With only one hour to free themselves, students worked feverishly in their teams to Break Out of some very tough situations.
Jacob, Ronan, Salma and Manuel found themselves on a runaway train with planted explosives on board. They were able to break out in a TCS record of 51 minutes and 53 seconds savings themselves and their fellow passengers.
Hostages on an airplane, Aidan, Tyleiah, Jayla and Keith were able to free themselves at literally the last second! Breaking loose from their handcuffs and putting their minds together, they escaped sure disaster.
We don’t know what possessed students to go into the old mansion that had been abandoned decades ago, but Olivia, Le’Onnie, Faith and Joshua found themselves trapped inside once they entered. They raced the clock to escape and came close but didn’t make it out in time.
Claude, Destiny, Sara and Ethan were kidnapped and woke up blindfolded and handcuffed in a strange room. They had to get out before the kidnapper returned for them and with just seconds from freeing themselves, their time ran out!
All of these scenarios took place at Break OutGames in Timonium thanks to writing teacher and mentor Don Riesett. This surprise field trip followed a writing seminar where the students were challenged to create a story where they found themselves trapped in the basement of the church across the street from the school. This writing and sharing prepared them for the simulated adventure that was to follow. A great time was had by all! Thank you Mr. Don!
Congratulations to Olivia Yates, Ethan Christou and Keith Cooke for their recognition as recipients of the2020 Maryland Scholastic Art & Writing Awards!
Olivia Yates is a nominee in the American Voices category and her writing “My Mountain” will be submitted along with the four other Maryland finalists to the national competition. Her piece was a personal memoir essay about the importance of accepting yourself and not being influenced by national marketing or other societal standards of beauty.
“So, when I cried because of horrible things that are being
said in the media and negative messages I have been told, I’m crying for all
people who have seen these posts or magazines and felt the same as me. As
someone who has recognized a positive image of beauty and who has joined a
movement that encourages people to feel confident within themselves, I know how
important it is to feel comfortable in your own skin.” Excerpt from “My Mountain” by Olivia Yates
Ethan Christou won the Emerging Artists Inspire Scholarship for his work “The Senses Dividing.” This Silver Key award in the short story category was for a suspense-filled work about a not-so-ordinary day of fright bouncing back and forth between the real world and a dream state.
“I was running down a
hallway. There was something behind me with no face. I kept running until I saw
there was no end of the hallway. The faceless entity was still behind me, but
another one was in front of me as well. A passage opened up beside me. I went
inside and felt myself falling. It was peaceful. It was empty.” Excerpt from “The Senses Dividing” by Ethan Christou
Keith Cooke won an Honorable Mention in the Humor category for his work
“Once upon a time,” a Halloween story of imaginations and fear run amuck.
“They wondered if she
had figured out that the candy didn’t work and that she needed to figure out a
different way to end them. Well that just made everything worse in their minds.
Their brains were rumbling so quickly that they couldn’t even finish a
sentence. From across the street they saw her looking out of her front window
on the first floor. They could not see where she was looking or if she
was looking at them.” Excerpt
from “Once Upon a Time” by Keith Cooke.
All of these works were written and developed in the creative writing seminar taught by Don Riesett. Don teaches this two-hour seminar every Friday morning and follows it up on Wednesdays with one-on-one time with each student to go over their work. He encourages the students to think more deeply and creatively while developing their writing and communication skills. His success is measured by the students love of writing and of hearing each other’s work and can also be seen in the recognition that Olivia, Ethan and Keith have been given
Of the 13 special prize winners in writing from both public and private schools located in Baltimore City, students from The Community School won three of the awards. The awards are presented by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers whose mission is to identify students with exceptional artistic and literary talent and present their remarkable work to the world through the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. This year there were nearly 4,000 entries from Maryland and over 340,000 entries nationwide. There will be an award ceremony held at Baltimore Center Stage on Sunday, March 1st.
Our appreciation goes to Sarah Doccolo from the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts for encouraging our students to enter into this competition and for their kind support of our program.
We are proud of all of our students and send special
congratulations to Olivia, Ethan and Keith with a special thanks to Mr. Don!
A survivor of the 1958 Our Lady of Angels school fire spoke with the students today about this horrible event. Mike Gallo was in his elementary school class on the 2nd floor of the school when the fire broke out. His teacher told the students to gather around her and pray as they hoped to be rescued. Instead, Mike ran down steps that were already ablaze to escape the burning school. His classmates and the teacher were later found among the rubble still grouped together but overtaken by the fire and smoke.
Mr. Gallo grew up in the poor and working class Chicago community not far from Our Lady of Angels. The day of the fire he ran to the safety of his home and find his parents. They later went back to the scene to witness the continuing event and the sadness and confusion that followed as classmates were carried out while others were rushed in all forms of transportation to seek medical care.
Though Mike survived, he has relived that day and those that followed throughout his life. His memories of the fire and the many funerals remain vivid even these many years later. This harrowing story was both a lesson about the fragility of life and about how you can survive tragedy and go on to build a meaningful life.
Mr. Gallo shared his later young life as a street youth who got into more than his share of trouble up through his eventually getting back on track. His determination saw him rise up through the ranks in the Minolta Corporation until eventually becoming a Vice-President of U.S. operations. He credits his respect for all people, strong work ethic and determination with his ability to find success in life. The students were spellbound by his story and appreciated his courage in retelling such a traumatic event in his life. Mike has been a close friend of The Community school for several years and the students are looking forward to having him come back in the spring.
