The Lariat won 16 awards at the annual Sun-Sentinel High School Journalism Awards held at Hollywood Hills High School on April 30, 2013.

The awards honor the best student journalism in Broward County. The Lariat took home the following awards.

Staffer of the year- Jeremy Haas

Editorial Section- Honorable Mention

News Section- Honorable Mention

News Writer- Kyra Bacon 3^rd place

Sports Writer- Jacob Fierman Honorable Mention

Sports Columnist- Blue Kaufman Honorable Mention

Features Section- 3^rd Place

Features Writer- Jessica Weaver 1^st Place

Entertainment Section- 2^nd place

Entertainment Writer- Alex Barnard Honorable Mention

Entertainment Writer- Jeremy Haas Honorable Mention

Entertainment Writer- Stacey Pasternak 2^nd Place

Blogger/Columnist- Blue Kaufman 1^st place

Headlines- 3^rd place

Layout & Design – 2^nd Place

Best Overall – 3^rd Place

The Lariat newspaper staff won a total of 19 Florida Scholastic Press Association awards. The awards were announced at the FSPA state convention in Orlando this past weekend. Students were awarded “honorable mention”, “Excellent”, and “All-Florida” which is the FSPA’s highest honor. The Lariat placed in the following categories.

FSPA Awards 2013

All – Florida

Alex Barnard – Print Commentary

Blue Kaufman – Print Commentary

Jeremy Haas – Print Commentary

Jessica Weaver – Profile Story

Excellent

Blue Kaufman – Review

Blue Kaufman – Sports Feature

Kyra Bacon – News Story

Stacey Pasternak – News Story

Honorable Mention

Alex Barnard – Feature Story

Blue Kaufman – Editorial

Brandon Sloane – Editorial

Brandon Sloane – Sports Feature Story

Jacob Fierman – Profile Story

Jessica Weaver – Feature Story

Kyra Bacon – Sports Feature Story

Olivia Pascale-Wong – Review

Rachel Sharpe – Editorial

Rachel Sharpe – Feature Story

Stacey Pasternak – Profile Story

Members of Fashion Club showing off the dresses they made for the charity Little Dresses 4 Africa. Photo Credit: CHEYENNE PINO

BY DAVID DEACON

The Cooper City Fashion Club has shown that they are about more than style this year by doing charitable events to help not just the community, but the globe.

A recent charitable event that Fashion Club has organized is Headbands for Hope. For this charity, the club made headbands for children with leukemia at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. Fashion Club president, Lexy Lopez, came up with the idea of the headbands, and with the help of member Kelsea Maver, she distributed the headbands to the children. Since the leukemia treatment causes hair loss, the motive behind the charity was to give the children something stylish to cover their head so that they would feel less self-conscious. The felt material that club members used to insure maximum comfort took more time than expected to sew, but the endeavor was still a success with 72 headbands collected.

“We’re doing these charities because it’s fun, and it’s a way for us to give back,” Fashion Club Sponsor Linda Snider said. “There’s a big need when it comes to clothes, and there’s always something to do when it comes to fashion.”

Another charity event that Fashion Club has participated in is Jeans for Teens. With help from NHS, the Jeans For Teens charity has had a thriving second year bringing in over 305 jeans from CCHS. Unlike the Headbands for Hope, Jeans for Teens is a nationwide charity. The jeans are collected in an attempt to help clothe the unprivileged and the homeless.

“Even if we’re not creating anything with this charity, and just collecting jeans, the jeans are still part of fashion,” Snider said.

In February, the Fashion Club involved themselves in another charitable event by making pillow case dresses and sending them to Africa. One of Lopez’s duties as Fashion Club president is to choose charities for Fashion Club to be involved with and she came up with the idea of bringing fashion to Africa. Not only are the pillowcase dresses cheap and easily mass-produced, but they also are clean. Fashion Club members even learned how to sew so that they could work on their dresses.

