with 40 or so

cars all headed in the same direction; for everyone to get where they need to go safe-ly and on time, each driver needs to be in total control of his or her car, and act and re-act to the many variables go-ing on all around them. But, it is much more exciting and fun than that!” Caron said.

Edj Andrews, Vini Bulhoes, Sam Engvall, and Taylor Benson, members of the Concert Band, prepare for their Holiday Showcase during fourth block band class.

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News This year, the annual Snowball dance was held on December 5. The dance was held in the Hudson High School cafeteria which was decorated with snowflakes and twinkling lights. Dinner was served around 7:15, and then the dancing started! “I really liked Snowball because I got to go and sit with a bunch of my friends, and we got to dance,” said freshman Rocco Malloy. It was a joyfull night for the 204 students and others that attended.

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FeaturesStudents and Staff Share Hanukkah Traditions

by Braden Rendano “Many people don’t understand why we celebrate Hanukkah,” special educator Jessica Byrd, also known as Mrs. B, said. “They think we just get presents,” but there is more behind it than that. Hanukkah, also called the Festival of Lights, is a celebra-tion to remember the event that occurred at the holy temple in Jerusalem. There was only enough oil for the lights to burn for one day; however, it lasted for eight days. That is why it is celebrated for eight days instead of just one like other holidays. However the real reason for Ha-nukkah is to celebrate the Mac-cabee’s rebellion for freedom. They defeated one of the most powerful armies in the world at that time and gained their right to worship freely. The light of the temple is a separate story. “People think that Hanukkah is the most important holiday to Jewish people. While I’m happy

that people want to learn about Hanukkah, there are more im-portant holidays throughout the year that people should also take the time to learn about,” sophomore Zoe Moskowitz says. “It just happens to fall around the same time as Christ-mas, and I guess it was swept into the whole season of giving.” Moskowitz celebrates both Christmas and Hanukkah, and she usually gets smaller gifts during the nights of Hanuk-kah and bigger gifts during Christmas. “We have four Me-norahs and a HUGE Christ-mas tree, so I get the best of both worlds,” Moskowitz says. During Hanukkah, she cel-ebrates with her family mem-bers, such as her great aunt and uncle. They eat a variety of foods and exchange gifts. One of the foods that they eat is latkes. These are potato pan-cakes that can be eaten with apple sauce and sour cream.

They also give and receive gifts from each other. She gave her great aunt candle holders, and her great uncle received a Patriots shirt. She has gotten gifts such as cooking supplies, money, and iTunes gift cards. Mrs. B thinks that her favorite gift she has giv-en others is her first card for her new son. The best gift that she has gotten was a flat screen T.V. from her husband. In addition to exchanging gifts and eating special foods, they also go to a temple to worship. During Hanukkah these temples can hold parties to celebrate. “I go to Temple Emanuel in Marlboro, and on December 16, we are having a 67th anniversary celebration for the temple and with latkes and a dreidel prize wheel for people to win prizes,” Moskowitz says. “The children in Hebrew school will also have a conjoined class about Hanukkah where they will read the story of the hol-iday and play dreidle and eat gelt!” Overall, Hanukkah is a cel-ebration that includes eating, saying prayers, playing games, singing songs, and is not just for getting presents, but cele-brating and remembering the reason for the holiday.

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Features

Owner: senior Erika Civaterese Where she got it: Garment District How much she paid: Ap-prox 25 cents How often she wears it: Only on days leading up to and on Christmas Would she suggest it? “Obviously! Everyone should own at least one ugly Christmas sweater!”

Owner: senior Laura Fagan Where she got it: Aerie How much she paid: $23 How often she wears it: A lot Would she suggest it? “Yes! So soft!”

Owner: senior Tessa Dinnie Where she got it: Salvation Army How much she paid: $5 How often she wears it: Only in December and January Would she suggest it? Of course! They’re wicked comfy!

Top five chrisTmas songs: 1. Baby It’s Cold Outside 2.

Jingle Bell Rock 3. Winter Wonderland 4. Feliz Navidad 5. Let it Snow

Top five chrisTmas movies: 1. Elf 2. Rudolph 3. How the

Grinch Stole Christmas 4. The Year Without Santa Claus 5. A Christmas Story

Winter Fashion:

