AHS Yippees Represent Peace.

Love, and Snowdown Spirit at Spellebration

Keeping with Snowdown tradition, Animas High School teachers flexed their nerdy
spelling muscles in the Snowdown Spellebration event on Wednesday night at the Powerhouse.
The annual Spelling Bee event, a fundraiser for the Durango Adult Education Center,
reflected Snowdown’s psychedelically-themed hippie celebration of Peace and Love. The
Animas High School Yippies, a reference to the countercultural protest movement from the late
sixties, consisted of teachers Jessica McCallum, Jenny McKenzie, and Lori Fisher, along with
their team manager, Dean of Enrollment and Community Outreach Libby Cowles. This is the 8th
time AHS has brought a team to the Spellebration event.
Despite their vocal exclamations of a rigged contest, the Yippies won 3rd place and best
costume due to the strong crowd support from faculty and student ambassadors. Jessica was
most excited about winning best costume for the second year in a row, having also won for their
Shakespearean “Weird Sisters” costume last year. She shared, “For me, this event is about
capturing the Snowdown vibes. Obviously, your teachers are always going to be good spellers,
but our real success is committing to the bit and bringing our characters to life!”
True to the spirit of the costume, they were sure to go out with a bang, staging a sit-in as
they were eliminated. Jessica, Lori, and Jenny tossed fake money into the air while sitting down
in front of the audience, playing guitar, and throwing out words of protest to “stick it to the man.”
New Academic Coach Charlie Newton played the role of a military officer, arresting the three
yippies and escorting them off the stage.
According to Lori, who majored in Peace and Conflict Studies at UC Berkeley, the real
life Yippies were known for political theatre and breaking the rules to get attention. These
particular theatrics were a nod to the Yippees’ 1967 protest on the floor of the New York Stock
Exchange and the 1969 anti-war sit-in outside of the Democratic National Convention.
The difficult word that stumped the AHS Yippies was “Laodicean.” Lamenting their
elimination, Lori exclaimed, “The French words have too many vowels!”
The evening was full of other theatrical elements as well. The evening was emceed by
two well-known FLC personalities: “hippie” Sociology professor Michael Rendon and
Coordinator of Diversity Nancy Stoffer acting as Michael’s evolving hallucinations. The evening
also featured dramatic readings by the Merely Players of 20th-century speeches, providing
eye-opening performances of the eloquent words of historical figures such as Nobel Peace
Prize winners Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.
This year’s Spellebration champions were Buz Bricca’s “Mnemonsters,” while second
place went to the “Spellerhouse Five” team from Maria’s Bookshop. Prizes were donated by
various local businesses. Our Yippies won gift cards from Primi Pasta and Wine Bar and
Perbacco Cucina Italiana. Other businesses donating prizes included Grassburger, the Strater
Hotel, Hermosa Cafe, Honeyville, and Sky Ute Casino Resort. The event was also sponsored by
Visit Durango.
Congrats to all the participants, and especially to our own fun teachers for their
commitment to the Snowdown spirit.
Maddi Tharp’s Building on 5th Street

Congratulations to senior Maddie Tharp, who was selected as a top 10 finalist for the Denver
Center of Performing Arts’ Middle and High School Playwriting Competition for her one-act play
The Building on 5th Street, a paranormal Scooby Doo-esque murder mystery set in the 50s.
The Building on 5th Street will also be performed by the Osprey Theatre Company in
early April, starring Maddie’s own cast of AHS peers. It will be performed along side her
classmate Caleb Bates’ one-act, The Rewind Ring, also an entry into the competition.
The Denver Center of Performing Arts is one of the largest non-profit theater programs in
the United States, and they hold this competition annually. In the competition, the judges blindly
select 10 finalists and 3 winners, and Maddie and Caleb’s entries were among 100 submissions.
Theatre teacher Joy Kilpatrick challenged students to enter their plays into this
competition. She shared, “I feel like I have been learning alongside them in this process, and I
am inspired by the entertaining and cohesive stories they brought to life.”
This isn't Maddie’s first time writing a play. She collaborated with her peers during Covid
in Joy’s theatre class to write the radio play called Ogden Hall, which can be viewed on the AHS
You Tube channel. And she’s already working on her next one, a ten-minute murder mystery
called “Stolen Alchemy” that she intends to enter in the Durango Arts Center’s 10-minute Play
Festival, along with her classmates.
The play by itself is quite the accomplishment, but Maddie says that she is most proud of
how the characters evolve naturally within the story, “They really became full-on characters, and
I think through that I’m really proud of how people can read my play and be like, ‘This is my
favorite character.’”
When asked about her dream casting decision, Maddie replied, “I would pick Gaten
Matarazzo to play Timothy because of his portrayal as Dustin Henderson on Stranger Things.
He is a lovable character, but over time, he deepens into a more serious person, especially
when protecting others.”
Be sure to keep an eye out for details about the upcoming show and how the Osprey
Theater Company will portray Maddie and Caleb’s peculiar and haunting play this April. We all
look forward to Maddie’s future theatre projects! Follow @ospreytheatrecompany on Instagram
for all the updates!

Freshpeople Satire Exhibition

 After a semester of hard work, the freshpeople of Animas High School exhibited their
satire projects. The projects are displayed within the front of the Durango Public Library inviting
Durango residents to view the fresh people's creative expressions of satire.

The Freshpeople Satire Project is focused on the essential idea of, “What is the
significance of satire?” Drawings made by various ospreys hang on the walls along with written
statements describing the creative processes and ideas behind art pieces. Students show off
and explain their work to onlookers, laughter and conversation fill the room.

Humanities teacher Genevieve Buzan-Dansereau when asked about what she had been
looking forward to in this exhibition responded with, “I’m excited to share with the community, I’m
proud of all the finished projects, and I hope it invites conversation.”

When talking to a group of fresh people at the exhibition they quipped back with some
funnily sarcastic answers, further promoting the feeling of the exhibition. For instance, student
Zoey Boesplug when asked what they thought satire is replied, “I am satire.”

All in all the Significance of Satire project feels like a fun and creative way for new
Animas students to become further integrated into our school culture, becoming accustomed to
Animas’s project-based learning curriculum.

Elliot CTE Certification

 Animas Highschool’s College and Career Prep advisor Elliot Baglini approached the
school board with a proposition of the implementation of Career and Technical Education
certifications into Animas’s curriculum. The goal of the certifications would be to prepare Animas
Students by holding them to a more practical set of standards in order to prepare them for the
world outside of high school.

The program will not only allow ospreys to be held to a more specific set of standards
designed to implement more rigor into classes if desired but also has the potential for real-life
impact. Every certification will be different and specific to classes, and receiving certifications
will be implemented into both new and old elective classes, similar to how some elective classes
offer college credit.

Not all elective classes will offer CTE certifications, college credit electives will need to
be dual enrollment for the ability to get a certification. With certifications students also have an
opportunity to receive endorsement stamps on their diplomas, a stamp received by the state
that shows a student showed rigor and the ability to go above and beyond.