![After placing second in their respective LDEs at the Capital District contest in early November, freshman Jesus Jaramillo-Gallegos and freshman Wyatt Pickett will compete at the Area XII LDE contest in Georgetown on Nov. 23. Jaramillo-Gallegos is competing in Greenhand Spanish Creed Speaking, while Pickett’s LDE is Greenhand Creed Speaking. “Honestly, [I’m excited for] just traveling around, maybe meeting more people,” Jaramillo-Gallegos said. “And [I’m] nervous about probably just not being able to define my weak areas. I feel like I did decent for my first time ever doing this. I just think it’s fun.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Navy-and-Yellow-Simple-Group-Project-Presentation-1200x675.png)
![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
![Sitting at a desk past the rows of books laid out for the Book Fair, senior Kimberley Walters assists people in purchasing books and finding titles. The Book Fair is taking place Dec. 16 through Dec. 20, and is an annual event during which students and faculty have the opportunity to go and purchase books and other trinkets in the library. Kimberley said she encourages all to go to the Book Fair, even if they think they don’t like to read. “If you make reading something that is fun for you and you find the things that you like to read, it will never be a chore,” Walters said. “So [the Book Fair is] a good opportunity to find something that will respark your want to read [like] when you were a child and you went to the book fair and you loved the ‘I survived’ books. Maybe you'll find your ‘I survived’ books of your high school experience, and it'll re-spark that kind of love for reading that may have died out.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Addie-L-47-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, sophomore Olivia Mahlmeister and seniors Samantha Jameson, Adhit Eswaramoorthi and Justin Khadavi celebrate completing first chamber in the Congress Meet. All four students advanced to the final chamber. “Out of the 20 kids in the final chamber, we had a seventh, ninth, 11th and 13th, and they took the top four to move on to state,” AP US History and Debate teacher Josh Marsh said. “[Even though] we didn't make state this year, all four of them moving on [and] placing is phenomenal.” Photo courtesy of Josh Marsh](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/2024-Regional-Congress-Team.jpg)
![Standing in front of a small audience, senior Kimberley Walters shares a social criticism poem titled “Pity the Nation” by Lawrence Felinghetti. Every month, sponsored by the poetry club, the library hosts a poetry reading. “I never thought I would be interested in [poetry readings] because I’m not the biggest poetry fan,” Walters said. “I think poetry is a very succinct way to express feelings and get a story across. Whereas lots of books have a span of a whole story, but it’s put in a lot of words. The power of poetry is that you can be so succinct within, and there’s a lot of power within the words that are used.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/KIM-1200x800.jpg)
![Smiling at the camera, Author Ehigbor Okosun, members of Page Turners, and other students reflect on the author's visit. “I thought the visit was great,” Senior Amia De Leon said. “It was interesting talking to her and [getting to know] her process and her thoughts and books in general. But I think the reason it went well [was that] people got to ask questions. I'm glad that she said so much in response to the questions and it wasn't just one and done. [The author’s responses] felt very articulate.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Sebastian-5-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding the Grand Nationals trophies, drum majors Helashi Wijayawardhana, Abigail Pettey and Eddy Kim pose for a photo. The BOA Grand Nationals competition took place in Indianapolis on Nov. 14-17. “My favorite thing was just looking back at the field, and I was like, ‘Oh, crap. I know all of their names, I know who all of them are’,” Wijayawardahana said. “It's just insane to me that I was able to make so many connections. [Being a drum major] taught me how to build relationships with people who I’m not really that similar to, and how to juggle a ton of things all together.”
Photo courtesy of CPHS Band SmugMug](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/AJC.GrandNatsFinals-169-1200x801.jpg)
![Delicately placing the string to form the shape of a cornucopia, seniors Haley Burton and Avery Nelson create the November arrangement for the Flower of the Month Club. This club is led by Advanced Floral Design Students and provides a monthly arrangement to community members who subscribe to receive them. “I think flower of the month club is a really impactful way to show your loved ones ‘hey I really care about you,’ or even if they’re just for yourself, they’re a little pick-me-up throughout the month that [say] ‘I’m doing ok, and these flowers make my day a little bit brighter,” Nelson said. “I like giving people flowers because people value the flowers more and they value themselves more.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Ava-Holmes-3-edit.jpg)
![Standing in front of the field at a freshman football game, cheerleader freshman Jacob Gaudreau along with teammate freshman Bella Gibson pose for a photo during halftime of game. “[Cheer has] definitely given me a much more outgoing personality,” Gaudreau said. “I used to be very introverted, so it's definitely made me more extroverted towards people.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Ingrid-204-1200x800.jpg)
![Holding a wooden pizza toy, senior Taylor Peterson plays with small children in Bucaramanga, Colombia. During the summer, Peterson traveled to Colombia to help build an elementary school that only had two classrooms but five or six grades with one teacher. “We add[ed] two more classrooms,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of hard when you have two or three grades in one classroom and you only have one teacher. It’s very hard to actually get some beneficial learning. [The extra classrooms will give the students] a better quality of education because they’ll actually have a place specific for their learning.” Photo by Taylor Peterson](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Taylor-P.png)
![Sucking in a breath of air, freshman Lily Pope competes in the 200 yard individual medley. On Oct. 25, the swim team competed in the AISD Swim Invitational. Overall, the girls team took second place and the boys team came in eleventh. “My favorite stroke is butterfly because I do the best in that stroke,” Pope said. “I feel like [butterfly] can test how [your ability] to convince yourself to keep going. The hardest part of swimming is convincing yourself to stay strong and keep pushing during a hard race [when] everything is tired.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/POPE-1200x804.jpg)
![Swinging with his arm extended, senior Nolan Park hits the ball smoothly over the net and to the opponent’s side. Park is one of four varsity tennis captains and helped the team win district championships. “Winning district champs was a pretty awesome feeling,” Park said. “We had lost to Liberty Hill a couple of weeks before, but when we played them [again], we came out and really took care of business. We took them out and it was just a really awesome night.”](https://cphswolfpack.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Kassidy-419.jpg)
Dress for Less
LISD Clothes Closet Helps Students in Need
More stories from Ty Cathey
Standing among the clothing racks, the Leander ISD PTA Clothes Closet staff poses for a picture on Oct. 14. Judy Buckner, an experienced community service member who has been helping the Clothes Closet for the past 15 years, said she likes helping students in need. “People do all these things that help people far, far away and that’s great, everyone needs help, but people don’t realize what the need is right here in the community,” Buckner said. “You don’t have to spend all the money on postage to help people, you’ve got people in your own neighborhood who need help.”
