February 20, 2008
www.prepnews.org
9301 State Line Road Kansas City, Mo. 64114
Explosive week shatters record
Donations surpass
all previous marks
with array of events
Bands battle to prove
ultimate school rocker
seanMartin
entertainment editor
jordanMeadows
advertising/business editor
Bringing in $47,908.01, Mission
Week broke the previous record of
just over $39,000, set last year.
This increase in money raised can
be attributed to a shift from a Mission
Week to more of a Mission “Month.”
“It was too much for us to administratively handle that week into accurate accounting; we just couldn’t turn
it around quick enough,” Mr. Mike
Heringer, Student Government Association (SGA) moderator, said.
The options were to either have
fewer events during the week, or to
expand the timeframe in order to allow for better planning, more events
and more time to add up the total
money raised.
“[More time allows for] better
events and it allows us to plan more,
and it spreads things out a little bit,”
senior William Boesen, SGA president said.
With the extended time, Rockhurst averaged $46.11 per student in
donations.
Donations came in through homeroom collections and activities sponsored by the SGA: hunger lunch,
casino night, volleyball night, bombardment tournament, dress-down
days, the board game and the Carlito’s Battle of the Bands.
“[The activities] add a fun factor
for the students while raising a lot
of money for a great cause,” senior
John Fryer, mission week coordinator,
said.
The highlight of Mission Week
was the board game, in which classes
competed against each other in different challenges, with the winners
getting added money to their grade’s
total as the prize.
However, in an attempt to win the
money total for their class, the freshmen decided to not compete in the
last half of the board game.
After the events had concluded,
the freshman class announced that
they would add $9,500 that they had
stored up during the week to their
Mission Week totals.
Then Fryer brought in a safe, filled
with $16,000 that the seniors had
saved up, bringing the senior’s Mission Week money total to an average
of $89.11 raised per student, winning
the competition of highest average
money raised per student.
“When [the freshmen] decided not
to play, it was just kind of against the
whole point of the game and even
though they did that, they still didn’t
win, so obviously it’s not that great of
a strategy,” Fryer said.
Perhaps the only significant change
in events this year from years past was
the re-addition of a hunger lunch,
where the majority of participating
students had a rice and beans lunch,
in an attempt to illustrate the nutritional situation of people around the
world, according to Mr. Heringer.
The hunger lunch was a common
Rockhurst Mission Week event, until enthusiasm for it was lost seven
or eight years ago and was removed
from events, according to Boesen.
This lunch went in theme with this
year’s efforts of making the students
aware of why we give money.
“[The goals for mission week were]
number one, that there would be education in term of the justice and charity of this; number two, we would
have fun; and number three, we would
raise funds for the missions. And I
was emphatic in that order,” Mr. Heringer said.
Changes this year included the
SGA posting letters from recipients
of the mission donations from previous years, in order to put a “face” on
the people we donate to.
“[We wanted] to give all of the
guys in the school an opportunity to
know what they were giving to, because that’s kind of been lost over the
years I’ve been here – the guys forget
what they’re giving to,” Boesen said.
contactjordanm@prepnews.org
Casey Cummings
Cale Fry
Jon Hamilton
Mission Money
2008 New Record
$47,908.01
Mission Money
Previous Record
$39,000.00
Mission Money
Breakdown
1)Seniors$20,405.53
$89.11perstudent
2)Freshmen$16,076.43
$57.83perstudent
John Martucci
Giving Top left: Belting out a high note, senior Claire McFarland
of St. Teresa’s Academy sings “Great Gig in the Sky” Top middle:
Rolling dice, seniors win Mission Week board game Top right:
Competing in the bombardment tournament, Mr. William Gorden
hurls a ball at a student Middle: Participating in the balloon drop,
Mr. David Alvey absorbs the impact of a direct hit
3)Juniors$4,624.07
$17.85perstudent
4)Sophomores$3,561.40
$12.95perstudent
GeneralDonations 3,240.58
Prayer Service
Board Game
The Mission Week Prayer Service was held
Feb. 12 in the gym. Guest speaker Fr. Leo Weber
told of his first-hand experience working with the
missions of which Rockhurst donates.
“[The goal of the prayer service was] to better
define who we were giving to, and Fr. Weber was
perfect for that because he’s been there and he
knows exactly how it was, so he was able to give
a passionate speech about it,” junior Brad Fowler,
SGA secretary, said.
The Mission Week board game took place
Feb. 15 to let students have fun and take
a break after a week grinding out money,
according to senior Quinn Damon, spirit club
president.
Classes competed against each other in both
physical and trivia challenges for a chance to win
more money for their grade.
The senior class won the most challenges
and had the highest money total, as well as the
highest average money given per student.
-Jordan Meadows
-Jordan Meadows
Parker Rauschelbach
John Martucci
Battle of the Bands
Winners of the three
overall best band awards were
Thundermuffin, Virtuosity and
Failsafe, with places one, two
and three respectively.
Senior vocalist Dylan
Maloney, sophomore guitarist
Connor Doolan, sophomore
drummer Fritz Hutchison,
junior keyboardist David
Lukens, senior bassist Paul
Judge and senior saxaphonist
Matt Purcell were also
honored with awards.
-Sean Martin
Cornell Ellis
Giving Top left: Father Leo Weber S.J. speaking to Rockhurst during the prayer service. Top right: sophomore Pete Fischer, junior
Matt Fagan and senior James McFadden race MarioKart during
the Board Game. Bottom: seniors Jeff Berry and Sean Attebery,
with sophomore Connor Doolan jam in Thundermuffin
News - 1-3 Opinions - 4 Sports - 5-8 Features - B2-B3
In-Depth - B4-B5
Thirty minutes before the test
band, Pigs on the Wing, was supposed to open, the crew still hurried
to finish setting up lights and sound
equipment as the bands filled the
area behind stage, moving instruments out of the Saturday night rain
or grabbing a double cheeseburger
before the Battle.
As the Pink Floyd cover band
took the stage, the roughly fifty
people present gravitated toward
the speakers, ready to hear the
music. After the instrumental intro,
senior Sean Attebery’s voice slid
into “Breathe” as senior bassist Paul
Judge beat out the bluesy rock beat
for which Pink Floyd was known.
I’d known the band was playing Pink Floyd songs, yet as I heard
Saint Teresa’s Academy senior Claire
McFarland launch into “Great Gig in
the Sky,” my ears did a double-take.
For those who don’t know, the only
lyrics to this song are a lady’s, or
in their case Claire’s, progressively
higher, yet haunting screams.
After the fifteen minutes it took
to switch equipment, I was eager to
hear the first judged band, Chasing
Thursday. The band is led by female
vocalists, Notre Dame de Sion
juniors Megan Sherman and Nicole
Bishop. Unfortunately for these two
heroines of folky-alt rock, white
smoke began rising from the left and
right speakers, indicating more faulty
equipment.
Silent Harmony was next, with
junior Pat Connor leading off in
vocals. About this time I started to
notice the gym filling up, not quite
to capacity, yet still enough to crowd
the front of the stage.
The instrumentally focused jazzfusion quintet of Gravity followed
closely, amid countless other technical difficulties. The band featured
senior Matt Purcell, who would later
win “best horn,” switching between
thumping out a jazzy beat on his bass
guitar to blowing a mean experience
through his saxophone.
After, big surprise, even more
technical difficulties, senior Pat
Braud and Rikky Batwings took
command nearly 45 minutes behind
schedule. The band rocked covers
of bands like Muse, Incubus and U2.
Braud, the band’s only Rockhurst
student, was forced to take lead after
the original lead singer fell ill.
Thundermuffin came next, featuring what was to be an awarded
line-up. Attebery reprised his role as
lead vocals, while sophomores Connor Doolan, shredding away on lead
guitar and kilt-clad Fritz Hutchison
smashing anything that moved on
his drum set, went on to win their
awards for best respective instruments. From masks of senior Ryan
Doolan to ten minute jams featuring
every instrument, Thundermuffin
secured the crowd enjoyment and
the judges’ votes, later winning the
coveted first-place honors.
Second-comers to the Battle, Empire followed up, engaging the crowd
while utilizing front-man Zack
Tomlinson’s showmanship.
The most veteran band, Failsafe,
who has “battled” all four years under different names, featured senior
guitar virtuoso Dylan Maloney,
winner of “best vocals,” on guitars
and lead vocals and senior Nick
Faulconer on drums. Failsafe finally
managed to secure an overall award,
a fact evident in the faces of the
seniors as they celebrated following
the award announcements.
Finally, it was the much anticipated band Virtuosity’s turn to take
the stage. As their first song began,
it was evident that Virtuosity was,
without a doubt, the only band that
the majority of the crowd knew anything close to words for. Winning
second, Virtuosity continued to reign
over the annual Battle of the Bands,
achieving at least one overall award
in each of their three participations.
contactseanm@prepnews.org
Entertainment - B6-B8
Volume 65, Issue 6