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The Smoke October 2023 Newton Local Schools
Vol. 5 Issue 2

Ninety Three down

By: Erika Shellabarger

Another Fall Fair is in the books. This year was the 93rd annual Fall Fair here at school. The Fall Fair is put on by the FFA every year, many students put in a lot of hours during this event to make it run smoothly. This year there are 85 members in FFA, and the Fall Fair would not be possible without them. Thank you to all the FFA members for all the work put in during Fall Fair. At the end of Fall Fair the FFA also hosts Class Challenge. The money raised from class challenge every year is donated to a charity. The FFA has not decided on where the money will be going yet this year, but this year's Class Challenge brought in around $600.
The craziness of the preparation for Fall Fair is now over, so to take a look back on the day I went around and asked some of the students and teachers what they rated this years’ Fall Fair and the best part of it. FFA advisor, Mr. McCullough, said this year everything went well, the booths seemed more active this year, and there were a lot of people that came out to support us this year. The FFA served about 500 meals this year catered by Hickory River. Mr. Schindler gave this year’s event an eight with his favorite part being the cool entries for this year. Sophomore, Zurich Bess said it was between eight and nine this year. Zurich said his favorite part was playing 9 Square with the Barn this year. The Junior that got pied in the face, Seth Euton, rated Fall Fair a nine, and said the best part was class challenge. Seth stated, “Getting pied in the face was fun and definitely an experience.” Seth was a trooper for his class, and in the process lost a contact. The Pie in the Face has been a big hit the last few years. This year the juniors took over the booth and they made $100. FFA officer, Sarah Willoughby, rated this year's Fall Fair a ten out of ten and of course her favorite part was getting to DJ class challenge. Thank you to all the students, parents, and faculty for letting the FFA put on this event and keep the
tradition alive!
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Day in the life of a band kid

By: Thomas Speer

A band kid can mean many different things, but what they are mostly known for is their loud and extroverted behavior. While this is true a lot of the time, it can be fun acting childish every now and then (for some people). In this article, I’m going to be telling you about the day in the life of a band kid, what it’s like to be going to practice, sitting on a long bus ride to the competition, then actually competing, and finally, talk about the bus ride back to the school.
A band kid usually arrives at the school an hour early before the bus gets there, so it gives us enough time to get in a few reps of the show. After this short practice, the trailers arrive and we load them up with our uniforms, instruments, and props. The bus then arrives and everyone boards it.
The bus ride to the competition can last a while, so what better way to pass the time than to blare obnoxiously loud music in everyone’s ears. The back of the bus is where the loud people sit, the middle is where the people play games, and the front is where the staff and less talkative people sit. Also, since some bus rides can last between twenty minutes and an hour, you better be prepared to withstand the brutal onslaught of screaming band kids.
At the competition locale, we put on our uniforms, unload our instruments, and start warming up. They are usually led somewhere far away from the stadium so no one there hears us playing. We then split off into three groups: one of them is the brass section, the other the woodwind section, and lastly, the percussion/pit section. If you didn’t know, the pit section includes all the non-marchers that usually sit at the front of the field.
After that, we all meet up and play our show one time, then start marching toward the stadium. Now, it is time to win.
We enter the field, and some people have designated props to put onto the field, so they do that. Then, we play our warm-up and get the pre-show going. The field commander salutes and now, we perform.
Seven minutes of hard work later, we take our props off the field, head back to the trailers, unload, and now head back to the stands and concessions where we wait to hear the results we got.
After the judges announce the scores, we get back onto the bus and either celebrate by blasting music again, or sit in tired silence for the whole trip back. Overall, it’s a fun time, and the band kid experience should be experienced by everyone at some point in their lives.

Band goes to state By: Thomas Speer
Since the band is going to state this year, we celebrated the night by putting

on a small parade when the band got back to the school where we just had fun and played a small section from the show music.
After the parade, we performed the music of our show to a crowd of people

at the front of the school, showed off our newly acquired trophies, and special

to this year, we ended the night with senior, Ryan Woods, smashing a guitar on the sidewalk. The band’s final competition is on Oct. 29, 1:15 PM at
Piqua High School, so be sure to show up to come support your fellow Indians!

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Sports monthly

Upcoming
Band State Competition October 29th at Piqua High School 1:15 PM

round up

Varsity Volleyball: 17-7

Boy’s Soccer: 2-12-1

Girl’s Soccer: 10-5-1 - WOAC Champs

Golf: 14-0 - WOAC Champs

athletes of the month

By: Carson Tucker

Male: Isaac Beidleman

By: Carson Tucker

Female: Sienna Montgomery

Our Male Athlete of the month is Isaac	Our Female Athlete of the month is Sienna

Beidleman! Isaac is an attacking midfielder, who

was awarded with WOAC First-Team this season.