“I was very happy with the amount of dresses that we’ve made, when we were making the dresses I was worried that we were not going to have a lot of dresses,” Snider said. “I thought we might only have 30 dresses, but we stepped it up and were able to make 75 dresses.”

The Fashion Club shipped out the dresses on April 22 to a company in Ohio who will then distribute the dresses to areas of need. The designated location isn’t specific, but it is believed that the dresses will be shipped to South Africa. Mrs. Snider was very pleased with the donations that the school provided. The Fashion Club only bought lace for the dresses and the school obtained donations for the rest of the materials.

By making the Fashion Club charitably involved, Lopez hopes that she is setting an example for officers in the future to continue.

“Honestly, the thing that I like the most about doing these charities is the feeling that I’m doing something to spread hope, by helping the community,” Lopez said.

Photo Credits: NEIL SHAIN

BY RACHEL HAAS

The Fashion Academy struck a pose once again at the 2013 Cooper City High Fashion Show on March 7th.

The show surpassed the expectations of the parents and students who made up a full house for the event. CCHS’ very own auditorium was transformed into the “Haus of Chique”. The show featured surround sound, a light show, musical performances, the dance team and of course models.

Weeks prior to the event, model auditions were held in room 213 with participants vying for a chance to show off this seasons new spring wear. The event gave volunteers the opportunity to explore career choices in the fashion world. With Fashion Academy Sponsor Linda Snider in charge, a number of students stepped up to attain backstage roles.

“To me its an opportunity to show self-confidence and have a good time doing it,” model Ashley Morin said.

Rehearsals not only took a lot of time and effort, but so did coordinating the event. A lot of dedication and hard work was put into the show by modeling coordinator Amanda Devitt. Organizing the models into categories, assembling rehearsal schedules, finding an accommodating dress store and hair and make-up staff was a challenging task to take on by such a young apprentice.

“It broadened my horizons by enhancing day to day skills to produce a successful show. It was extremely rewarding to see all our hard work pay off,” Devitt said.

One of the show's "garbage" designs.

The show’s staff were aided in their tasks by donations from local businesses. Dresses For Me lent the Fashion Academy formal wear, dressing the girls in stunning three thousand dollar gowns and the boys in sharp looking tuxedos. Make- up artists from Aveda, Art Of Glam, and OMG Artistry prepped the girls and boys for their modeling début.

The show’s categories included casual, vintage, garbage, swim, and prom. In the garbage category, fashion students cut, tied and sewed shopping bags, magazines, and ribbons to make dresses. This experience pushed these sophomores to reach their full potential using common material. In vintage apparel, high-waisted shorts were custom made by the Fashion Academy and the designs included dipping, dying, bleaching, and studding the shorts to achieve maximum effect.

“I was really impressed by the garbage apparel, it was an amazing new addition to the show,” senior Aicha Fall said.

Mrs. Snider is in her third year directing the fashion show and the Fashion Academy program at CCHS. She is encouraged by the continued growth of the program and the hard work put forth by the students.

“It was definitely an obstacle to coordinate with every committee with the new scheduling, but the students really worked hard to make it all come together,” Snider said.

Cooper City High School’s National Honor Society has elected their new officers for the 2013-2014 school year and these new officers have an impressive legacy to live up to.

The NHS here at CCHS is one of the more prestigious clubs at the school. Students are accepted into NHS through a thorough application process. NHS is know for its involvement in the student body and surrounding community. Two projects they sponsored recently were Teens for Jeans and Pennies for Parkinson’s disease.  Through projects like these, the club has maintained their standard of gold status in Broward County for community service work.

NHS is one of the more selective clubs at our school. In the past, the top 2% of the senior class has been on the executive board. Next year, NHS will be headed by current juniors Spencer Pearlman, Anya Hall, and Joey Khoury.

Pearlman is taking over the president office from the class of 2013 valedictorian Simon Shuham.

“It’s a little intimidating and has some pressure, but Spencer can handle it,” Shuham said.