Christmas Sweaters

by Tessa Dinnie

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FeaturesThe Stress of Working in the Holiday Season

by Leanne Matthews Some may think the holidays are a relaxing time for everyone, but for stu-dents who work retail it can be the most stressful time of the year. Everyone is shop-ping for the holidays, leading to craziness like Black Friday. Senior Tessa Dinnie, an employee at American Eagle, says she gets about ten more hours a week during the hol-idays, leaving her with about fifteen working hours a week. During the week of Black Friday she worked about 30 hours. On Black Friday she clocked in at 12:45 p.m. and worked until 10:30 p.m. Senior Carolyn Down-ing, an employee at Aero-postale, says work is busier, and they give her more hours during the holidays. Her em-ployer does on calls, which means they can call an hour before you come in if the store is busy and they need help. With this schedule, “it is hard to make plans because they use the on calls more,” Downing explains. She hap-pily gets 15 or more hours a week, but at the same time she

needs a break because going from school to work is tough. Employees run into a lot of stress pleasing custom-ers and their bosses. There’s a lot of pressure to sell and get customers out efficiently. “It becomes hectic when you run out of siz-es,” Dinnie says. People get upset and give you a hard time. It’s tiring to tend to all the customers and make sure they are happy. Downing feels stressed when they do not have enough staff at Aeropostale. The most stressful time she explains was “when there is only two people ringing and the line is out the door.” Senior Heleena Di-mare finds it difficult to per-suade people to sign up for

their Sears programs and credit card. “It’s difficult be-cause some only shop during Christmas, and many are not interested in the programs.” On top of the busy work schedule people don’t understand the responsi-bility and burden school can put on these students.All four employees explain that they do not have any free time during the holiday. Di-mare says, “I never have free time, ever. I do way too much.” They all feel stressed about the tons of work they have been assigned due to finals coming up after the holidays. It is tough to catch up on sleep and a so-cial life when faced with all these responsibilities.

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SportsTennessee Native Feels at Homeon the Ice

by Marcus Altman Senior Mia Rollins is a competitive figure skater who is new to Hudson this year from Tennessee. She has a rig-orous practice schedule, and she competes in around 6 com-petitions throughout the year. Even with her busy schedule, she is the current senior class valedictorian. Her passion and com-mitment to figure skating are impressive, and she is doing it all alone, with her family living over a thousand miles away. Rollins first learned to skate when she was five years old. Her brother played hock-ey, so she spent many hours around the rink waiting for

him to be finished. Her moth-er suggested that she try learn-ing to skate at the rink, and she bought Mia a new pair of skates for her sixth birthday. “I literally loved it from the second I stepped on the ice,” Rollins remembered. She thinks that she was attract-ed to skating because of the skaters’ beauty and shimmer-ing dresses, but since then, she has found many more personal reasons to love it. When Rollins com-petes, the skating competi-tions last two days each. On the first day, each competitor performs a short program ,and the short program rou-tine is mainly laid out by the

judges. On the second day, each skater performs a long program, and the long pro-gram routines are left for each performer to create. “The judges judge you based on the difficulty of the tricks you do and how well you do them, along with your skating quality/artistry in general,” Rollins explained. As would be expected, the highest combined score wins. But, for Rollins, compe-titions are not about winning. “If I know I skated well for my standards, then I will be pleased with a skate, no matter where I place. Skating teaches you that a good performance in itself is the real victory. All the medals and awards are just extra,“ Rollins said. Aside from competi-tions, Rollins has a seeming-ly impossible practice sched-ule. She practices on ice for around four hours every day. Within that time period, she may perform her entire rou-tine up to five times a day, depending on how her coach feels. On top of all that, Rol-lins has the time and ener-gy to run, take ballet classes

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Sports

twice a week, and do hot yoga (which is a normal yoga class at 105 degrees Fahrenheit). Rollins told me about her favorite figure skating memory. “I was still recover-ing from a stress fracture in my foot, and the last thing I wanted to do was get on that ice... and yet I did. Once I was on, I forgot everything that had happened and just let myself get lost in the perfor-mance. It was a nearly perfect skate. Even better, that hap-pened to be one of the few competitions my mom (my family still lives in Tennessee... I moved to Massachusetts by myself for skating) was able to come to. I think the best part was running into her arms after getting off the ice.” “Being able to skate is like having a superpower. I al-ways say it’s the closest thing to flying. It’s an art and it’s a sport; not many activities are both. I love that skating makes me feel beautiful and strong. I love that no matter where I go, I can always find home on a sheet of ice. That feel-ing you get when you know you’ve just skated the best you can skate - it’s incredible. Bet-ter than heaven,” Rollins said.

Q and AHow long is the short program? Two minutes and 30 seconds

How long is the long program?Four minutes and thirty seconds

What are some different stunts that you do?Many different double jumps and I have been practicing some triple jumps lately.

What is your favorite stunt?Spins - flying sit spin and a haircutter layback spinJumps - double loop, double flip, double axel

How many people in your age group compete at competitions?5-20

How many people in general compete at competitions?Around 100

Do you travel far to get to the competitions?Yes, I have traveled to Florida, Michigan, and California all in the same year.

What do you do to warm up?I jump, stretch, and sometimes do ballet to stay warm.

