Miranda Adkins | So Salem

From left, Beverly Allman, Mina Robinson, Blake Fisher, and Brian Thompson share a moment around a 30-lb vat of steaming apple butter.

Behind Salem High school on Friday, Oct. 9, students involved in the Future Career and Community Leaders of America, especially those in Beverly Allman's culinary arts classes, helped stir two giant steaming vats of homemade apple butter. At least 15 students started at 5 a.m. FCCLA students helped throughout the day.

Two weeks before, Allman's class had gleaned apples from Johnson's Orchard in Bedford through the Society of St. Andrews. Some of those apples have been sliced and canned for use by the Rescue Mission in pies and other cooked-apple recipes.

The 30-pound vat plus two cases of apples will all go towards the women's and children's shelter in Roanoke, and the 60-pound vat will be sold by the quart to benefit the FCCLA program and their scholarship fund.

The FCCLA also helps at Richfield, the VA Hospital and the Rescue Mission. They're the ones who help hand out goodies and snacks as well as paint the giant directional turkey footprints at the Drumstick Dash, a 5k race held in downtown Roanoke every Thanksgiving morning.

Helping the FCCLA was Lord Botetourt High School '74 grad Tim Amos. He started bringing his family's 55-year-old 30-pound vat five years ago when his daughter, Lindsey Amos, was in Debbie Stratton's early childhood education class. He planned to press apple cider the next day at his house in Cloverdale with his family.

If anyone would like to purchase a quart of apple butter, please call Salem High School at 387-2543 and ask for Beverly Allman.

GHS Blood Drive

About 65 Glenvar High Schoolers signed up to give blood when the American Red Cross set up a blood drive in the school's main gym on Oct. 9. Distributive Education Clubs of America, with teacher sponsor Martha Hooker, volunteered to help out that day.

"Between people bringing food, setting up, cleaning up, helping with registration, donor walkers, and people volunteering to sit at the canteen, we probably have at least 40 kids volunteering," Hooker said. Some parents even came to give blood, and she's hoping that they can get at least 70 donors total.

Firefighters speak for Fire Prevention Week

"His voice sounds funny with the mask on, doesn't it?" Salem Fire & EMS fire inspector Scott Jones said to a cafeteria full of first-graders at South Salem Elementary on Oct. 6.

Visits to the school for Fire Prevention Week give firefighters the chance to introduce their equipment to the kids, especially those that might be scared of the gear during an emergency. The most important lessons, however, is "Get Out, Stay Out" and to develop an emergency family meeting place outside.

"Kids need to learn not to go back inside for a favorite toy or to look for their parents," Jones said. Sparky the fire dog and his little friend Sam helped Rickman, Jones, Eddie Hite, Rob Johnson, and Lawrence Keffler stress fire safety -- not playing with matches, keeping batteries in the fire alarm, and going over a fire safety list with parents.

Salem alumni and teachers tour Europe

On June 24, 10 Salemites (including two teachers, Teresa Grey and Dawn Hartless) went on a 20-day tour through Europe. The recent SHS alumni included Rose Hart, Jennifer Saliba, Justin Dowdy, Lauren McClung, Tyler Freeman, Sara Grey, Katie Cook, and Alisah Hartless.

Countries they visited included Italy, England,Greece, Switzerland,and France.

Submitted by Teresa Grey

Salem student named National Merit semi-finalist

Sarah D. Hakkenberg of Salem High School has been named a semi-finalist in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program.

These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $36 million, that will be offered next spring.

More than 1.5 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which served as an initial screen of program entrants.

The nationwide pool of semifinalists, which represents less than 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest scoring entrants in each state.

National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced in 2010.

Submitted by the National Merit Scholarhip Program

Hydrogen fuel cell car rolls into Burton

Students at the Burton Center for Arts and Technology, especially those in automotive and engineering classes, got a chance to see one of General Motors' hydrogen fuel cell cars on Wednesday morning, Sept. 30. It was a Chevrolet Equinox retrofitted with the new technology, and they came at the request of automotive teacher Joe Moore.

Two groups of students, in first and second block, were treated to breakfast from Bojangles and an electric car PowerPoint presentation before checking out the Equinox.

