Lexi Maloney wins 2021-22 MHSAA-Farm Bureau Insurance Scholar-Athlete Award
Photo Credit: Josh Ortman, Ortman Productions
Redwing senior Lexi Maloney, along with 31 other high school students from all over Michigan has bee honored with the 2021-2022 MHSAA (Michigan High School Athletic Association) Scholar-Athlete Award. Farm Bureau, who has been sponsoring the event for 33 years, has awarded over $896,000 in scholarships through the program.
The $2,000 scholarships will be given to individuals who represent their member schools in at least one sport in which the MHSAA sponsors a post season tournament. In addition to the scholarship, the award winners will also be recognized on March 26th during the boys basketball state finals, held at MSU’s Breslin Center.
To be considered for the award athletes must be seniors graduating in the 2021-22 school year, carry at least a 3.5 grade point average and must have won a varsity letter in a MHSAA sport prior to their senior year.
Applicants were also asked to show active participation in school and community activities include letters of recommendation and to submit an essay on “why sportsmanship is important to educational athletics.” Sponsors asked Lexi if she would be willing to share her essay. We appreciate her sharing and you can view the essay below.
Lexi’s high school athletic career:
– Three seasons of varsity basketball, fourth varsity tennis season in the spring
– JV Volleyball as freshman and sophomore
– All-Academic and All-Conference honors in basketball and tennis
– Helped lead the Redwings to a CAAC Red title and regional runner-up finish In tennis
– Four years marching band, 3rd symphonic band serving as tenor drum and drumline section leader
– Four years on school’s Student Athletic Leadership Committee
– 2nd year, National Honors Society
– Four years Compassion Club (serving on leadership board), Renaissance Club, Garden Club and church youth group.
– Will study mechanical engineering and play tennis for Trine University next year
– Redwings Named to the Basketball Dream Team and All Area Team
Lexi’s submitted essay:
Sportsmanship is considered the golden rule. Treat others how you want to be treated. Compete in a way you would be proud to watch and have a part of your team. When you play with heart and soul, it may be difficult to keep your emotions in check. All of my coaches, from youth sports through high school, coached me to be a good teammate and fair opponent. One coach taught me something I will always remember.
Coach Doneth, your typical older gentleman, taught the old-school style of basketball. He valued building team relationships and sportsmanship. He taught us to always give our teammate a high five in line, and always stand up on the bench when a sub comes out. One day in practice, we spent time learning about the importance of lifting your team up. When one of our teammates was on the floor, all players in the game run to go help her up. We giggled at this drill, thankful for the break from sprints, but confused why we spent 15 minutes working on helping our teammates up. Coach Doneth was very deliberate in teaching us to help each other up. When it comes to game time and you are the one who falls, it is incredibly uplifting to know the support your team has behind you. A helping hand in the game offers a pause, a breath to calm down and talk to your team. If the role is reversed, and a member of the opposing team falls next to you, Coach Doneth taught us to always help them up too. This simple act shows mutual respect for your opponent and establishes a clean, but hard-fought game. It seems like a simple act, but one that means a lot. Sportsmanship does not always have to be a grand gesture, but maybe the combination of many small acts of kindness, respect, and dignity. Without Coach Doneth, I would have never learned that, and I cannot thank him enough for that.
So while out on any field, court, or even pool, give it your all, push the limits. Appreciate all the hard work others are putting in around you. The blood, sweat, and tears they have given to be their best. Acknowledge that and make it challenge you to be better. When given the chance to congratulate, help, or support your opponent, do it. There will never be any negative backlash from the positivity you give to them and know that makes you a better person. Sportsmanship is much like the golden rule, treat others the way you want to be treated. Take these lessons from the game and make them a part of your every day. Do not be afraid to make yourself a better person.
Back In My Day – School days at St Joseph Catholic School
by Maralyn Fink
In 1947 I entered school at St Joseph Catholic School in St Johns.
As with Kindergarten, I was very uneasy. More new faces to see as well as the Nuns from St Joe’s. We attended Mass every morning at 8 a.m. I was dropped off at school by my dad.
After Mass we walked to the school to start our classes. School consisted of 4 rooms, 1-2nd grade, 3-4th grade, 5-6th grade, and 7-8th grade with 7th and 8th grade having a cloak room.
I remember that room well as that is where we kept our lunches. The aroma of of egg salad and tuna salad was potent!
Once in awhile my dad would bring my sister and my lunch as they would go ice fishing.
School was dismissed at 3 p.m. for the day.
The teachers we had were Sister Pierre, Mother Aloysia, Principal, Sister Joan of Arc, Sister Germane, and later Miss Van Pratt.
We were sometimes visited by our Priest and were required to stand and say Good morning or Good afternoon Father.
We learned respect and obedience at school.
We always put on a play around Christmas time in the basement of the school or church, and it was the Nativity Scene.
At the end of the school year, we went to the City Park and had a picnic and played games. We also had a small playground at school.