Montgomery! Sienna is a middle hitter, who has

played a huge role for the team this season. She was

Isaac loves the game of soccer because it allows	also awarded WOAC First-Team for this season. him to perform at high levels of competition. He	Sienna expressed how happy she was after beating enjoys hanging out with his teammates outside of	Covington in tournaments this year, and she is practices and games. Congratulations Isaac!	excited to come back for her senior season next year!
Congratulations Sienna!

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Senior Night By: Carson Tucker

Senior night is a special event that is held to honor the senior athletes on a high school or college sports team. The senior night gives our senior athletes a chance to be recognized by our school and community, along with family being able to come and support them. Here at Newton, we had twenty-two fall sport senior athletes who were recognized on their respective senior nights. Our senior athletes here at Newton put in the work day in and day out, to lead their respected team. I got the opportunity to talk with Noah Brush who is a senior this year for our soccer team. Noah was awarded First Team All-Conference in the WOAC this year! Noah emphasized throughout our conversation just how special it is to be a senior athlete here at Newton. He described how leadership played such an important role for him as he was coming in as a freshman, and just how far that leadership has taken him today. Noah is a captain for the team now, and a very vocal leader, and his leadership on and off the field sets a perfect example of what a leader looks like. Our senior nights here at Newton had wonderful turnouts! Our Newton families and community came together to support and cheer on our seniors, and it was an incredible time!

OUR NEWTON SENIORS

Golf - Quinn Peters, Ty Schauer, Brady Downing

Volleyball - Bella Hall, Chloe Shellenberger(Band), Olivia Rapp, Kylie Velkoff

Girls Soccer - Reese Hess, Brooke Hines, Madie Walters.

Boys Soccer - Dan Fisher, Noah Brush, Dustin Butts, Stephan Bowerman

Cross Country - Trevor Jess

Band - Thomas Speer, Princeton Bess, Walker Sullivan, Terri Peele, Breanna McClish, Ryan Woods

golf districts By: Carson Tucker

Congratulations to our Varsity Golf team on an incredible season! The Boys finished undefeated this season with a perfect record of 14-0, and were also awarded WOAC champions. The team also broke a school record by recording a score of 149 on nine holes at their home course Echo Hills. The boys went on to qualify for the District Finals at Heatherwood Golf Course, in Springboro. Senior Brady Downing finished one stroke off from qualifying for State. Great Season Boys!

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teacher of the month

By: Erika Shellabarger

Our teacher of the month for October is Mrs. Hoosier. She teaches 7th and 9th grade English. You can find Mrs. Hoosier on the trails or in the classroom.
What was your dream job as a child? “A teacher.”

Why did you pick Newton? “I really liked the small town feel and the idea of being able to teach all of one grade.”
You changed your name, so how are the first few months of marriage going? “It is going really great, I am very happy, and it makes me feel good that my kids really like my husband too.”
What is your biggest accomplishment? “Becoming a teacher or the amount of books I have collected personally.”
What motivates you to do this job everyday? “Knowing that I want to do what is best for the students everyday.”
Why did you choose English? “Because I love English so incredibly much and there are so many fun things you can do with English.”

It’s THE spooky season

By: Erika Shellabarger

As we all know Pleasant Hill loves their holiday

Photo: Pinterest
celebrations. Here in Pleasant Hill the band puts on a parade every year after Trick-or-Treat is over. The band starts in the school parking lot and makes their way down the main streets then ends back in the school parking lot. After the parade is over the fire department hosts the costume contest for all ages. The town’s Trick-or-Treat took place on October 26th this year from 6pm to 8pm. Keep the spirit alive for the 31st, because the Student Council will be hosting the high school costume contest again this year. Bring a dollar to participate. The top three costumes will be awarded “Boo Baskets.”

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Homecoming WRAP-UP

By: Thomas Speer

On the day before the dance, the school announced who the homecoming king and queen was, and they are King Princeton Bess and Queen Chloe Shellenberger. After the ceremony, the annual soccer game started and everyone had a fun time. On Saturday, September 30th, the actual dance was hosted, with a multitude of people having dinner beforehand, and afterward, multiple after-gatherings were held to celebrate the fun night. This year’s homecoming was a blast to many, with awesome music and students showing off their dance skills, all brought to you guys by the DJ and Agriculture teacher, Mr. McCullough.

