Elkhart Memorial High School - Monolith Yearbook (Elkhart, IN)

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Looke Wave of ideas hits Student Government Think Student Government. What comes to mind? Boring lectures, speeches, and promises of change for the school sometime before the year 2000? Well, throw those no- tions aside. Student Government 1986-87 was nothing of the sort. Try to imagine Student Government ser- ving gummi worms to five blindfold- ed members, who think they have just been handed a snake or something similar. Imagine a Stu- dent Government member crawling around on the floor barking, mooing, meowing, and squawking. Find that hard to believe? That was the plight of the members of the Student Government this year. No one could believe it except for Governor Matt Ronzone, who brought on all of this confusion. Matt, along with the presidents of each class and the officers of the Government, attended a workshop in East Noble early in the year. The workshop included Student Govern- ments from other schools and dealt with leadership and things the Government could do for their par- ticular school. Building on the momentum of the conference, Matt and the other officers threw out the old Government format . . . literally! At the first meeting following the East Noble conference, he tore up the format for former meetings and began anew, with a radical, more relaxed attitude for the Student Government. That's when the members knew that something was up. Wasn’t a Government meeting for sleeping? Not this year. One of Ronzone’s wonderfully original ideas was a lock-in. “A what?” the Government said. After the idea was explained to them, the idea was approved instantly. Matt set the date, Vice-President Drew Peterson found the location (Winding Waters Brethren Church), and the members helped in deciding an agenda. On Jan. 16, approximately 25 members arrived at their destina- tion, pillows in hand. No one knew what to expect. This was a new idea, and no Student Government at Memorial had ever attended a lock-in before. Would it be a bomb, or the most fun any Government had ever experienced together? Fortunately, after the evening was over, everyone agreed on the latter. Games like ‘‘Get-to-know-you”’ broke the ice. In ‘‘Get-to-know-you, ” each person had to memorize the name of every other person who was present using word association Leaping Laura, Begging Brian, etc.). he game that members seemed to enjoy the most was the game in which the members were divided in- to four groups (cat, chicken, cow, and dog) and had to bark, meow, squawk, and moo their way back to the rest of their group while blind- folded. The purpose of the game was to relate to other people and com- municate. Senior Hatem Tolba stated, “The game was fun, but no one really got the point.” -o- After the get-acquainted games, members were divided into groups, alternating between presentations by Ronzone and Tolba. Jeff Shrock assisted Ronzone in the “Mutt and Jeff show’’—a presentation about advertising in order to promote the Government to the student body. Tolba emphasized the fact that com- munication with others is very im- portant, and used a peanut-butter- and-jelly sandwich to get the point across. First he asked one person to sit facing the wall and requested him to explain explicitly how to make the sandwich. The result was two very flat slices of bread (‘‘Put the bread flat on the table.”), with the jar of peanut butter on one slice and the jar of jelly on the other (‘Put the peanut butter and the jelly on the bread.’’). Many of the members were laughing so hard they were crying by the end. All ‘business’ completed, the members were free to do as they pleased (more or less), from basket- ball to chess. As the night wore on, some weary souls took out their beaten up sleeping bags and retired—especially those on the Speech Team who had a meet the following morning. A few of the truly party-hardy (or just crazy) stayed -awake for a few games of dodge football and reggae music. When morning broke, members awoke to discover that every car in the parking lot had been soaped over the course of the night! No one had any idea who did it, at first. The only clue they had was the phrase “My Sharona’’ written on Brian Stamper’s van. The fugitive(s) remained at large until the next day. ‘The Government will get its revenge,’ promised sophomore Jill Reedy. After finishing off the cold leftover pizza from the night before, the members de- soaped their vehicles and slowly trickled homeward. Would they do it again? ‘‘Definite- ly,” said Tolba. “Other groups can follow our example and have a lock- in of their own, as well.” Said Ronzone (jokingly), ‘‘It was the most enriching learning ex- perience | have ever had.” May Stu- dent Government never be boring again. Hopefully, this newly-found legacy can be repeated in years to come. -o- While blindfolded, members divide into four or (dog, chicken, cat, and cow) and then ind the other animals of their kind by mak- ing the sound of that animal.

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| iter they are eft to starve in the witch’s mmediately before the first performance, a orest by their wicked stepmother, Hansel very nervous cast gathers backstage for nd Gretel (Brad Viaeminck and Kim comments and suggestions from Miss Scott ouston) ponder their situation. before they go on stage. »™.

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Student Government members Jill Reedy, Kristin Vander Hey, Ann Vahala, and Brian Stamper share a laugh while observing Hatem Tolba’s hilarious presentation. To show the importance of communicating with others, Amy Roth dictates to Hatem Tolba how to make a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich—without looking at him!