A better kind of birthday

February 6, 2010 — Scottsdale third grader Bella Lantz decided she wanted to do something special for her ninth birthday: She wanted to help a local charity.

"We discussed several charities and various needs in the community," says her mom, Stephanie Lantz. "Bella choose the food bank because she couldn't image that there could be children in our city going hungry."

For Bella's birthday party she asked her friends to bring bring food to donate to the food bank instead of gifts. She told her friends she was trying to get 100 pounds of food. Bella also spoke to her class at Redfield Elementary in Scottsdale, telling them what she wanted to do. Many students brought in food to school for Bella to donate.

"Last week we brought all of the donated food in and it weighed 121 pounds!" her mom said. "Bella also had $70 in cash donations."

Props to Raymond Kellis students

Feb. 5, 2009 — January was a good month for students at Raymond S. Kellis High School in Glendale:

• From the band program: John Langenbach earned a rating of "excellent" on his trombone solo at the Central Region Solo and Ensemble Festival. Michael Rivera, Jolie Miller, and Lauren Anderson earned a rating of "superior" on their woodwind trio at the same festival. Percussionist Caitlin Cardenas earned a spot in the All Region Orchestra for the Central Region. Nathan Garrison oversees the program.


• On Saturday, Jan. 31, 18 extraordinary Kellis FBLA members competed at the West Regional Conference. The chapter brought home 13 trophies ranging from first place to third place. The Parliamentary Procedure Performance Team brought home the third place trophy. The Business Management Decision Team brought home the second place trophy. Adel Karagovic earned the first place trophy for Introduction to Parliamentary Procedures and Flabio Madera, who brought home the seconnd place trophy. Anne Wisener is the group's advisor.


• The Raymond S. Kellis Cheer, Pom and All-Girl Stunt teams placed third in state at the AIA competition and are preparing for nationals in Orlando later this month. Rebecca Lehman is the sponsor.


• The Girls Varsity Soccer team made history on Friday, January 29th after playing Peoria to clinch the 4A1 West Valley Region Title. The girls walked away victorious with a 7-1 win. Last Saturday morning the girls played their last regular season game against McClintock and beat them 2-1 to give Kellis a 7th seed placement in the State playoffs.


• The Girls Basketball teams hosted Agua Fria and a Pink Out for Breast Cancer Awareness. The coaching staff and players wore pink and so did the fans. Pink Ribbons were purchased for $1 and hung around the gym. All proceeds will be donated to the breast cancer foundation.


• Stacy Keller announced that Kellis Students participated in the Central Arizona Acting Festival on Saturday, Jan. 30. The following students competed for the first time and received a Festival Rating of Excellent: Peyton Gallovich – Short Film; Alexis Kuhbander and Brianna Parker – Duet Pantomime and Sheree Jackson and Azalea New – Duet Acting.

Tesseract students win grand prize at 2010 Arizona Student Film Festival

Feb 2, 2010 — Four fifth-grade students at Tesseract School won first place and the grand prize at the 2010 Arizona Student Film Festival in the grades three-through-five Public Service Announcement (PSA) category. The PSA, "Options," made by Hannah Goldberg, Brij Kathuria, Gabby Vatistas and Sydney Zuiback, stressed the importance of turning the water off while brushing one's teeth.

"The students were really excited about this year's PSA topic of water conservation," says Ted Strickland, Tesseract middle school educator. "I thought all the PSAs our students made were very creative and original while still expressing the understanding and importance of water conservation."

The Arizona Student Film Festival is open to students enrolled in third grade through college who have created PSAs, films, videos or documentaries. Tesseract students in fifth and sixth grade submitted films to this year's contest, with seven of those films being selected to run the night of the festival.

All of the PSAs submitted by Tesseract were written, directed, edited and acted in by Tesseract middle school students. Story lines for the PSAs were written in language arts classes and then adapted for film.

"I am very proud of all our students' work," says Strickland. "The process of creating these films included a great deal of teamwork, planning and execution on their part."

In addition to working with middle school students on the filmmaking process in class, Strickland also guides Tesseract's dramatic film class, one of Tesseract's high school electives, and the after-school movie club, which culminates with a showing of the club's feature-length film on the big screen at a local movie theater, as well as teaches the popular digital filmmaking class for Tesseract's summer program.