Hall is the new VP of Administration, and embraces the challenges that come with the office. Hall became involved in NHS because of the influence of his older sister.

Khoury is now acting VP of Activities. He personally wants to maintain and enhance the club’s involvement in the community through more charitable works.

Overall, the class of 2014 and their new NHS executive board have monumental standards to live up to, but even grander plans awaiting them.

Relay for Life, an annual event in which participants walk to raise money for cancer patients, takes place at Western High School on April 6th and lasts a full 24 hours.

Relay for Life is an event that was created in 1985 by Dr. Gordy Klatt in an effort to raise money for cancer patients and treatments. An average of 20 people per team walk around the track for a straight 24 hours as a symbolic message that cancer never sleeps so neither will we. There are over 5,200 Relay for Life events across the United States and over $4.5 billion money from fundraising. Cooper City plays an active role in participating in Relay for Life. For over ten years, CCHS has had many teams sign up for this event. They participate in it annually and raise over $5,000 each year. Cooper City- Davie has a goal of $100,000 this year and would appreciate all the help they can receive.

CCHS has many clubs that form teams for this event, such as NHS, Key Club and FMPA. It is never too late to sign up to be on one of these teams but one of the requirements is a registration fee of $100. This money can either be fund raised or personal cash. Once you are registered on a team you can have people sponsor you and make donations for your team or towards the American Cancer Society. The event itself is very enjoyable with booths set around the track selling food, drinks, and entertainment. Each team has to revolve their booth around a theme and this year’s theme is game boards. CCHS wants to make a greater impact with donations to Relay for Life and are asking fellow CCHS students to be a more active role and get more involved. Even the smallest donations help and it goes toward a great cause.

“Relay for life touches everyone and is a great event that not difficult to do and everyone knows what you`re doing it for so it feels really great,” Captain of the Key Club Relay For Life Team Pooja Keithredy said.

CCHS Science Club at the water competition with their designs. Photo Courtesy Of CCHS SCIENCE CLUB

BY KYRA BACON

CCHS’s Science Club participated in the annual Water Tower Competition on December 8th in Boca Raton.

The competition, which was created a few years ago by the American Water Works Association, judges each water tower based on creativity, cost, hydraulics and structural efficiency. The AWWA divides the state into regions, with CCHS’s Science Club in Region VI. Typically, about 5-12 other schools participate in this region’s competition, each bringing 2-3 entries.

The Science Club has been preparing for the competition for over 2 months. Members brainstormed and proposed designs during the first few meetings, after that, it was the matter of making those designs come to life.

“Some of the designs of the other schools are well executed, but lack innovation,” Science Club President Julieanna Bacon said. “It’s almost the same design every year but in a different color. Our science club definitely has more creativity.”

This year, the Science Club originally planned to create 3 designs, however, due to lack of time, only two were entered. Out of the three original ideas, one was a new design. Meeting every Wednesday in room 234, the members of the club spent the last few weeks creating the water towers. Finishing touches were made on the two towers on December 5^th- 7th, the last time the members would get to complete the towers before the competition.

At the competition the CCHS water towers both broke in the middle of the demonstrations and didn’t place. The towers scored well in cost efficiency, and creativity, but the structural and hydraulic efficiency points brought them down. However, the Science Club members are determined not to let their loss set them back are already moving on to more ways to express their love and knowledge of science.

“Although we didn’t win, we have learned from our loss and are already preparing to do our best and win future competitions,” Bacon said.

BY KYRA BACON

On Wednesday, November 28th, the English 2 classes at CCHS took a field trip to see Life of Pi after reading the novel in class.

Life of Pi premiered November 21st, getting 4 stars and many great reviews. The book, written by author Yann Martel, features a young boy and his family moving from India to Canada. The boat that they were traveling on sinks, and Pi is left at sea in a lifeboat with a tiger as his only companion. The story tells of his 227 days at sea and his struggles with both the elements and the tiger.

