Published: Thursday, November 29, 2012 12:59 AM CST

Published: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 1:00 AM CST

Students from across South Dakota are set to converge on Yankton for the 2012 South Dakota High School Activities Association (SDHSAA) State’s Oral Interpretation Festival, which will take place at Yankton High School Friday and Saturday.

Individual awards will be given out to students or groups at the end of each session. Team excellence awards will be presented following the conclusion of the final session. All three classes in the state will be competing here.

“Oral interpretation basically is public speaking,” said YHS oral interp. co-coach Teri Mandel. “There are different categories of types of speech at the festival this weekend.”

This is Mandel’s first year coaching the YHS team, made up of about 30 students.

“I was a competitive speaker in high school, which made me want to coach the team here,” she said. “Public speaking is a skill that is good to practice. It allows you to think on your feet and feel comfortable speaking to a crowd. When I was a competitive speaker, I didn’t know I wanted to be a teacher, but I definitely think the public speaking helped.”

The competitive categories include duet interpretation, non-original oratory, interpretation of serious prose, humorous reading, poetry reading, interpretation of serious plays and readers theater.

Leo Kallis, who had served as YHS’s oral interp. coach in the past and is the co-coach with Mandel this year, said Yankton hosts not only the state festival every seven years but also the state debate contest every seven years. This school year, YHS is hosting both — something that only occurs once every 42 years.

“It’s a big deal to host a state event, no matter what it is,” he said.

Garrett Adam, a member of the YHS oral interpretation team, said he enjoys the art of public speaking.

“I like being able to express myself through the piece and getting to read a piece of paper in a different way,” he said. “You just get the words, you can express the piece whichever way you want.”

Adam added he not only enjoys going to different places around the state but also the competitive factor that performing provides.

“I like doing well and competing for my school and hometown,” he said. “YHS has done pretty well in duet interpretation and readers theater in the past.”

Adam said the school has also fared well in extemporaneous speaking, but that area is judged at the state debate contest held in March.

Mandel thinks her team can perform well this weekend.

“We started practicing in September, and since then students have practiced their pieces every day after school,” she said. “We’ve attended several contests this year, including in Aberdeen, Mitchell and Sioux Falls, and have done well at those contests.”

Kallis said since this is a festival, each student performs his or her piece one time, and after a student performs, judges vote them as superior or not superior.

“The judges look for the quality of the literature, how well the student captures the piece, vocal inflections and body language when they judge each selection,” he said. “Students will either pass or fail based on the judges’ votes. The biggest rule for when students pick out a piece is it must be widely available — a hard copy must be in place so judges can double-check students after they perform.”

Mandel said each category of speaking is a little different, but there is a 10-minute time limit, with a 30-second grace period, in each category

“Students can work from a script, but they should have it memorized for the most part,” she said. “It should be to a point where it is known well enough that they can naturally gesture and be able to interpret and react with the script.”

Mandel said her team is anxious for the festival to start.

“Our students have put a lot of time and effort into preparing for this,” Mandel said. “It is nice to have the season come to a close and students being able to see the fruits of their efforts at the festival this weekend.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Thursday, November 22, 2012 3:49 PM CST

Lita Stucky grew up poor. Because of this, she and her family often had to make each other their own Christmas gifts out of common, or inexpensive, household items.

This became the basis for her Santa Claus Workshop program at the Studio Art Center in Yankton.

“I love Christmas — it is my favorite holiday of the year. Growing up, we did an awful lot of our own Christmas decorations and presents,” Stucky said. “I was always artistic as a young kid and Christmas was always a big thing for me. Our family made everything for Christmas — there were seven kids, so we didn’t have the money to spend for Christmas so we had to find creative ways to make things for the holidays.”

Stucky grew up five miles from North Pole, Alaska, which is where the Santa Claus house is located today.

In 1999, she began teaching art to children through the Studio Art Center in Yankton. By December 2001, she decided that she would begin offering a piece of “Santa’s Workshop” of her own by allowing students to make presents for friends and family as part of the program.

This season marks the 12th year of the Santa Claus Workshop.

“When I came to Yankton and opened up my studio, there was nothing like this going for kids,” Stucky said. “Because of this, I thought since there is nothing for kids at Christmas time like this, I would start up the Santa’s Workshop program.”

Children ages 2 1/2 to 7 can make a visit to Santa’s workshop with a parent or responsible adult to create ornaments and Christmas cards for their family. Kids are scheduled in small groups for a 45-minute time slot where they come in and create gifts for friends or family members.