Tesseract is a non-profit, independent private school for students in preschool through grade 12. The school's two campuses are in Phoenix and Paradise Valley. 480-991-1770 or tesseractschool.org.

Ironwood Senior wins Arizona Milk Producers scholarship

Feb 1, 2010 — Ironwood senior Sarah Sawyer recently received second place in the Arizona Milk Producers Scholarship Sweepstakes, winning $7,000 to be used at any Arizona university.

Sawyer sent an essay and picture of herself with a milk mustache to the Arizona Milk Producers after she read about the sweepstakes on the scholarship opportunities page of the Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) website.

She learned that she was a finalist and was invited to attend the Fiesta Bowl game where she found out that she was one of the winners.

"The milk producers gave us tickets to the Fiesta Bowl game," she said. "During the second quarter, they announced the three winners' names on the jumbotron. During the third quarter, we went onto the field and received our big checks."

Following graduation, Sawyer plans to attend Arizona State University and major in journalism with an emphasis in broadcasting. "I want to thank the milk producers so much for awarding me with this scholarship," she said. "It's an honor to be one of the finalists. I will definitely make sure I continue to drink milk!"

More spelling champs advance

Feb 1, 2010 — Can you spell P-a-r-m-e-s-a-n? What about h-a-c-i-e-n-d-a? Mathews Sajan, a third-grader at Paseo Verde Elementary, can — and did — in this year’s Annual Peoria Unified School District (PUSD) Spelling Bee, held on Jan. 27 at the District Administration Center.

Sajan, along with the six runners-up – Desert Valley's Diego Mussi, Alta Loma’s Kamia Soliz, Oasis' Pooja Dwivedi, Pioneer's Larry Nichols, Foothills' Vincent Tso and Copperwood's Shea Ruch — will advance to the Maricopa County Regional IV Bee, which will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 17 at the Washington Elementary Administration Center.

Each of the 31 elementary schools send a top speller from third- through eighth-grade to the District spelling bee. The winner and runners-up hope to win the regional and advance to the state and national level of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

Other words spelled in the final rounds included colloquial, gregarious and contiguous.

Gilbert district spelling champs

Jan. 26, 2010 - Highland Junior High School 8th grader Ryan Lish won the Gilbert Public Schools annual District Spelling Bee held last week. The winninng word was "dermatitis."

Thirty-four contestants in gades 3 through 8 participated in the bee. Ryan and the following students will advance to the Region 6 Spelling Bee competition to be held Saturday, Feb. 20, beginning at 9am at the Queen Creek Performing Arts Center:

• Cameron Alexander (4th grade – Meridian Elementary)
• Quinn Beauparlant (7th grade – Gilbert Junior High)
• Taylor Hamel (6th grade – Highland Park Elementary)
• Reagan Heussner (6th grade – Greenfield Elementary)
• Jenny Johnson (8th grade – Greenfield Junior High)
• Sean-Wyn Ng (5th grade – Augusta Ranch Elementary)
• Akua Owusu-Dommey (8th Grade – Gilbert Classical Academy).

State finals are scheduled for March. 

Desert Ridge senior wins international home run competition

Jan. 19, 2010 — Travis Flores, a senior at Desert Ridge High School in Mesa, beat out 74 other high school ball players representing high schools throughout the United States and eight other countries in the 4th Annual International High School Power Showcase Home Run Derby Finals held Jan. 10 at Tropicana Stadium in St. Petersburg, Fla.

The Showcase Derby provides each player an opportunity to showcase his skills before many top talent evaluators.

In the first round of batting, Travis was Number 28 in the lineup of 75 young men, hitting nine home runs to take third place. The Top five competitors advanced to the championship round, where Travis hit an additional eight home runs to win the event. Two of his East Valley friends also finished in the Top 5: D. J. Peterson from Gilbert High School and Cole Gleason from Red Mountain High School.

Travis began playing ball at the age of 5 and is currently a four-year varsity starter for Desert Ridge High School baseball team, serving as its captain and team leader. Though baseball is his life, Travis has also participated in roller hockey, soccer, football, and wrestling. He signed a baseball scholarship with ASU for next year, achieving his long-held dream of playing baseball there.