Movie Review

By: Thomas Speer

Since it is October and Halloween is fast approaching, I decided to make a movie	review. This	review	will include some spoilers, but nothing too huge. The movie I decided to review is The Shining, by the famous author Stephen King. The Shining is a classic movie from 1980 and is about a family of three moving into a haunted hotel during the winter time where it snows them in and no one can get help or leave, so they are stuck in there. Eventually, the husband and father, Jack Torrence, goes insane and starts terrorizing his family due to him finding out the hotel’s dark secrets. This movie is a great movie for first-time viewers of horror films because not only is it one of the most famous movies in the world, but it has great acting that definitely helps it be what it is today. Overall, I’ll give this movie an 8/10.

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Fall Festivities

Regardless of if you love or hate pumpkin spice, scary movies, colder weather, or a good bonfire, fall provides something for everyone to enjoy. Our team has compiled some of the best ways to enjoy the fall weather.

Local Halloween Haunts

Kings Island's Halloween Haunt

Pumpkin Patches, orchards, and more!

By:Erika Shellabarger

~ Fulton Farms: Located on OH-202 in Troy. The farm offers a pumpkin patch, a store, and more.
~ Brumbaugh Fruit Farm: Brumbaugh’s is located in Arcanum and has something for
everyone. They have an orchard, a pumpkin

Land of Illusion's Haunted Scream Park

World's Longest Haunted Cave!

The Haunted Hydro

Escape from Blood Prison

Dayton Scream Park

Springboro Haunted Hayride

patch, a bakery, fresh apple cider, and

activities for everyone.

~VanDemark Farm: Located in Sidney has fall fun activities for everyone. From a corn maze to ziplining and everything in between. ~Crossway Farms: Also located in Sidney is filled with activities for everyone. The farm has a U-Pick Zenia field, donut trailer, and plenty of photo ops.
Be sure to get your fill of Fall close to home!

:)

Photo from Dayton Local

Top 10 Fall Movies

By: Carson Tucker
1.	Remember The Titans

Vandemark Farms
2.	A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving 3.	October Sky
4.	Scream

5.	Halloween Ends 6.	Coco
7.	The Conjuring 8.	Hocus Pocus 9.	Child’s Play
10.	Knives Out

Crossway Farms

Visit Ohio; Brumbaugh Fruit Farm	7

Photo Journal

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questions of the month

By:Thomas Speer

In September, I sent out a questionnaire this month to get your opinions on some matters at hand. This time, however, the theme is about Halloween, the Spooky Season, Autumn, whatever you may call it. Over 40 people responded to me, so if you want the chance to be included in upcoming issues of The Smoke Signal, make sure to keep a lookout for each month’s Google Forms in your emails!
The first question was “What is your favorite scary/autumn movie?” and there were quite a few unique answers. Some said that they didn’t like horror movies, some said that they didn’t have a favorite, but I will be stating the top three movies that were submitted. Number three was The Conjuring, number two was Scream, and number one was Hocus Pocus.
The second question was “What is a Halloween tradition you or your family does every year?” and a lot of people said that they pass out candy, Trick-or-Treat, watch scary movies, or don’t do anything at all. However, it seems that the Brumbaugh Fruit and Fun Farm will be pretty busy this year, as a lot of students say that they are going there.
The third question was “What candy do you like the most?” and the options were Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, M&M’s, Sour Patch Kids, and Snickers. In a tie for third place, we have Snickers and M&M’s. In second place is Sour Patch Kids, and in first place is Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, ahead of Sour Patch Kids by one vote!
The fourth question was “Do you still go Trick-or-Treating?” and twenty-one people said that it depends, ten people said yes, and 10 people said no.
The fifth and final question was “What is your favorite costume you have ever dressed as?” This one was very interesting and there was no clear winner, so I’ll share the top three that stuck out to me. In third is Vector from Despicable Me, submitted by Brooke Hines. Second, I chose Mario, submitted by Alec Schaurer. In first place was Gustavo Fring from Breaking Bad, submitted by Princeton Bess. Thank you all for submitting your responses to the questionnaire, and even if you weren’t mentioned, all of your submissions were greatly appreciated.

Clunker of the month

By: Carson Tucker

Dustin Butts drives a 2003 Toyota Corolla. Through voting with some of our students here at Newton, and of our Smoke Signal Crew. We have come to the conclusion that Senior Dustin Butts will be our first winner of Clunker of the Month. Dustin says that he loves his car and that it gets him from A to B, but he does plan to upgrade this winter. Congratulations Dustin!

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interactive page	Happy Birthday!

Olivia Sparks

Chloe Shellenberger Terri Peele
Jayla Leland Ayden Kane Douglas Goad Marissa Schleinitz Grace Davis Emilia Hild
Max Newhouse Austin Tippie Alexus Lankford Owen Seger Carson Resides

Design Your own jack-o’-lantern

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