"This is once in a lifetime opportunity -- that unless these cars start being used, they're never going to see this again unless these vehicles hit the road," Moore said. He's also contacted several other "green" companies that are working with new technology, like the Clean Air Initiative in Hampton. He hopes that more interactions with companies will help to put Burton "on the map" and garner more support from the community for the whole school. "In the last two years the community has been a huge help," he said. And he hopes that more help will make Burton and its students more valuable to the community.

"This is the first school we've been to," said Ron Teasley, manager of regional fleet sales for municipal community customers for GM. He accompanied GM's Monica Murphy to Burton. They usually make presentations to corporations and dealerships, he said.

The fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device, and GM has outfitted it to run with its electric motor and hydrogen tank. The energy used to power the motor is created when hydrogen electrons and protons are separated by catalysis, and the electrons are run through platinum, creating energy. The hydrogen protons are combined with oxygen to create the process's only waste product: water.

Murphy told the students that if GM is able to market these electric vehicles at a consumer-friendly price by 2015, it would still take about 100 years to get every combustible engine off the road. The retrofitted electric car is able to get 40 to 60 miles per kilogram of hydrogen and the combustible engine vehicle can get 20 to 22 miles per gallon. The fuel cell in the Equinox is a second generation version -- GM is already working on the sixth generation of smaller, lighter, and more efficient versions.

The vehicle Murphy brought to Burton is one of 100 test market vehicles being test-driven in metropolitan areas such as Washington, D.C., New York City and Southern California. GM kept the test batch in those areas so it could concentrate its hydrogen-tank fueling stations. So far, Murphy said, there are a few more cities with hydrogen-tank fueling stations: Charleston and Morgantown in West Virginia, and there are two in Colombia, S.C.

Other facts about the fuel cell and electric motors: The exhaust is water vapor, the car can go from zero to 60 miles per hour in 12 seconds, there are 90 percent less parts under the hood -- no engine, and no transmission.

A retired Burton teacher's son, Joe Farmer, got a chance to test drive the car. He's a former mechanical engineer and tried to get a chance to drive one of the 100 test cars, but he was automatically ruled out since Roanoke doesn't have a hydrogen fueling station.

Farmer said: "It's got a powerful start, not like a golf cart."

Ambassadors welcome transfer students 

It's not an easy task to walk into a high school of more than 1,300 other teenagers as a transfer student, brand new and without knowing anyone. At Salem High, that task is a little easier thanks to guidance counselor Regina Meredith's "Ambassador" program.

Forty-one established students, from sophomores to seniors, have volunteered to welcome transfer students into their hallways, their social networks, and most importantly, their lunchroom.

"I just didn't know what to expect," said David Morrison, a freshman who transferred from Staunton River Middle School. His ambassador, sophomore Thomas Kelly, showed up to his second period class, pulled Morrison out to talk for a second, and invited Kelly to sit with him at lunch that day.

When lunchtime came around, Kelly looked for Morrison in the sea of 400 people. He'd just started running a couple of errands to the office and guidance office, when Morrison found him. "Well, are we having lunch together or what?" Morrison said. Kelly was his first point-person at Salem High School.

Junior Jennifer Jordan was a transfer student herself last year. She participated in group sessions offered by the guidance office to transfers last year that focus on transitioning as a new student and becoming part of the school community. It inspired her to be an ambassador for other new students this year.

"You worry about getting in with the wrong crowd," Jordan said. "And you worry about being judgmental, too." So an established student can help them navigate the social network and "show them how nice people are here." Plus, for some students from small schools, the hallways can be tricky to maneuver in their five allotted minutes between classes at first.

"They are going to meet all kinds of students," Meredith said. "They're actually taking a step outside of their own comfort zone."

Meredith's idea came from a conference she attended in Atlanta in June 2008. She was impressed by one counselor's phenomenal presentation of the program. Meredith took the idea home to Salem High and Central Office with a few tweaks, and they started working on it.

She also worked with Mike Stevens to put together a DVD about Salem High and the Salem community for new students -- one they can mail to transfers before they even start packing their stuff to head to Salem. They've also posted the video on YouTube -- find it by searching for "Welcome to Salem High School."

"I wanted them to sit down before they ever came into the school and think that 'wow -- this place is going to be great for me,'" Meredith said.