The sophomore class, along with the English 2 teachers, watched the 10:00am showing at Cinemark Theater. The money paid by each student accounted for food as well as a ticket for the two-hour show.

The field trip was to show 10th grade students a visual representation of the novel, which most had to read and analyze. The story provided insight on several topics discussed in the class, and was a great way for the kids to fully understand the novel and its theme.

“It was interesting seeing a different interpretation of the book,” sophomore Rebekah Suissa said.

BY VIRGINIA PENIAS

Senior Lexy Lopez has created a Little Dresses for Africa organization at Cooper City High School to help young girls around the world who cannot afford clothes.

Every morning, students open up their closets to see plenty of clothes to wear, but most don’t realize that other people, like young girls in Africa have trouble finding a single outfit. This program strives to fix that problem.

The program started when mass media and film teacher Janessa Puig found out about Little Dresses for Africa, a nationwide non-profit Christian organization, which provides relief to the children of Africa, and emailed fellow teacher Linda Snider in regards to it. Snider, the fashion class teacher, shared it with her fashion students and the idea caught Lopez’s attention.

Little dresses for Africa is a sewing group where students meet and make dresses out of pillowcases. Pillowcases make dress-making easier for the most novice sewers. With different patterns and textures, the pillowcases make cute and fun sun dresses for these young girls, which is ideal for the hot dry weather of Africa.

With a simple pillowcase, women around the nation, like Lopez, strive to make a difference in young girl’s lives.  Receiving over one million dresses and donations from the UK, Canada, Mexico, Australia and all 50 states across the USA, Little Dresses for Africa has not only helped young girls in Africa, but also in Honduras, Guatemala, The Philippines, Cambodia, Mexico, Haiti, as well as young children here in the US.

To promote Little Dresses for Africa here in CCHS, Lopez has gotten clubs like SGA, NHS, Fashion Club, DECA, and a few others to help her out and get more people to join the club. Her goal is to make 300 dresses this year.

“As of right now, the club is only targeted towards young girls but next year I hope to expand it and help provide for young boys too by passing the club onto somebody that I know will try just as hard as I am since I’m graduating this year,”  Lopez said.

Photo Courtesy Of: ALINA TRAN

BY KYRA BACON

Key Club hosted the annual Harvest Drive to help feed Broward County families in need during the holidays from October 29th to November 16th.

The Harvest Drive was headed by Key Club Historian Alina Tran and the goal was to collect 3,000 nonperishable food items including cereals, canned goods, and pasta. Carts were set outside of the main office where students volunteered and encouraged donations. Students that donated were eligible to receive service hours.

Within the first two weeks, 2,000 food items were collected. On Sunday, November 11^th volunteers stood outside of Publix and collected another 1,500 cans along with $500 in donations.

“The food will help the families in need in Broward County mostly during the holidays because that’s when the Food Bank is empty,” Tran said. “We want to feed as many families as possible.”

The original Harvest Drive was started by parent Renee Herman, who set it up at her child’s school. The idea caught on and spread to other schools across Broward County. Last year, Key Club started its own branch and merged the project with The Souper Bowl of Caring, a Key Club food drive that has been around for several years.

“Mrs. Herman came to our school and spoke to members about the drive,” Tran said. “She inspired me to make it more successful this year.”

The Harvest Drive collected 1,564 cans last year in less than two weeks.

“In our first year, the drive went really well,” VP of Service of Key Club Vincent Ong said. “We had a very short amount of time, so we organized everything very quickly.”

This year, the volunteers had more time to organize a board and collect the cans. Also, other clubs have helped out, including SGA and NHS.

“The more clubs that get involved, the more people are involved, the more cans we collect and the more people know about it,” Key Club President McCayla Sica said.

At the end of the 2 weeks, the Harvest Drive organizers took the boxes of food to Western High School. There, 237 registered families picked up one of the packages that will help them last through the holidays.

“It’s really warming to know that we helped so many children and families,” Sica said.