Tennessee (continued)

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Features

Slam Dunk for Charity

by Adam Aucoin

Passing, shooting and defense are all key skills of basketball, but Coach Mi-chael Mercuri and his Hud-son boys varsity basketball team add teamwork off the court and the ability to serve others to that list of skills. Coach Michael Mer-curi sees the value in helping out. “Ever since I took over the program, it was always something that I wanted to get our student-athletes in-volved in,” Mercuri said. “I think it is very im-portant to give back to the community in any way we can. We are blessed and for-tunate to participate in what I think is the greatest sport, and it’s important that we learn that others may not be so fortunate and that we have the ability to show compas-sion and caring for others.” Last year, the team had some money left over after

the check they were given for their summer league came in too late. The captains decided they should use the money for a good cause. They decid-ed to help the Hudson Food Pantry by going to BJ’s and buying groceries for them during the holiday season. This year the team is heading to the Cor Unum Meal Center in Lawrence, MA, on December 23. The Cor Unum Meal Center feeds those who are suffer-ing through hunger. The team will be helping serve dinner to over 100 guests that are in need. They also will be helping them pre-pare for the Christmas din-ner that the place holds for more than 300 guests. Coach Mercuri sees the impact that the ser-vice has on his players. “I actually think in helping others sometimes

Other Ongoing Service Projects

The social justice class is doing a community ser-vice project to benefit the Heifer Project. The Heifer Project is a nonprofit orga-nization that aims to end poverty and hunger. The project is a part of a larger project in the class, where the students have to focus on an issue of injustice and create ways to fix them. The class recently held a bake sale at a wrestling match and raised $137. They also held a bake sale at a show-ing of the Laramie Proj-ect put on at the school.

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Featuresyou get more in return than those you are helping,” Mer-curi said. “We stress charac-ter to our guys all the time, and a great character trait to have as a human is ser-vice to others. It creates great positive energy and that positive energy car-ries over to us on the court.” Students are so focused on school work, sports and fitting in that they sometimes forget that they should help others. Coach Mercuri knows the value of that service. “It is always great to see a young person react in such a positive way in help-ing those that are less fortu-nate. It really makes the kids

feel good, and it is just a great positive experience that I love being able to provide for our student-athletes. It makes me very proud of the players and their accomplishments.” The bond that the service creates between the players is second to none. This brings them togeth-er for a common goal, and it makes them feel a sense of community and team.“Helping our players work to-gether off the court, helps us work together on the court.”

National Junior Honor Society Service Project

The National Junior Hon-or Society is doing a com-munity service project to collect toys for Toys for Tots. They are collecting toys and and money and are giving out candy canes to those who donate. The person can then choose who to give the candy canes to. They are doing this toy collection at lunch throughout the week. The group chose to do it be-cause a lot of people can’t afford toys, and they de-serve Chirstmas, too.

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SportsVarsity Hockey Team Begins Quest for Another Championship

Senior captain Shane Barry led the Hawks to a state championship last year and has started since his sophomore year. Shane’s whole family plays goalie from his dad to his little sister and brother. Shane hopes to have a goal against average of 2.0 this season.

by Luke Saliga

After winning the state championship in March for the first time since 1977, the boys varsity hockey team has high expectations for this season. They lost five senior starters, and there were rumors about Coach Nanartowich retir-ing. With the seniors con-vincing Coach Nanartowich to come back for one more season and a lot of young tal-ent, the Hawks are primed

to make another playoff run. Even though the Hawks have 7 freshmen on the team, they do have some older players with expe-rience like senior captain Shane Barry. “We are pret-ty young and lacking expe-rience,” said Barry, “but we have heart, and this team will never give up in any cir-cumstance.” Barry is one of the six seniors on the team, all of which were on last year’s championship team.

Even with one of those freshmen starting on the first line (Rocco Malloy), the Hawks do not think that their youth is that big of a problem. “We may be young, but we’re really fast,” said senior Scott Brun. “All the freshman are good players and deserve to be on varsity.” The Hawks were set to face their first major challenge on December 12 when they played their old rivals, the Shrewsbury Pa-triots, who were picked to win the state championship. The Hawks put on a good show with all the scoring coming from senior captain Jeffrey Hamlin (3) and Roc-co Malloy (2). With Hud-son leading 5-3 with five minutes left, it looked like the Hawks had it in the bag.But with a late surge from the Patriots and a buzzer beating shot, the Hawks fell to the Patriots 6-5. Playing such a tough team for the first game of the season and los-ing by only 1 goal shows the potential of this year’s team.

