Bloomingdale Yearbook

Link to review guide

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40. II

On December 10th, Bloomingdale’s Mu Alpha Theta teams emerged victorious from the Winter Math Bowl at University of South Florida. The school earned the top overall ranking out of the twenty-seven in the county.

When the competitors first walked in, they had to separate from the friends on their teams and sit down for the individual portion, a 20-question Scantron test. After the test, groups reunited for the team portion, which, according to Geometry team member Freshman Breana Brinkman, was much less stressful. “It was so much fun!” she said. ”I had a great time!”

Soon after, once everything was tallied up, the award ceremony took place, in which three of the school’s four divisions achieved top-three spots. The Precalculus team made third place in their division, Algebra II got second, and Geometry took the first-place spot. Also, the Calculus team received a notable 6th place.

Many students from Bloomingdale scored well individually, too. Steven Whitaker of Calculus made fifth place on the exam, Travis Bird of Geometry got third place, and Ian Ludden on Algebra II scored first. To put that in perspective, each division had over 100 students from different schools competing. 

Mrs. Rosemarie Fuentes, who sponsored the winning Geometry team at the bowl, was ecstatic that her team and the school placed first. “Geometry has always done really well, but I think these guys were the first to get it. They won because they collaborated well. I could see the other teams’ members working on their calculators by themselves and getting the questions wrong. Our Geometry talked, used paper and pencil, split the work, checked, and got the points.” 

After the excitement died down, a few weeks of rest, then the teams went into preparation to defend their championship in the Spring Bowl.

To congratulate all of the participants, Mrs. Fuentes says, “I’m very proud. Continue the hard work. You were a great representation of Bloomingdale.”

Each year, Mme Richardson’s French Club supports the Foster Angels charity program, and participants have the opportunity to make a young child smile.

The program assigns each person to a foster child. They get a card with general information about that child, such as their name and age. The donors use this knowledge to prepare boxes of items, and Angels sends them to their recipients.

Common donations include clothing, toys, or books. However, being assigned a specific person makes it possible to compose boxes that appeal to them especially. For example, many would say that a doll would be an appropriate gift for a seven-year-old girl, or a picture book for a kindergartener learning how to read.

These children, who may not always be the happiest, get their precious moments of joy when they open up a package and see that someone, somewhere, cares about them enough to have taken the time to prepare it just for them.

On Tuesday October 13, 2009 the Bloomingdale chorus had their first concert of the year shared with Burns Middle School at 7:00 P.M in the auditorium. More than 500 of the students preforming family members and friens attended this special event that lasted from 7:00 P.M until 8:30 P.M.

Freshman Emily Jackson, a member of freshman choir said “I think the chorus concert was amazing and I was excited to see all of my friends from Burns preform”. Emily also said ” I think that all of the groups did great, especially the ambassadors”!

Many students that are members of Bloomingdale’s chorus were very excited for the event and were glad that everything went the way it was planed and turned out to be a very well planned and preformed concert.

There are children in the country of Uganda, Africa who are so unfortunate as to have to live in such a war-stricken place. So, a book drive was held to help out these children and hopefully make even a small difference in their lives. The book drive involved anyone and everyone willing to get involved and the only action required to help out was to donate an old book or two.

“The books that we raise will be resold through BetterWorldBooks.com and the money raised will go to rebuild Uganda”, said Natalie Neville, president of the Invisible Children club. In Uganda, some money raised has helped to build fourteen schools already, where the dorms are safe and secure for the locals.

When asked why students should participate in this book drive, English teacher Ms. Hunsucker said, “Because I think students should be world aware.” Such a book drive would help students to be world aware and learn what’s going on in parts of the world, such as Africa.

Yet, these Invisible Children are still unseen by many in the world today and the organization works to raise awareness of the conditions of Uganda and more importantly, help these children.

As best said by Natalie Neville, “Knowledge is power and power is strength, and the people of Uganda need strength against the LRA.”

The most important performance of the Bloomingdale Rajun Bull Marching Band’s marching season was the FBA festival. The FBA festival was when all the marching bands of all the high schools in Florida came together on a Saturday and were graded by a panel of judges based on the accuracy of the band’s various formations on the field, and how the way the music was played versus the way it was supposed to be played. The band could earn a superior, excellent, good, fair, or a poor rating (1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 in order of best to worst). Mr. Jon Sever’s marching ensemble had practiced for countless numbers of hours t0 perfect their Journey-inspired show, and it had all come down to this. It was now or never. After the final note on the closing song, the students waited impatiently to find out the rating they had received.

“I was praying the whole time,” said freshman baritone player Cameron Clark.

Then, the announcer finally said, ” Bloommingdale High School… SUPERIOR!”

The audience roared with approval. Mr. Jon Sever, the band clinician, later commented on how well the band had done.

“The band did very well,” he said.” Their [performance earned them] some of the highest marks they’ve gotten.”

Creating a sound on your instrument and making All-County Band are two completely different things. One any random person could accomplish, and the other took skill and lots of practice. The large band consisting of all the best players in the county was not for the lazy or weak at heart, so there was no time like the present for the students that wanted to do All-County to start rehearsing the audition music. 

Some of the freshman band students had experienced All-County in the past during middle school, and had gotten such a wonderful time out of it that they were eager to do it again, including Morgan Morrow.

“I want to do All-County because I want to experience what I experienced last year,” she said.

The audition music included lots of notes and rhythms to be played, however freshman French horn playerMarc Cohen wasn’t fazed by it.

“The [music] has a wide range of notes, but it should be easy,” he said.

The band students that made All-County were sure to have a blast, while at the same time learning more and more about the art of music.

The band and choral organizations got another early jump at raising some green paper for the trip to London, England in 2011, fourteen months away by selling certificates redeemable for a free pie from any Village Inn restaraunt in America. And the best part? The certificates never expired! The band and chorus students, wise to start on any fundraiser early, began selling immediately. Whether it be French silk, cherry, apple, key lime, pecan, or the simple yet traditional pumpkin pie, no one could resist bringing a delicious dessert home for the Thanksgiving feast, especially after hearing it would support a Bloomingdale music student.

Morgan Morrow, a freshman band student, was eager to start selling the pies.

“I want to sell 100 so I can pay off my trip to London,” she said.

Mr. Anton Donchev, the band intern, also had a thought to share about the fundraiser.

“It will go as well as the [students] want it to. If they don’t want to go to London then they won’t reap any rewards,” said Donchev. ”It will take lots of hard work to get there.”

The September/October issue of the Crimson Times came out and students couldn’t wait to get them. They were sold at tables during all lunches and for a 25-cent donation, each student could recieve his/her own copy. The table produced a lot of traffic back and forth between students and teachers, receiving a lot of donations, too. A couple of members on the newspaper staff told of what the paper was all about and why students liked it so much.

“It’s informative, keeps you in the know, and [gives you] the feel of Bloomingdale,” said junior Kelsey Rodriguez. The staff said in their writing the paper, they talk about school affairs with the goal of keeping all the students in touch.

“It’s interesting reading about your school and it reflects school spirit,” said senior Sloane Hovan when asked why students should pick up a copy.

In that case, there is much ’school spirit’ circulating around the school with the new buzz of the Crimson Times coming out and will be until the next one stirs up the school again.

Many people filed into the auditorium Thursday night, ready for a good show. The Bloomingdale orchestra concert was held at 7pm that night.

This concert was like no other. The chamber orchestra tried a new trend called strolling strings in which they would walk around the audience in groups serenading people. One of the orchestra students, Kara Licouse said, “It was so cool! I didn’t expect for them to like walk around and stuff.”

Four groups played throughout the night: the Concert, Chamber, Symphony, and Freshman orchestras, playing a variety of songs. “We have prepared a unique concert that will conjure images of Fall festives,” said Mrs. Caballero, “and celebrations from around the globe.” 

Lets not forget the suprise baby shower that was held for Mrs. Caballero right after intermission. It was presented by many students who gathered gifts in honor of Mrs. Caballero’s baby.