Kids that are ages 5 and up can come in for the longer four-hour program, which is held on Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m. This longer program gives parents the opportunity to do holiday shopping while their children are doing arts and crafts and creating various gifts for loved ones.

The program will be offered Nov. 24, Dec. 1, Dec. 8, Dec. 15 and Dec. 22. The students who qualify for the longer program do not need a parent or older adult to accompany them.

Drop-ins are not accepted. Everyone interested in the program must called the Studio Art Center at 665-4686 to sign up for a date.

“For the shorter program, kids that come in can typically make about three items in the time they have,” Stucky said. “The older kids that come to the longer program can usually make 10 items, but that varies depending on the child.”

She added that students that are a little more skilled are allowed to make paintings during their time in the program. A student that decides to paint can usually get approximately two canvasses done in four hours, but if he or she decides to make a small painting, they can also make some Christmas presents when they are finished.

Kids that participate in the program have the option of getting a Christmas house and choosing different objects to be placed around the house to create a holiday theme.

“I’ve been working on the project kits for the program and getting everything together for Santa’s workshop since about Halloween time,” Stucky said. “Snowmen are very popular with kids in the program, and a lot of times kids see what their peers are doing and it inspires them to come up with their own or similar ideas on what to make.”

At the end of either the short or extended workshop programs, children get a bag of gifts to take with them and even get to choose a stuffed animal that was donated to Stucky for the children that participate in the program.

The four-hour program has a charge, while the short program is free.

“There is an additional charge … if students choose to use a wood product in their gifts,” Stucky said. “If parents have never been to the Studio Art Center, I suggest they come down and visit. If they see a wood product they think their kids will like to use, they can send their child with some extra money to use one of the products.”

She added that there were about 70 children that came to Santa’s Workshop last year.

“Ever since I started the program, I’ve just been building it up year after year,” Stucky said.

She said parents should not limit their kids if they think they are not capable of doing arts and crafts. Parents should not only try to get kids involved with the various art programs, but also participate with them.

“Students that start young and stay with it turn out to be really amazing artists,” she said. “So many of my students are doing beautiful paintings now. A lot of kids never lose the desire to create.”

One of the reasons why Stucky started Studio Art Center and the Santa’s Workshop program was to fill the void created by having her grandchildren live more than 1,700 miles away in Oregon.

“They live such a long ways away so I never get to see them at Christmas. I just miss them so much, so that’s the biggest reason why I started the art center,” Stucky said. “My husband said, ‘Why don’t you teach kids art?’ The art center has done exactly what I’ve been missing. It fills in that space that I need to be surrounded by kids, and I get to do things I would do with my grandkids if they lived closer. Studio Art Center and the workshop has taken care of the need I have to work with kids.”

One of the biggest goals Stucky has for the program is to show children how Christmas once was, and how it was for her growing up.

“Christmas has gotten so commercial, so I enjoy teaching kids the joy of making things for other people instead of them just saying, ‘What do I get or what do I want for Christmas?’ It puts them in a place where Christmas used to be, when people mainly gave handmade things to others,” she said. “To be with kids and to participate in the joy of Christmas time and teaching them what a wonder and joy it is to create things for others means the world to me.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Saturday, November 24, 2012 1:00 AM CST

The business manager for the Yankton School District (YSD), said he wasn’t surprised when he found out both Initiated Measure 15 and Referred Law 16 were voted down during the election.

“The history in South Dakota has been pretty clear that residents do not want any new taxes,” Jason Bietz said. “We were hopeful that tax increase would pass and were somewhat optimistic that it would, but we never made assumptions on budget based on that passing.”

Initiated Measure 15 would have increased the tax rate from 4 to 5 percent and split the additional revenue evenly between education and Medicaid. Currently, the state aid for education is adjusted annually by 3 percent or the rate of inflation, whichever is less.

The measure failed across South Dakota with more than 56 percent of citizens voting it down, while more than 43 percent voted for the bill to be passed. Initiated Measure 15 failed in Yankton County with 55 percent of Yankton County voters rejecting the tax increase.

“We never really had concrete numbers on how much the sales tax increase would mean to YSD, but there were estimates that it could have meant about $700 per student in additional funding,” Bietz said. “Estimates showed the increase tax generating about $180 million in new revenue, meaning $90 million for education. The intent of Initiated Measure 15 was to make up for the funding that was cut two sessions ago.”

He added that district officials now must go back to square one, and YSD’s budget is still reeling from the cuts that were made a few years ago.

Referred Law 16 was an education reform act that would have established a teacher scholarship program, a program for science and math teacher bonuses, merit bonuses for teachers and a uniform evaluation system. It would have also eliminated teacher tenure.