Scottsdale teen with cystic fibrosis awarded PCH Sports Medicine Comeback Student Athlete of the Week

Jan. 13, 2010 – Carter Bennett of Scottsdale, has been selected as the PCH Sports Medicine Comeback Student Athlete of the week. Carter is also eligible for the PCH Sports Medicine Comeback Student Athlete of the Year and Fan Fave Comeback Student Athlete of the Year awards, which will be handed out at a banquet in April.

The awards honor outstanding young athletes who have returned to athletic competition after receiving treatment for an injury, illness, or physical limitation. Winners of the two end-of-year awards — the PCH Sports Medicine Comeback Student Athlete of the Year and the Fan Fave Comeback Student Athlete of the Year — will receive $2,500 and $2,000 respectively in scholarship money. The winners’ athletics program will also be given a cash prize of $1,000.

Carter, 13, is a seventh grader at Scottsdale Christian Academy and his parents describe him as “a born leader.” Carter received an Outstanding Leadership Award from his sixth grade class and won the Christian Character Award from the seventh grade football team. He is close to earning his black belt in karate and plays on his school's football team.

Carter is known by his teammates as someone who always has a positive attitude and is there to motivate the team. His undefeatable character is what kept Carter going when he was diagnosed with a very serious lung disorder.

In 2009, Carter began have difficulty breathing and progressively he became ill. His declining health led him to Phoenix Children’s Hospital, where he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a disorder that causes damage to the lungs and decreases respiratory function. Carter knew that he would have to train twice as hard as his teammates in order to be able to keep doing what he loved the most — playing football.

Carter takes more than 50 pills and performs three hours of breathing treatments every day. "There was a time before I was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when it was very hard for me to run and play sports, so I'm happy to play football again," he says.

Although Carter missed half of his football practices last year, his hard work paid off when he was able to lead his team to a win in October, and as he continues to play he becomes stronger. Due to his illness, Carter missed a significant amount of school as well, but he still ended up with outstanding grades — all As and one B+.

Upon graduating from high school, Carter plans on attending law school and pursue politics.

"I don't think I would be the person I am today if I did not have cystic fibrosis. It has really made me grateful for what I have and what I can do," explains Carter. "Even though there is not a cure for cystic fibrosis, I will try to always do my best and pray for a cure."

PHOTOS: Carter and Arizona Cardinals running back Beanie Wells in December 2009 (top). Carter undergoes one of his daily breathing treatments (middle). On the football field (bottom).

Watch Carter’s comeback story on KPNX Channel 12's Friday Night Fever.

Learn more about the Comeback Student Athlete of the Week Phoenix Children's Hospital Sports Medicine Program.

Phoenix teen musician performs for NPR show

Jan. 6, 2010 — Seventeen-year-old flutist Chaz Salazar of Phoenix will appear on an upcoming episode of "From the Top," the hit NPR radio program featuring America's best young classical musicians and hosted by acclaimed pianist Christopher O' Riley.

Now celebrating its 10th Anniversary Season, "From the Top" is heard on nearly 250 stations nationwide and taped before live audiences around the country. Broadcast from Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston, the Martin Luther King, Jr. special broadcast airs at 7pm Sunday, Jan. 17 on Phoenix’s KBAQ 89.5 FM.

Chaz is a recipient of the show's $10,000 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award and previously appeared on "From the Top" last year in Mesa. He is a senior at Cesar Chavez High School and studies music with Judy Conrad at Rosie's House, a music academy that provides free private lessons to children of low-income families. Chaz is a member of the Phoenix Youth Symphony (where he is principal flute), the Arizona All-State Orchestra and his high school's band and orchestra. He also teaches flute lessons to students at his former elementary school.

On the broadcast, Chaz performs "Summerland" by William Grant Still with host Christopher O'Riley. The MLK special also features the Boston Children’s Chorus and a quartet from the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra.

For the past decade, "From the Top" has showcased America's best young musicians. Through award-winning NPR and PBS programs, online media, a national tour of live events, and education programs, "From the Top" shares the stories and performances of pre-collegiate musicians with millions each week.

The show is made possible through grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. It is also supported through the generous contributions of individuals and foundations as well as public radio stations. "From the Top" is produced in association with WGBH Radio Boston and New England Conservatory of Music, its home and education partner.

Previously published stories: