MIDDLE SCHOOL HOLDS ANNUAL END-OF-YEAR FESTIVITIES
Toward the final weeks of the school year, the middle school offers two celebrations to students: the color run and foam party. During the event, students would run around the field with colored powder. Before the festivities, students had to turn in signed permission slips and forms with how many bags of colored powder they wanted, along with other items such as inflatable beach balls. Each student also received a free slushy provided by Kona Ice.
REFLECTIONS YEARBOOK WINS NATIONAL AWARDS
Along with creating newspapers and yearbooks, media classes at Freedom also enter in competitions to rate the quality of their work. Five members of the Reflections Yearbook and Bulldog Barker won awards from the Journalism Education Association (JEA) High/Middle School National Media Contest. The awards presented were in several categories, ranging from news article writing to yearbook spread design. The students also received a rating for their work. The winners from Freedom were Lincoln Murphy (8) in News Writing, Editorial and Column Writing and Traditional Coverage Spread Design, Naomi Kaskalavich (6) in Feature Writing, Eli Bruce (8) in Sports Action or Reaction Photo, Kaylee Anderson (8) Traditional Coverage Spread Design and Mila Bair (8) in Opening Copy Writing.
SPANISH IV TEACHES VOCABULARY TO ELEMENTARY STUDENTS
During their class on May 21, seniors in Ms. Ruthanne Gudzan’s Spanish IV class walked to the elementary school in order to teach Ms. Crouch’s second grade class the names of animals in Spanish. “They seemed very engaged and willing to learn,” Dominic Severin (12) said. “The kids had all kinds of questions. If we did not leave, they would have kept asking.”
DRAMA CLUB MEMBERS ATTEND HENRY MANCINI AWARDS
On May 17, the Drama Club represented Freedom at the 33rd Annual Henry Mancini Awards. The awards are presented to high school musical performers in Beaver County. Brandon Yeager (12), who played the man in the chair in the Drowsy Chaperone, was given the Special Judges Award due to his commitment to performing arts. Several scholarships were also awarded. Yeager and Abigail Hunter (12) were given a combined total of $18,000.
CEREMONIES MOVED DUE TO TECHNICAL FAILURE
Originally supposed to take place in the high school auditorium, the Academic Excellence and Scholarship Ceremony on Tuesday, May 26 and the Baccalaureate Ceremony on Wednesday, May 27 were relocated to the middle school cafeteria. This change came as the result of lighting issues in the high school auditorium, which caused lights to flicker. This problem was apparent during the recent spring band concert, where lights began to flash on and off mid-performance. Maintenance and upgrades on the stage lights will begin on June 8. The Baccalaureate Ceremony is a religious ceremony for seniors before graduation while the Academic Excellence and Scholarship Ceremony is for department awards and senior scholarships. Invitations were sent out to students via mail and email.
MARCHING BAND STAFF REVEAL HALFTIME SHOW
On Thursday, May 28, the marching band staff revealed the 2026 halftime show to the current band students. The show was announced through a video, which featured a handful of students who were previously made aware of the show theme. The theme for the 2026 halftime show is “Mamma Mia,” consisting of four well-known ABBA songs, including “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight).” In addition to the show reveal, band members were informed of the leadership team for the upcoming season. This includes the roles of Drum Majors and section leaders. Unlike last year, the band directors decided to return to two Drum Majors. Leadership results were unavailable at the time of publication.