Mr. Frank Jilka, the band teacher from the high School, volunteered his time to start band at St. Joe’s.
There were around 30 students in my class including Maralyn Fink, Janet Henning, John Stone, Norbert Simon,Marge Kissane, Karen Pohl, Jim Schafer, Carlene Thelen, Shirley Smith, Barry Knight, Jack Mesh, Norbert Kuntz, Mary Dubay, Frank Dubay, Phyllis Paseka, Billy Moegenburg and Lewis Wilson. This is just a partial list, and they continued on to Rodney B. Wilson High School with me.
I still have my diploma and report cards from St. Joe’s, and I’m so very glad I attended there.
Remember When – Ireland in Song and Story anew in 2013
Father Eoin Murphy, back on a visit from Ireland, does a benefit concert once again to support the Clinton County Arts Council with all new material.
Get in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day by enjoying an evening of entertainment featuring Fr. Eoin Murphy, back from Ireland on a return visit to St Johns. He has graciously agreed to spend an evening one more time, sharing his beautiful voice and amusing anecdotes with a bit of Irish blarney thrown in for good measure. The Mint City Singers will be show-casing their talents with a number of selections to round out the program.
Fr. Eoin grew up in County Cork, Ireland, and after studies at University College in Dublin and Holy Cross College, he was ordained a priest for the archdiocese of Dublin. He later completed graduate studies at Loyola University in Chicago and the University of Toronto.
However he also had talents and a strong interest in music, which led him to study piano for 8 years and sing as a member of various choirs as a boy soprano and a youth. He went on to study Gregorian Chant and became the cantor for the choir. He also sang in the tenor line of a polyphonic choir for 7 years.
He studied voice at the Dublin College of Music and at the Toronto Conservatory with a former Italian tenor of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Following that, he sang with a semi-professional baroque choir in Toronto and received awards at the Dublin National Music Festival and the Chicago Music Festival for his baritone voice.
For a number of years Father Eoin was the soloist with a major girls’ choir of 80 voices that toured the United States in 1776 as a gift from the Irish government for the Bi-Centennial celebrations in the US. He recorded 2 albums with this choir and appeared on television in the US, Japan and Ireland.
In 1993 he came back to the US to fulfill a wish born in 1970 to work as a pastor here. He ended up spending 19 years here, with 11 of them being in St. Johns at St. Joseph Catholic Church. In June 2012 he returned to Ireland, but enjoys coming back to the states for a visit.
The proceeds from this program will be shared by the Clinton Northern Railway historic railcar restoration project and the Mint City Singers. This is the second year in a row that Fr. Eoin has donated his talents to benefit the CCAC Railroad Musuem. Both organizations, which are branches of the Clinton County Arts Council, appreciate your support as they continue to add to the arts and culture in this area.
The Clinton County Arts Council has gratefully received grants from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Letters – regarding Sheriff’s retirement
Our esteemed Clinton County Sheriff, Larry Jerue, recently announced his retirement. On behalf of a grateful community, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude and appreciation to him.
Sheriff Jerue’s distinguished career has spanned over forty years and our community is better – and safer – because of his service. We all owe a debt of gratitude to him.
Over the coming months, I will serve on the three member panel (along with our County Clerk and Chief Judge) in creating a process to interview and recommend the individual to receive appointment for the remainder of Sheriff Jerue’s term. I am committed to an open, fair, and transparent process. I have no allegiances to any potential applicant and am not supporting anyone at this time. I look forward to meeting all the applicants, learning about their vision and experiences through their interviews, and selecting the individual that will best serve Clinton County.
I look forward to working with Sheriff Jerue in the weeks before his retirement and am committed to finding the best possible individual to serve as our next sheriff.
Tony Spagnuolo
Clinton County Prosecutor
Maralyn’s Pet Corner – How Air Fresheners Can Affect Your Pet’s Health
courtesy of David F. Kramer. Reviewed and updated for accuracy by Jennifer Coates, DVM
As parents and caregivers, one of the earliest lessons we learn is the concept of “baby-proofing”—keeping toxic substances and dangerous situations well out of the way of our children. As pet parents, we need to do the same. But unlike children, instead of this being a temporary obligation, it’s something we’ll need to do throughout the lives of our pets.
Some of the things we do to improve our environment, such as cleaning or using chemical air fresheners, can pose dangers to our animal friends, whether furry, feathered, or scaled. So, do pet owners need to forever do away with their room sprays, plug-ins, candles, oils, and solids? That’s a question that’s not so easily answered. However, there are some ways to play it safe when using these products in the home.
“If we are putting some kind of chemical into the air merely to mask scents, then we have to be concerned about the negative implications for our pets,” says holistic veterinarian Dr. Patrick Mahaney of California.
Sadly, some forms of air fresheners can be quite toxic, especially to animals (and children!) who might ingest the substances or not have the wherewithal to avoid parts of the home where they’ve been used.
The Ingredients That Makes Air Fresheners Dangerous for Pets
According to Dr. Mahaney, one of the main offenders in the ingredient list for most air fresheners are volatile organic compounds (VOC). VOCs are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at room temperature. This causes these compounds to easily turn into gasses or vapors from a solid or liquid form. This transformation is called volatility. In other words, volatility is just how air fresheners are meant to behave: dissipate into the air, thereby changing its scent.
Unfortunately, this is the same volatility that occurs in paints and varnishes, fossil fuels, benzene, formaldehyde, refrigerants, aerosol propellants, cigarette smoke, and the dry-cleaning process. You wouldn’t open a can of paint in your living room to improve the quality of the air, but this isn’t too far removed from what happens when you break out an air freshener.
These substances can cause a laundry list of maladies. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the health effects of VOCs may include:
– Eye, nose and throat irritation
– headaches, loss of coordination, lethargy and nausea
– damage to liver, kidney and central nervous system
Some VOCs can cause cancer in animals; some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans.
And in a study published in the Environmental Impact Assessment Review, testing of top selling air fresheners and laundry detergents “found 133 different VOCs emitted from the 25 products, with an average of 17 VOCs per product. Of these 133 VOCs, 24 are classified as toxic or hazardous under U.S. federal laws, and each product emitted at least one of these compounds. For “green” products, emissions of these compounds were not significantly different from the other products.”
Natural Alternatives to Air Fresheners: Are Essential Oils Safer?
For the air freshener industry, the latest catch phrase is “essential oils.” Despite this natural-sounding name, these products are by no means entirely safe. Essential oils are also defined as volatile, and while these substances are extracted from flowers, bark, berries, roots, seeds, and woods, and do have some potential medicinal and positive effects, they can still be very toxic to people and animals, particularly when they are used improperly.
“Essential oils, which are included in many air freshener products, can be very toxic, especially to cats. If you simply have to have essential oils in the home, make sure they are kept in a location where your pets cannot come into direct contact with them,” says veterinarian Dr. Jennifer Coates of Fort Collins, Colorado.
“Also, birds are more sensitive to potential airborne toxins than are other animals, so I generally recommend a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach with the use of air fresheners around them.”
When it comes to using these products around our pets, a little information is your best defense. “Read the instructions on the side of the bottle and be sure you are spraying the recommended amount,” says Dr. Mahaney. “When you walk into a room that’s been heavily sprayed with air freshener, what does it do to your eyes and lungs? If it’s doing that to you, it’s also going to do that [or worse] to your pets.”
Signs of a Toxic Reaction to Air Fresheners in Pets
According to Dr. Mahaney, the negative effects of air fresheners may appear immediately or within a few hours or days after use. When you first use them, a pet might immediately withdraw from the area or cower. A pet might cough, sneeze, produce discharge from the eyes and/or nose, or suffer from vomiting, diarrhea, lethargy, or lack of appetite.
Long term effects are also possible. Dr. Mahaney says “Cats have had an increase in feline asthma as a result of living in households where there are air fresheners, incense and cigarette smoke—or even just the aroma of cleaning products.”
However, these dangers don’t come from the air alone. They can also be caused by contamination from where air fresheners fall – where a pet might step, roll, or lick – or from products such as carpet shampoos and cleaners that are specifically made for surfaces.
“If you’re going to spray something that’s going to leave an aroma, I suggest that you don’t give your pets access to it,” says Dr. Mahaney. “If you’re cleaning, you don’t want to leave a significant residue—they could walk across it and potentially lick it off their paws.”
What to Do if Your Pet Eats an Air Freshener
Ingesting an air freshener can be even more dangerous than simply breathing it in. Any long-term usage products, such as solid or plug-in air fresheners, need to be closely monitored, and extra care needs to be taken when you dispose of them. If your pet is inclined to go through the trash, you might want to dispose of spent air fresheners directly in an outside trash receptacle.
“If an animal ingests an air freshener, I worry primarily about its effect on the gastrointestinal system,” says Dr. Coates. “The active ingredients and/or the packaging could cause vomiting, diarrhea, etc. Systemic effects are also possible depending on the chemicals and amounts involved.” And that is not confined to chemically scented products. “Essential oils can not only affect the GI tract, but they also are associated with neurological problems like agitation, weakness, unsteadiness, and tremors in dogs—and especially in cats.”
“Anything with a fibrous nature to it can cause digestive distress, and some products may be absorbed through the small intestine and get into the blood,” explains Dr. Mahaney.
So, how do you know if the products you use around your home are relatively safe? Dr. Mahaney recommends doing some research on the ASPCA’s Poison Control Center Website. This resource covers all sorts of toxins that your pet might encounter, from air fresheners, cleaning products, human and pet medications, foods, plants, and other substances. In case of a poisoning emergency, there is a 24-hour hotline at (888) 426-4435, although a $65 consultation fee might be required.
And in the case of a true emergency, make sure to get your pet to a veterinarian as quickly as possible.