Fairmont In The News

For the past two weeks, the Southern California wildfires have been all over the news.  It has been an eerie time for all of us who live in the area, whether or not our homes were directly affected by the advancing fires.  Fortunately, the sky has finally cleared around Orange County and things are getting back to normal - and none too soon, since there are plenty of newsworthy things happening on Fairmont's campuses.

Judy Alley of KDOC was out at the Edgewood campus last week filming for a morning segment about the affects of the fires on local students.  She filmed Lynn Anderson and her kindergarten class talking about the fires and June Hogan and Yvonne DeVane discussing journal entries with their sixth graders regarding the three things they would take with them if they were evacuated.

Fairmont's own Teresa Guillian, Instructional Technology Coordinator, and Suzette Lewis, Fairmont Prep math teacher, were two of the hundreds of Red Cross volunteers who pitched in to help support the fire evacuees.  They assisted children and families at a Red Cross shelter in San Diego.  Special thanks to these caring women who put their compassion to work creating a home away from home for those in need.

Alyssa Cook, our Edgewood 8^th grade science star, is now back from the Discovery Science Challenge in Washington, D.C.  While she didn't take home the big prize, she had a great time participating in exciting activities and competitions with like-minded students from all over the country.  She exhibited her science project at the Smithsonian.  She filmed spots for the Discovery Science Channel.  MIT even named a minor planet after her!

Making headlines in the Ventura County Star is Prep Computer Science Instructor Scott Anderson.  He recently attended the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Urban Challenge semi-finals in Victorville and spoke to a reporter about the field trip he and his students are taking this weekend to the final competition.  The goal of the challenge is to create vehicles that can carry out military missions without putting people in harm's way.

The highlight of our Halloween week here at Fairmont has to be the costumed students on our elementary campuses.  It doesn't get any cuter than pint-sized princesses and mini-ninjas!  Tonight, students at the Mable and Citron campuses will trick-or-treat for a good cause as they will donate their Halloween loot to the troops overseas.  Students will also include hand-written notes of appreciation in the candy care packages.  Together, the campuses plan to collect close to a ton of candy to be enjoyed by our US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the local children in these regions.