Eighth Grade Express
October 2013
First Annual Mustang 5K
On October 5th, a sunny Saturday morning, over 100 people participated in the first annual Midlothian Mustangs 5K. At 9:00 a.m. runners and walkers from the community came out to take part in the event. The course started on school grounds, went through the Midlothian Mines Park, and around the lake on Woolridge. Ryan Gaeth, a 7th grader at Midlo, said “The course was long, but not very hilly, so it wasn’t too hard.” The students, from midlo, that won trophies were Erin Babashak, and Ryan Gaeth. They are both in 7th grade, but students from all grades participated. Claire Anderson, the cross country captain, says “I wish I could have run the race, because it was a good course, and it was perfect weather to run!” After the 5K all the racers were invited to post-race party in front of the school. There was a music, food, and raffle tickets for sale. The raffle was for coupons to Capital Ale House, Ski Center, and Lucky Foot. There was a drawing to pie a teacher in the face. The lucky teachers were Ms. Covington, Mrs. Maslyn, Mr. Innes, Ms. Jaeger, Mrs. James, and Mrs. Brunow. There were also performances by the 8th grade year long drama club, advertising the sponsors of the race. The money earned from the 5k was all benefiting the cross country and track teams at Midlothian Middle School. The team has already received brand new uniforms, and are crossing their fingers to have the track repainted.
By: Erin Fogle and Claire Anderson
Lauren Hagemeister
Runners
Mrs. Brunow
Fall-ing down
This fall at Midlothian Middle, there has been an unbelievable high number of major injuries amongst the student body. From compound-fractured femurs to broken wrists, our school has pretty much seen it all. It seems kind of odd that most all of these injuries have happened around the same time, but is it really just a coincidence? Most definitely, but it’s still strange that so many people have experienced major injuries this mid-September. From Margaret Weinhold, it’s a fractured foot. During the summer, she was extremely focused on staying in shape so she could make the Lady Mustangs basketball team (again), but she worked herself just a little too hard. Unbeknownst to Margaret, she developed a stress fracture in her foot. She didn’t even notice that she was injured until her first day of tryouts, when her stress fracture cracked and she was left with a big, chunky boot and no spot on the basketball team. But not to worry, Margaret’s foot has healed and Ms. Jaeger has been kind enough to offer her a spot back on the basketball team. In Margaret’s opinion, the worst part about being injured was that she couldn’t do stuff that the rest of us could do, like participate in gym class or run. Will Burdette and Eleanor Ross have both broken a wrist, from longboarding and playing basketball, respectively. We’re not sure that it’s safe to say that there won’t be any more injuries from Midlothian Middle, but for now, we can only hope.
By: Lily Rhee and Caroline Totaro
CBG 8th Graders Climb to the Top!
In order to strengthen the CBG 8th graders’ team building skills, they took a field trip to the University of Richmond rope course on September 24. After a twenty minute bus ride, the students took in the sight of the giant ropes course. They split into groups of about fifteen people, and then each team got a counselor that worked for the Challenge Discovery program. There were both rope courses and ground activities. High and low rope courses were available for the students. Each course consisted of four challenging sections that the students had to problem solve to get across without falling. Of course they were harnessed in, but that didn't help with the level of nervousness going on in each participant’s gut. Liza Wimbish told us about her experience on the ropes. “I was so scared and nervous when I climbed up to the high ropes course! On the ground looking up at the course, It didn’t look as bad, but as soon as I stepped on the thick wires and looked down, I did a double take. Luckily my friends were surrounding me and going through the same feelings as me. We made it across successfully as a team and nobody fell!”
The ground activities were just as challenging. In one of the activities, students had to carry water across logs that were “on fire” in some locations, without touching the ground. In the middle of the field trip they enjoyed a nice long lunch on the beautiful, cloudless day! At the end of the day, every student got a Challenge Discovery pin to keep as a reminder of the fun time they had together as a team. They all learned the importance of team building and working together in order to be successful!
By: Jenna Kyte and Mackenzie Jenkins
Sell Magazines, Win Prizes!
If kids want more innovative lesson plans and fun events to take part in, they need to sell magazines! In addition to benefitting from school profits, students can benefit from prizes. In the beginning, filling out a booklet gave you a “BFF” monkey pal, and candy. Sending out emails, got you a splat tomato or egg toy. For every two magazines you sell, you receive a monkey which grants you candy, icecream, and much more! If you sell three magazines, you can attend an event party packed
with inflatables, popcorn and snow cones! Not to mention, you get out of class. The list goes on including money machines, webkinz, limo lunches, and much more. If this is not enough incentive to participate, then what is?
Eleanor Ross says, “I sold three magazines because I really wanted to attend the event party and get out of class.”
In conclusion, if you haven’t already, join Eleanor and the hundreds of other Midlo Middle students and sell those magazines!
By: Natalie Little
Brand New Bathrooms!
If you find yourself in Midlothian Middle School after the past summer, you may notice that it is an entirely different school! Complete with new lockers, ceilings, and a newly renovated front office, Midlothian is looking as good as new! After multiple over-the-summer renovations, the most obvious is the completely remodeled bathrooms all over the school. All of the school bathrooms have been refined with new floors, mirrors, sinks, and stall doors. CBG eighth grader, Claire Anderson, says “The best improvement is the new automatic sinks, because you don’t have to touch the handles.” The question is, why is this causing such a fuss? Callie Yost and Rebekah Adams, CBG eighth grade girls, both agreed “We would always avoid the bathrooms because they were so gross!” The newly renovated bathrooms are a big, clean hit among the eighth graders, and will hopefully stay this clean for years to come!
Girls Basketball Team is Currently Undefeated!
The Midlothian Mustangs girls basketball team is undefeated this season. Ms. Jaeger, the coach of the team, has lead them through nine amazing wins. Margaret Weinhold, a CBG eighth grader on the team, says, “I enjoy watching the team become closer as we progress throughout the season.” Hopefully, our successful Lady Mustangs can bring home the championship title this year, as they did in 2010. Meghan Twomey, another committed CBG eighth grader on the team, says,“I’m so glad I got to be on the team, [and] I’ll be sad when it’s over” The regular season games may be over, but you can still come out and support our Lady Mustangs during the race for the championship!
By: Rebekah Adams
Music Poll
A recent poll of 68 students showed that Eighth Graders love a wide variety of music genres, but overall, Pop is the most well-liked music. Categories contained in the other section include, Classical, Dubstep, Techno, Heavy Metal, Religious, and many other types of music.
What music genre is the most popular in the Eighth Grade?
Pop: 29 votes (37.18%)
Other: 20 votes (25.64%)
Rock: 16 votes (20.51%)
Rap: 7 votes (8.97%)
Country: 6 votes (7.69%)By: Callie Yost