The law failed across South Dakota, with more than 67 percent of voters rejecting the reforms proposed.

In Yankton County, 73.43 percent of residents that voted rejected the bill, while 26.57 percent voted yes.

“Frankly, most educators did not support Referred Law 16,” said YSD superintendent Dr. Joe Gertsema. “They looked at it as being a local decision, not a decision to be made at the state level. The state may continue to move forward with an accountability system and may also move forward with an evaluation system because the state agreed to a couple of those things when they accepted federal money. Whatever they decide, we have to accept.”

He added that teacher tenure is not an issue at YSD.

“We have an evaluation system here that is working for us, so we don’t think we need help in those areas,” Gertsema said. “We think the local school board can make those decisions. What we do need is a continued, on-going source of new revenue and state aid for education.”

Bietz said the message he took from the election was that citizens both in Yankton and across South Dakota are not in support of new taxes.

“We are still dealing with the revenue shortfall that took place after the cuts in funding were made,” he said. “It will take several years for the state to make that up just to bring us back at the level we were at prior to the deductions. We are in no different shape today then we were before Initiated Measure 15 was voted on. It would have made a huge difference though.”

He added the measure, if it was passed, would have brought about $1.8 million to the budget — about equal to a full year’s revenue source.

“It would have almost closed most of the budget shortfall that we are at right now,” Bietz said. “However, it would not have brought back the things we have had to eliminate. We need new revenue in the state or less spending. Less spending means cuts.”

Next up for officials in YSD is to monitor Gov. Daugaard’s upcoming budget address.

“We are waiting on proposals from the governor’s address and the new Legislature in Pierre,” Gertsema said. “The state has a larger surplus than they anticipated. The surplus is about $52 million, so we will see what happens.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Saturday, November 24, 2012 1:00 AM CST

A Benedictine sister from Yankton was recently named a living legend by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA).

Sister Mary Arthur Schramm was honored at the AANA’s annual leadership conference in Colorado last week.

Prior to this year, the ANNA awarded Schramm the Helen Lamb Outstanding Education Award in 1991 and the Agatha Hodgins Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in 2003.

Schramm is a native of Siegel and has been a member of the Sa  cred Heart Monastery since 1952.

“I had been involved with anesthesia for more than 50 years,” Schramm said. “I started on job training programs, and I was the one with the college that took the program to academic institutions in 1965, which was a transition until 1970.”

She became the first nurse anesthetist and woman to be admitted and complete her Ph.D. in Physiology and Pharmacology at the graduate School of Medicine at the University of South Dakota. While she was there, she helped in developing the curriculum for the program at Mount Marty College — the first institution to offer a degree in nurse anesthesiology.

“When I graduated, I was about .009 percent of the people who held their Ph.D. in physiology and pharmacology, which was back in the 1970s,” Schramm said. “I helped to initiate programs in Puerto Rico, South Africa, Jamaica and the West Indies.”

She added that one of the programs was intended to be temporary, but all of the programs she initiated continue today.

“I think all of those reasons were why I was selected as one of the living legends,” Schramm said. “This is only the third year the award has been conferred upon members. Each year the AANA recognizes two people: The first two years those were presidents of the association, this year they were educators.”

Schramm served as the program head of nurse anesthesiology and the division chair for health sciences at Mount Marty in the past and had also been active within the South Dakota Association of Nurse Anesthetists (SDANA) where she served as its president from 1969-1970.

She said she was shocked when she found out she won the Living Legends award.

“I didn’t even know they had the award,” she said. “For the people that nominated me, they all think it’s a great honor. I think getting the award means that I’m well respected within the field.”

Schramm, who is now retired and works part-time as a receptionist at the monastery, said there are things she misses about working as a nurse and professor.

“I miss the patient contact that I had. I loved the interaction that you had with other people when I was a professor,” she said. “However, with the aging process, I don’t miss all of the paperwork that you had to fill out in order to get a program accredited. I also don’t miss all of the work that teachers and professors have to do now, with syllabi, correcting papers and making and correcting tests.”

However, she added that she loved being in the classroom and teaching students.

She also thanked the community for its overwhelming support.

“I wouldn’t have gotten here if it wasn’t thanks to everyone else from the community, from Yankton and the state and parish support I had,” Schramm said. “I want to especially thank my own teachers because you don’t get honored like this alone. I think you take the support for granted initially, but when you look back, you think how amazing it is that they helped get you through everything.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 1:01 AM CST

Published: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 1:01 AM CST

Published: Thursday, November 15, 2012 1:02 AM CST

For Jessica Albers, the opportunity to represent Yankton in the Miss South Dakota USA pageant meant everything.