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SportsVarsity Girls Basketball: Season Preview

by Jordan Poirier It’s the start of basketball season, and the girls varsity team returns with almost a whole new roster. It’s going to be a very interesting sea-son ahead. “This season, we are a young team with most-ly sophomores and fresh-men (1 junior and 1 senior). Most of the underclassmen do not have any varsity bas-ketball experience,” said head coach Jackie Longtine. However, there are 4 re-turning players this year in-cluding the one junior and senior she mentioned. Even though they have a young, inexperienced varsity team, she said they have a real-ly strong chance of making the playoffs. The two teams that they will have a tough time against coming into the season are Nashoba and Groton, which are both in the same league as Hudson. To beat them, they need to work on rebounding and teammate chemistry. Their chemistry isn’t bad, but they have a lot of new players on varsity this year. They need to get to know each other and

become good teammates. The team has already planned to do some bond-ing activities. “We actu-ally are planning to go to a girls Boston College and Holy Cross basketball game. We’re also going to have a pasta dinner over Christmas break,” said Kara Knights, one of the two cap-tains of the basketball team. “I really think the first scrimmage that we had to-gether really brought us closer and showed how good we work together as a team,” captain Kara Knights said. She seemed really confident about her team and how good their chemistry is already. As for the captains, they’re not given specific respon-sibilities, but they already know that they need to make sure that their team-mates are focused and to make sure that everyone is putting in full effort. Longtine has focused on certain key areas of their play in practice. “Our team has worked on our more ag-gressive defense in practices/scrimmages. We have had several situations where we

have created turnovers (5 second violation, 30 second violation, steals off press) that have resulted in the en-tire team realizing how well we can work together and achieve our goals this season.” The coach also told me that the team has a strong chance of making it to the playoffs this season even though most of the girls are playing for the first time with each other. Coach Longtine feels that the team has many offen-sive and defensive strengths. “Our team shares the ball well, and they play unself-ish basketball. Our team is smaller in terms of height than last season, but we have a solid group of talented girls. Defensively, our team is playing more aggressively this season. Our goal is to create turnovers with our ag-gressive defense and produce offense off of our defense.” With some talented re-turning players and a hard-working team, the girls var-sity basketball team has an exciting season ahead. We’ll just have to wait and see if they can fulfill those goals.

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Features

Ingredients ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking soda¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup or one stick of softened butter1 3-ounce package softened cream cheese

1 cup sugar 2 eggs

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla1 bag melting chocolate

15 candy canes

Chocolate Peppermint Thins1) In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, cocoa pow-der, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl beat butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer on me-dium for 30 seconds. Add sug-ar, and beat until combined. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth. Beat in flour, as much as you can with the mixer and do the rest with a wooden spoon. Divide dough in half, and cover and chill dough for 2 hours.

2) Preheat oven to 375F. On a lightly floured surface, roll half of the dough out until ⅛ inch thick. Using a cookie cutter, 1 ½ inch round is the best. Cut dough out placing cookies half an inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 7 min-utes, and transfer to a wire rack for cooling.

3) Melt the chocolate till smooth. Crush as many candy canes as needed to fully cover the top of the cookies. Chunk size depends on you. Spread the melted chocolate on the top of the cookies, and sprin-kle the candy cane on top. Let chocolate harden.

by Madison Peck

Page 15: Winter Edition

Opinion

From Black Friday to Christmas Eve, Christmas is all about sales and gifts. It is no longer about family, giving back, and traditions, but about gifts, gifts, gifts. Let’s be honest. Christmas has changed. It is no longer about spirit, but about presents. In fact, this year $1.04 BILLION was spent on Black Friday and $1.5 BILLION was spent on Cyber Monday. Last year was the most expensive Christmas since before the recession, and so far, this year is even more expensive. On aver-age, a family will spend over $750 for gifts alone. Including decorations, food, Christmas cards and travel, an average of $1,016.05 was spent in 2009. Last year, $563 billion was spent in the one month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and this year, it is projected to rise to $586.1 billion.The projected rise in spending is partly linked to the increased amount of advertisements during the Christmas season.

Retailers are commer-cializing Christmas, which accounts for 19.5% of annu-al sales. In the U.S, retailers such as Gap, J.C. Penney, and Wal-Mart have in-creased their spending start-ing in October, with holiday ads starting in November. Christmas is getting earlier and earlier every year. On Thanksgiving, a day on which we should be thankful for what we have, shoppers in most states were able to start Christmas shop-ping for great deals while there were people who were too poor to enjoy a Thanks-giving meal. Christmas is a stress-ful time. It can be a lot of pressure to find the perfect gift. From financial pres-sure, to family, to the per-fect Christmas gift, Christ-mas can lead not only to lack of spirit, but lack of sanity. Christmas can make everyone a grinch. But, as long as some people have real Christmas spirit, the true meaning of Christmas will never leave.

Holiday Spirit vs. Christmas Greedinessby Cassy Moran