13Full moon Mtvt^ (EtirijstmaB mh a Hfiapptf 5feui fear! Volume 46 — No. 4 ALBEMARLE SENIOR HIGH NEWSPAPER 311 Palestine Road Albemarle, N.C. 28001 982-3711 December 19,1980 Student Council Spreads Good Cheer By ANN NOVAK On December 17, the Student Council brightened Christmas for the children at Greenwood Center. Greenwood Center is an Albemarle day care center for retarded and emotionally and physically disabled youngsters aged three months to five years. Council members traveled to the center Wednesday to give a Christmas party for all of the children. Greg Underwood played the role of Santa Claus, and gifts were brought for all the children to enjoy. The Student Council has also been busy discussing new ideas for the upcoming spring semester. Students are re questing picnic tables so that they can take their lunches out side. The Council would like to landscape an area that could ac comodate several picnic tables. The Council has already set up committees to plan the layout of the area. Thanks to the efforts of the Student Council, lunch time may be more enjoyable! “Moonbeams” Congratulations To The Band Marching Band was award ed third place in the Spencer- Salisbury parade. The band presented a Christmas con cert at ASHS Thursday, De cember 18. Hark, The Herald Angels Sing On Sunday, December 14, at 3:00 the chorus presented a Christmas Concert at ASHS. The varsity singers sang for a countywide Senior Citizens group on December 4, and also for the Rotary and Lioness Clubs. The Senior Choir enter tained the Senior Citizen Club at the YMCA on December 17 and the Lutheran Home on the 18. Students Honored The student Rotarion for De cember is Todd Hauss, and the student Lion is Mark Talbert. Hurray For The Holidays! Christmas vacation begins December 19, and students do not return to school until Janu ary 5th! VICA Works Hard The VICA Club has sold Na tional pens, and is very close to reaching their goal of rais ing $1,000. The high salesman will receive a prize, and the class which sales the most will go to Burger King for lunch. Planning Ahead DECA is preparing for their District Contest Meeting which is to be held in March. The club is in the process of setting up committees for 15 different contests. They must also secure 45 judges from the community. Over 700 students from 32 schools will partici pate in the Albemarle District Contest Meeting. Oh, How I Love A Parade! Heading Towards the Boston Marathon When someone asks, “What do you do?”, do you respond: a) “I’m unemloyed right now”, or b) “About ten miles a day.”? If yours is the second answer, then you are one of the many students of Senior High who enjoys run ning. Distance running has be come very popular in the United States in recent years, and for many people it has become a way of life. Although Albemarle has not yet produced a Boston Mara thon winner, running is an impor tant part of every day for many of Albemarle’s student athletes. Much of running’s popularity can be attributed to its physical benefits. No other sport or form of exercise does as many positive things for the body. Running is an aerobic exercise, meaning that it strengthens the cardio-vascular system. A person with a healthy cardio-vascular system has much more endurance and may actually live longer than a person who has not participated in aero bic exercise. Running is excellent for weight control, since it causes A iSMintn' the use of more food content cal ories than any other exercise. Muscle tone also improves with running because all muscles of the body are involved in some way when you run. Running benefits more than just the physical condition, how ever. Most runners report a great psychological boost after a work out. After a few months of regu lar running, the athlete is almost always noticeably calmer and more confident. Running often acts as a release from the pres sures of work or school. More than in any other sport, the run ner is in control. He chooses his own pace, direction, and dis tance. This selectivity offers a re assuring contrast to the restric tions imposed by society. To many runners, becoming fast enough to compete is not im portant. For them, covering the distance is enough in itself. For those who want more, however, there is road racing. The most common distances for road rac ing are the marathon and five and ten kilometers. Many groups now sponsor races on both the local and national levels. Entry fees for the race often go to chari ty organizations such as the United Way. A small number of Albemarle students have chosen to test their running abilities in such races. These include seniors Mark Tal bert, Mark Hawn, Chris Free man, and sophomores Todd Rogers and Lucy McKeithen, Of this group three have placed highly in various races. Lucy McKeithen captured the first place award for her age division in the Asheboro Elephant Stam pede ten kilometer race on November 15. Mark Talbert plac ed second in the Albemarle Jubi lee ten kilometer race and third in the Gold Hill Gold Rush ten ki lometer. Talbert runs track for Senior High and should do well in the mile and two-mile races this year. Another outstanding run ner, Mark Hawn, has competed in eleven races. He has one third place finish, one second place spot, and a first place win for his age division in Asheboro last November. Hawn runs fifty to seventy miles a week in training and says he plans to continue rac ing during his senior year at Albemarle. He is a member of Albemarle’s track squad and is an All-Conference possibility this season. Hawn and Freeman are now training for the Charlotte Observer Marathon to be held January 3, and Talbert and Mc Keithen plan to compete in the Observer-sponsored 10 kilometer race on the same date. As the interest in distance run ning increases, more Albemarle students will become involved. This year an attempt to organize a cross-country team at Albe marle narrowly failed; next year may be better. This year’s track team should do well in the dis tance races with many good new runners joining the team. At pre sent, there is a movement to start a running club at Senior High. Anyone interested in being part of such an organization should contact Mark Hawn as soon as possible.