“My hometown is here in Yankton, and I’m the first Miss Yankton to be named Miss South Dakota USA,” she said.

She won the title at the state pageant held Sunday, Nov. 4 at the Brandon Valley Performing Arts Center in Brandon.

The annual competition consists of three segments, all of which are judged equally; swimsuit, evening gown and interview. Women must be between the ages of 14-26 to compete in either the Miss S.D. USA or Miss S.D. Teen USA pageant and also must be unmarried residents of South Dakota.

Alexis Rupp of Sioux Falls took home the honor of being Miss South Dakota Teen USA.

Albers currently works for Countryside Stores in northeast Nebraska as the executive of operations. She graduated from Mount Marty College with a business administration degree in 2009.

She has been in the Miss USA system for nine years, including one year as a teenager. She has been the first runner-up as Miss South Dakota twice, second runner-up once and the third runner-up three times.

“This year has been like so many other years. You’re standing up there in the top two holding the other persons hand and just hoping they pick you,” Albers said. “Not only is it an honor to win, it’s an unbelievable experience that I’ll be able to represent South Dakota in the Miss USA pageant.”

In order to qualify to compete in the Miss South Dakota pageant, contestants must submit a photo and resume, and directors select contestants from throughout the state for the preliminary round. Once contestants get picked at that level, they represent their hometown in the pageant.

This year, there were 16 women in the competition. Winners are announced in descending order, and whoever’s name is not called is crowned as Miss South Dakota.

“I’ve been in the top five quite a few times and you never want to hear your name called,” Albers said. “I was ready to age out of the system, so this was the last year I could ever compete in Miss South Dakota or Miss USA. I was more excited about just being on stage and having the support I’ve had throughout the years. I didn’t think I would win — my competition was the best I’ve ever seen it at the state level.”

She added that South Dakota hasn’t fared well in the national contest — the last time someone placed in the top 15 at Miss USA from South Dakota was in 1974.

After she was announced as the winner, she said she had hundreds of girls behind her, proud of her and wanting hugs.

“I represent every single girl that was on stage fighting for the title that I won,” Albers said. “When I go out in public, I think of the people I represent in South Dakota that were on that stage, too. The girls there were all so happy for me, and I felt as if I had met so many friends.”

Albers has high aspirations for Miss USA. The date and location of the 2013 pageant is to be announced.

“I really hope I can place in the top 15 at Miss USA, though I would really like to win it,” Albers said. “People in the state might not know the importance of this, but it’s a huge deal and people all over the world watch it.”

Miss USA is the second most watched program in the world, next to the Olympics.

Albers said she has always been a role model and someone girls have to look up to.

“I really feel as if I’ve always been a role model, and I think that’s one of the reasons the judges may have picked me to be Miss South Dakota,” Albers said.

She hopes she can exemplify what and who Miss South Dakota should be and how she should act.

“People underestimate the power of themselves all the time,” Albers added. “All these years I’ve been in the system and the top five, but I don’t need the title to be able to change people’s lives. It’s just an honor to get that title, if you’re able to. However, now that I have the title of Miss South Dakota, I have more people looking up to me, so I need to watch what I do and understand I have more people looking up to me, watching me and wanting to be like me.”

She said if she won the Miss USA Crown, it would bring attention to South Dakota and to Yankton.

“If I win I really hope Yankton County throws a huge party and thinks this is the next biggest thing since Tom Brokaw,” she said.

Albers has faced adversity while fighting for her goals.

“I grew up in Walnut Creek, Calif. My parents divorced when I was 12, and my mom chose not to be a part of the family anymore, so my dad moved us to Yankton because he grew up in Fordyce,” she said. “My dad just thought Yankton was the perfect town to raise two young girls.”

She has a sister, Nicole, who is 24 and works for BNSF.

“My dad brought us back here and raised us on his own,” Albers said. “I didn’t have a mom to teach me how to do makeup. My dad, God bless his heart, really tried hard to have his girls be important to him and said, ‘If you want to do pageants, then we’ll learn how to do makeup.’ So we were on the Internet learning how to put on makeup and how to walk, talk and dress in order to be in pageants.”

She said it’s hard for a girl to grow up without a mother to look up to, rely on and tell all her secrets to.

“My dad had to be a stern father who didn’t allow boyfriends, but also the kind and compassionate mother who showed you how to put makeup on and deal with feminine issues,” Albers said. “He became the most important person in my life.”

