Mrs. Rita McNutt’s first grade class at Immaculate Conception School in Port Clinton received an extra special piece of mail Tuesday, a thank you message from the community of Newtown, CT. Last December, after the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the class talked about the sadness that the community of Newtown was dealing with. The first graders spent some quiet time in church, lit a candle, and said special prayers for the school, the families and the community. The class then returned to the classroom to make cards that were sent off to the school by Principal Connie Snyder.  This week the class received a response from the town of Newtown that brightened their day. The response thanked the class for their thoughts and prayers and said that knowing that people care does indeed help their healing. The entire school continues to send its prayers to the community of Newtown, Connecticut.

The Port Clinton High School Drama Club will present its student production of Back to the 80’s on Friday and Saturday, April 12 and 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the PCHS Performing Arts Center.

Set in the USA, Back to the 80’s tells the story of the senior class of William Ocean High School that graduated in the 1980’s, as remembered and seen through the eyes of Corey Palmer, played by Isaac Akins, who is now 30-something.

The then 17-year-old Corey, played by Marshall Parker, is madly in love with his next-door neighbor, Tiffany Houston, played by Alyson Shaler, one of the coolest girls in the school. However, she barely notices this, as she is too busy mooning over Michael Feldman, played by Zach Wheeler, the hottest guy around. Michael and his friends Billy Arnold, Lionel Astley, and Huey Jackson, played by Seth Bickel, Ian Kyle, and Logan Hepp, are athletic and good-looking—the kinds of guys that Corey and his two best friends Alf Bueller and Kirk Keaton, played by Sam Miller and Michael Davis, dream of being. However, while they may not be the coolest guys in the school, they are still one up on Feargal McFerrin III, played by Jack Warner, whose best friend is his computer, and who believes the crazy notion that one day CD’s will replace cassette tapes.

The competition has been fierce this week at Immaculate Conception School. The game plans have been discussed. The strategies have been put into place.

A total of thirty-six Oak Harbor DECA members qualified to compete at the Ohio DECA Career Development Conference held on March 15-16 , 2013 at the Columbus Convention Center. Over two-thousand DECA members from 107 schools across the state competed at this event. The Oak Harbor chapter is a satellite program of Penta Career Center.

The majority of the members competed in written projects which included market research business plans and community service projects. In addition to being evaluated on their written documents, the student teams were also graded on oral presentations. All of the written projects teams placed in the top ten in the state. Several students also competed in team decision making and individual events.

 The chapter worked with several business and service organizations to complete their projects. Twenty-four students won awards and the results are as follows:

Entrepreneurship Promotion Project1stMakaylaCarpenter

1stHunterGresh

1stSamanthaWilkins

Financial Literacy Promotion Project2ndSamanthaDurivage

2ndNathanSegaard

2ndAustinWiegand

Learn & Earn Project2ndDouglasPennington

2ndLindseyReau

2ndNicoleWilhelm

Community Service Project3rdAishaHamdallah

3rdWhitneyRutledge

3rdTaylorBlatt

Creative Marketing Research Project5thAustinApple

5thCassandraBrenneman

Public Relations Project6thKatelynApple

6thMichaelHites

6thDaltonReau

Buying & Merchandising Reseach Project7thConnorEli

7thTrinityGephart

7thElyseHablitzel

Finance Operations Project8thKalebMaguire

8thChristopherTabbert

8thZacharyMills

Marketing Management Series8thAnthonyCecil

Students who placed in the top four at the state conference qualify to compete at the International Career Development Conference which will be held in Anaheim, California on April 23-28, 2013. Twelve students will represent Oak Harbor at this conference which is attended by over 15,000 DECA members from around the world. The students are currently working to improve their presentation skills and their written projects to prepare for this event.