Inside our schools: ‘It was a dream come true’

There’s a medal-winning Olympian among the Lakeland School District staff. Kirk Grogan, a 1992 graduate of Lakeland High School and a maintenance worker in the district, won a bronze medal at the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games in China earlier this month. Grogan’s 11.12-meter shot put throw catapulted him onto the winner’s podium at Shanghai.

“It was exciting. It was awesome. It was a dream come true,” said 34-year-old Spirit Lake native after his trip home.

The games drew 500 athletes from all over the globe.

Grogan said the competitions are purer than many of the U.S. sporting events today.

“The athletes, their attitudes are upbeat and positive,” he said. “I never see that in pro sports anymore. Money has ruined them.”

He said he trained for five or six years in anticipation of the world track and field event.

“I do a lot of cardiovascular conditioning: a lot of treadmill, elliptical trainer and lots of speed drills. I do a lot of lifting. I work every body part three days a week at North Idaho Fitness in Rathdrum,” said Grogan, now a Rathdrum resident.

His parents, Linda and Gail Grogan, made the trip to China, too. Spirit Lake residents helped pay for their travel by staging community fundraisers.

They stayed in a Holiday Inn Express in the Chinese city of more than 20 million, where streets buzz with the sounds of buses, mopeds, scooters, cars and bicycles.

Kirk Grogan said: “The traffic is crazy. Oh, man, they have to fast reflexes to drive in that city.”

Grogan belongs to the Special Olympics Idaho Board of Directors, which has already begun planning for the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games, to be held at Tamarack Resort, Idaho.

He was instrumental in bringing the competition to his home state.

“I was speaking to the delegation that came down from Washington, D.C., to tell them Idaho would be a beautiful place to hold the games. The snow is deep. The weather’s perfect. The beauty in the mountains is awesome. And the people are nice,” he told them.

‘Robin Hook’ at timberlake

Timberlake Senior High School’s Drama Department will stage the comedy “Robin Hood: The Next Generation,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday and next Thursday in the Commons area.

Admission will be $3 adults; $2 for high school students with IDs, children 12 and under and senior citizens.

Set 20 years after the birth of Robin, Sir Robin Hood and Lady Marian’s daughter, the humorous production revolves around the young woman’s search for a royal husband.

Among the characters are comic princes Jarred and Gerald; wimpy Lord Horvath, whose mother has designs on the throne, and poor prince Rodney the Regrettable.

Correction

Please note, an earlier listing here of Timberlake High School’s Booster Club meetings was incorrect. Please mark your calendars to reflect that the group meets at 7 p.m. the first Wednesday of the month in the school library.

Parents are encouraged to get active with the organization, which raises money to pay for a variety of student needs, providing scholarships as well as outside funding for academics, sports and clubs.

Autographs take flight

Autographs of Mullan Trail Elementary School students should be floating in space by now. Their signatures were scanned from a poster they created onto a disc that is being carried aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle Discovery, launched Oct. 23.

Mission STS-120 is being piloted by Retired Air Force Col. Pamela Melroy, a veteran shuttle pilot and the second woman to command the craft.

Once the Shuttle returns to Earth, the poster created by the kids through the Student Signatures in Space program, will be returned to the school for permanent display. A flight certificate and picture of the crew will accompany the poster.

Lockheed Martin is the founding sponsor of the program, geared to get youngsters excited about careers in math, science, engineering and technology.

Students take part in Red Ribbon Week

In an effort to promote drug-free lifestyles, Prairie View Elementary School participated in Red Ribbon Week.

Students brought their teddy bears to school Monday when the theme was Drugs are Unbearable. They donned red clothing at the PTO’s Skate Night on Tuesday evening. Mid-week, a staff baby picture identification contest played on the message Born to be Drug-Free.

Sock it to Drugs Day encouraged kids to wear their craziest socks. They wore their shirts backward Friday, Turn Your Back on Drugs Day.

In a separate initiative, the school has started recognizing classes that demonstrate the best character traits with a “Character Counts – Pass it On” trophy, to be awarded weekly.