Caps of Love is an international nonprofit which recycles plastic caps and lids to fund wheelchairs for disabled children. Valerie Mathieu, founder and president of the charity’s U.S. affiliate, calls the Caps of Love effort “a win-win situation — not only do our proceeds go to fund wheelchairs for local children, but we keep tons and tons of trash out of our landfills.”
Seminole Ridge High School has donated more than 1,000 pounds of caps over the past three years, and faculty coordinator Peggy Larson said the most recent response has been overwhelming, prompting her to recruit National Honor Society and French Honor Society students to help in sorting the caps.
For more information, visit www.capsoflove.com.
Econ Students Get “Epi Vamptic” — The Florida Atlantic University Center for Economic Education held its inaugural Markets Interact contest recently, and Seminole Ridge econ students, under the sponsorship of economics teacher Andrea Caceres-Santamaria, were among the winners.
For the contest, students created a “markets interaction” diagram based on an apocalyptic event in which the U.S. is inundated with bloodthirsty vampires (“EpiVamptic,” an epidemic of vampires). The resulting diagram indicated how the event impacts market supply or demand and how the price of the market good — for example: wood, for wooden stakes; silver, for silver bullets — is affected by that impact.
Hawk students James DeCarolis, Danielle McDade and Jaqueline Yussuf earned T-shirts and certificates for their second-place win, and honorable mentions went to the team of Ryan Beimly, Parker Jackson, Jared Sprague and Jonathan Wiggins.
Marksmen Take Silver — The SRHS Army JROTC marksmanship team joined four other schools at Forest Hill High School on Oct. 25 in a competitive, shoulder-to-shoulder, three-position shooting match — prone, standing and kneeling. Cadets from five local high schools participated, and Seminole Ridge brought home the second-place trophy. Congratulations to battalion marksmen Caleb Anderson, Chase Chute, Emilee Fanning, Matt Guinaugh, Brittney Katz, Kristina Mullins, Michael Schauers, Logan Waltersdorf and Alec Wasko.
Winged Regiment Superior — On Oct. 25, a panel of state-certified judges from the Florida Bandmasters’ Association gave the SRHS Winged Regiment the highest possible rating in every category for its annual marching band assessment, both individual (music, color guard, general effect, percussion, marching and maneuvering) and overall.
“The FBA oversees the quality of education for all band programs statewide,” Band Director Daniel Harvey said. “Their results represent the quality of education Ridge band students receive.”
Veterans Day Program —The SRHS Army JROTC hosts its annual Veterans Day Program on Monday, Nov. 10 at 9 a.m. in the school gym. Students have invited friends, family and neighbors who have served in the armed forces to the event. There will be a reception for veterans in the media center at 10:15 a.m.
This year’s guest speaker is Staff Sergeant Brian Mast, who retired from the U.S. Army’s elite Joint Special Operations Command as an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) operator, or bomb tech, following the amputation of both legs while serving in Afghanistan. Mast now lives in Fort Lauderdale with his wife, Brianna, and his young sons, Magnum and Maverick. He is a full-time student of economics at Harvard University, an explosives specialist with the Department of Homeland Security, and a tireless advocate working to bring to the South Florida community an awareness of many veterans and nonprofit organizations.
ABOVE:Hawk senior Anna Packard with a quarter-ton of caps collected from Seminole Ridge and Western Pines students this school year.