She added that she had to look to friends’ mothers for advice, but had amazing friends in high school to help her through everything she was going through.

After graduating from Yankton High School in 2004, Albers said she felt as if her closest friends and role models in high school were all moving away.

“I had finally felt like I made a home, even though it took me a few years to feel like this was home and a place I could come back to and rely on people here,” Albers said. “I wanted to stay here for college, so I went to Mount Marty.”

Albers started out as pre-med at MMC, but eventually switched to business administration.

She said being involved in pageants has “changed my life. They have made me more open, a better communicator and a much more confident person in who I am. It takes a lot of confidence to get on stage in front of thousands of people, wearing a bathing suit and make-up and acting like you’re just at the beach.”

She added that every woman that competes in pageants becomes more confident and calmer knowing that if they have the guts to enter a pageant, they can do anything they want.

“When I won Miss South Dakota, I was so happy my dreams finally came true,” Albers said. “When they announced who the winner was, I didn’t see my family, but I would have liked to have seen a photo of them — it probably would have been the best photo I’ve ever had.”

She said she is looking forward to representing Yankton and the entire state in Miss USA.

“It really means everything to me to be able to represent Yankton in Miss USA,” Albers said. “I wouldn’t have worked for 10 years to be where I’m at if I didn’t love my county and stayed here to represent it. I could have moved to a bigger state or lived in Nebraska, but I chose to stay here to represent Yankton.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Wednesday, November 14, 2012 12:58 AM CST

Published: Saturday, November 10, 2012 1:02 AM CST

Thirty-five Yankton Middle School (YMS) students and teachers gathered in front of their friends and coworkers on Friday to help Larry Zimmerman make a point.

Zimmerman, the South Dakota state Command Sergeant Major, brought the students and teachers to the front of the gym to show the audience how many South Dakota soldiers have been killed in the line of duty over the past 11 years.

“I think it’s important for young adults like the students here to know the sacrifices so many people made for them to have their freedoms,” Zimmerman said.

Zimmerman became the seventh state command sergeant major of the South Dakota Army National Guard in 2009. As part of his duties, he serves as the adjutant general’s personal advisor on all enlisted matters, with a special emphasis on soldier issues and training. Zimmerman also acts as an advocate and representative for more than 3,400 soldiers from South Dakota.

In addition, he also visits soldiers and listens to their concerns and observes training across the state. He travels wherever soldiers are in South Dakota, or overseas to ensure their needs are being met.

“My main thing as a sergeant major in the state is to remind people that we still have service members serving in the state and abroad, and that we need to be thinking about them and praying about them on a daily basis,” Zimmerman said.

In addition to Zimmerman talking to the students and veterans in the audience, the program also included patriotic performances by the band, choir and orchestra. The Yankton Veteran’s of Foreign Wars and American Legion presented the colors for the ceremony. There was also a video tribute that played which honored the veterans of Yankton Middle School students and faculty.

“Being here and being seated in the gym today, kids will have a strong impact and will get a lot out of the ceremony,” YMS Principal Todd Dvoracek said. “Members of the choir, band and orchestra are performing songs. One of the songs the choir performed had each branch of the military stand up and the audience cheered to recognize them. Kids will have a good learning day from this. From hearing the music to listening to Zimmerman speak and mingling with the visitors we have, I think this will have a big impact on them.”

Dvoracek added that the social studies department at YMS implemented a few lessons to go along with the curriculum and the Veteran’s Day ceremony at the school.

“To get all these people included and to have the community come in, it’s a really emotional day. We’re very grateful to have everyone come join us,” he said. “It’s hard work for everyone involved. But we want to show support for veterans in the community and have them be recognized as well.”

Zimmerman said he was honored to have the opportunity to speak to students and veterans in attendance.

“Words can’t express how much it means to me to speak today. YMS puts on a program that’s unbelievable and I think it’s matched by no other ceremony across the state,” he said. “They do an excellent job.”

He told the audience our veterans and active military are trying to give people around the world the freedoms we enjoy in the United States, and that men and women have fought for more than 237 years for us to enjoy the freedom we have here today.

“We are all the beneficiaries of their determination to protect us,” he told the audience.

Zimmerman said he hopes the students and audience remember his demonstration over everything else he said during his speech.

“I hope the kids remember that numbers are important and people make sacrifices for the kids to do what they do today,” he said. “I love to get the message out about the sacrifices people have made for all of our freedoms.”

Dvoracek added that people in the audience should be proud of the veterans and the active military.

“If you’re not a proud American sitting at Yankton Middle School today, there’s something wrong,” he said.

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal