Dedication to the renovation

On Sunday March 21^st, RB held a dedication ceremony to celebrate the completion of the $52 million renovation.  Anyone in the RB community was welcome to attend the event which was held in the recently completed new auditorium.

The ceremonial ribbon was cut on the auditorium stage by Interim Principal Tim Scanlon and school board president James Marciniak.  Members of Student Association and faculty were invited on stage to help hold the ribbon.  The RB choir, band and orchestra were also present on stage to do musical interludes throughout the ceremony.

Student Association Executive Board members Stephanie Duve and Zeyne Guzeldereli gave speeches about their experiences during the renovation period.  Scanlon, as well as Assistant Principal John Passarella and some of the head construction workers who worked on the project, also gave speeches.

Passarella gave his speech commemorating his predecessor Bill Lehotsky, who passed away from cancer this past year.  Room 201, one of the newly renovated rooms in the building, was dedicated to Lehotsky in honor of his memory.

SA Student President Kelly Sherman also put together items for a time capsule that will be used to show a future generation of RB students what the school was like at this time.  The time capsule will be stored between walls in student services and will be opened in 50 years.

Some of the items in the capsule include: playbills, a lunch menu, state universities at a glance, a cheerleading uniform, a pom pom, a homecoming party favor, a community of caring key chain, an RB flag, a yearbook, and a recent hard copy issue of the Clarion.

“I was honored to be able to put together the time capsule,” said Sherman, “These items exemplify the RB community today.”

After the official ceremony took place in the auditorium, interested community members were led on tours by students who showed them the best features of the renovation.  This included the reconstructed science labs, the new community accessible fitness center, the reconstructed swimming pool and the redesigned cafeteria kitchen and serving area.

Best Buddies matching party a success

Best Buddies kicked off the 2009-2010 school year on Tuesday with their Matching Party. It took place in the faculty cafeteria from 6-8. Both the kids with special needs (and their parents) and the peer buddies attended the event to find out who exactly is their buddy this year.

The function began in the faculty cafeteria. Then the buddies went outside into the common area while the faculty sponsors talked to the parents about what the program is all about. The buddies participated in activities where everyone got to know all the peer buddies and vice versa.

They then began the process when pairs found out who their buddies were this year. All of the kids were given parts of an ice cream shaped piece of paper. It had a flavor and their name written on it as well. The kids with special needs then needed to match the flavor of ice cream with the peer buddy who had the same flavor ice cream. The whole process took around 40 minutes.

After that it was time to go back into the cafeteria and get to know the new buddies. They also made ice cream sundaes at a make it yourself sundae bar. It gave all the buddies time to get to know each other and bond.

“It was great,” said Vice President Kelly Sherman, “Everyone was ecstatic with their matches.”

The next Best Buddies event is the Halloween Party on October 25, 2009 from 5-7 P.M. in the Alumni Lounge.

Students accept Best Buddies award

Over the summer the University of Indiana held the annual Best Buddies leadership conference, inviting students from all over the world to learn how to become future presidents of their high school programs. Seniors Kate Abbatacola and Kelly Sherman went to the conference to represent Riverside Brookfield High School, and accept their highly praised award.

For the second time in its four year history at RB, the Best Buddies program came away with the “Outstanding Chapter” award. The award is given to just twenty two schools out of the entire Best Buddies program. That includes all fifty states, and several countries such as Ireland, Russia, Greece and Poland.

“Its great,” said Sherman, “What people don’t realize is that we’re top dogs when it comes to Best Buddies. They constantly used us as examples in all the workshops we attended.”

Sherman and Abbatacola attended five workshops a day for three days straight, developing new skills and ideas for the current year.

“It was nice to meet people from other states and countries who share the same passion for Best Buddies that we do,” said Abbatacola, “My favorite part was the 80’s dance. It was like homecoming times a million. I would love to be able to do that for our program.”

The possibilities are endless and with a new group of buddies already being interviewed and paired up, this year is off to a great start.

“We’re really excited about this upcoming year and we’re planning on being and outstanding chapter once again,” said Abbatacola.