In a portable nestled between the LEO center and Leander Middle School, there is a clothes closet.
Originally starting in an LISD Elementary school in the 1980s, the Leander ISD PTA Clothes Closet has provided thousands of outfits to students in need. Judy Buckner, an experienced community service member, who has been helping the Clothes Closet for the past 15 years, said she likes helping students in need.
“This is a really good way to help people,” Buckner said. “Even though parents are making decent salaries, sometimes it’s hard getting all the different brands kids like.”
The Clothes Closet isn’t just open to students of low income backgrounds, but rather to all students of all economic backgrounds. The Clothes Closet marks clothing and will remove items of clothing depending on what year it arrived to the facility, to ensure students are getting newer clothes.
“We get so many nice brand name clothes in here and we only keep the best of the best,” Buckner said. “We just want to fill in the gaps and help kids, as well as help people who need those volunteer hours.”
There are two locations in the LISD boundaries, the main one on West Drive in Leander and the South location at Four Points Middle School, which opened in October. Hours vary, but the closet is open two to three days a week and anyone living in the LISD boundaries can shop for free.
“People do all these things that help people far, far away and that’s great, everyone needs help, but people don’t realize what the need is right here in the community,” Buckner said. “You don’t have to spend all the money on postage to help people, you’ve got people in your own neighborhood who need help.”
Each student may receive 10 outfits per semester, two pairs of shoes, socks and underwear and four pieces of outwear. If a student doesn’t get anything in the first semester of a school year, they may collect for both the first and second semester in the second semester.
“We normally stick to the amounts because of the number of students that need help or could use help, but if we can tell a student needs more than we’ll give it to them,” Buckner said.
Making sure students have clothes is a big priority, but the community volunteer leaders of the Clothes Closet also work closely and personally with parents or students to make sure the student finds clothing they like. The Clothes Closet attempts to get the newer brand clothing whenever possible, but as a mostly donation driven organization, it’s not always easy. In addition, when the Clothes Closet takes older items or items they can’t use off the shelves, they donate them to places like Savers or will give them to be recycled, making sure the clothes find a use.
“I think the biggest challenge is making sure we have the [clothes] that high schoolers really like, like the Nike stuff, the Adidas stuff, Star Wars, college stuff and even gaming stuff,” Buckner said. “Gaming [clothes] are kind of iffy, because if they’re showing the weapons and stuff, were technically not supposed to have those because of the guns and violence.”
The Clothes Closet doesn’t carry pajamas or baby clothes, however, it does have clothes for anyone Pre-K through 12th grade. Sometimes, if a family is in serious need, such as a house burnt down, the Clothes Closet will provide clothes for the entire family and help them in other situations of need.
“We’ll take anything you give us and if we can use it, we will, but we want kids to be happy with what they get,” Buckner said. “We’d like people to realize that we go from 3T all the way up to 3X, and we can really use those name brand shoes and those warm-up pants, or joggers, you know, the things that kids really like to wear.”
Both student and parent volunteers are always needed for the Clothes Closet. Students who may want to volunteer and get community service hours for school clubs and organizations should go through the Leander ISD Ez volunteer website.
“I think everybody that volunteers here is very dedicated to helping people, and, in spite of our hours that we’re open, we tend to work a whole lot more than that,” Buckner said. “I think last summer, I was here four days a week for around four hours each day, sometimes even six hours in a day.”
Anyone interested in donating can drop off items in a blue bin located outside the main Clothes Closet building at 324 S. West Drive. The next big event where help is needed is the Thrift Teen Night event on Nov. 13 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
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Ty Cathey is a junior and this is his first year on staff. He works at Home Depot, loves to spend his free time playing video games and collecting coins and bullion. He likes to write about individual people with interesting stories and cheesy dad jokes for the Toilet Times. Ty also enjoys playing with his dog Bandit, who is a Golden Labrador Retriever. Ty plans on attending Austin Community College for two years after he graduates.
