CHS Rocketry Club competing in national event
There were parachute problems. A broken fin. A shipment of motors held up in Illinois. Glue that liquefied in the wet weather.
But three members of the Coeur d’Alene High Rocketry Club persevered.
On May 17, the rocket they designed will lift off at the Team America Rocketry Challenge in Plains, Va. Sophomores Aidan Burgeson, Nick Grimmett and Evan Lantze will compete against 99 other teams for a share of $60,000 in scholarships and prizes.
The rules of the competition are simple: Design and build a rocket that shoots up 750 feet anad stays in the air for 45 seconds.
There’s a catch. Each rocket must carry two raw eggs as payload, and those eggs must make it back to terra firma uncracked.
Burgeso said one of the coolest things about the contest is the students get to use explosives, legally.
The challenge of meeting such specific requirements appeals to the members of the rocketry club, who meet for about an hour each week to work on the project.
“It’s fun, just to have a goal,” Lantze said.
The eggs are packaged in foam and stuck inside the rocket’s nose cone, along with an altimeter that measures how high the rocket flies.
The body of the rocket is a packing tube and the fins are crafted from bass wood.
“We went through 28 designs before we came up with this one,” Burgeson said. So far, they’ve only broken two eggs.
Students must pay their own way to the competition and cover expenses including food and lodging. The CHS Rocketry Club is trying to raise money for the trip through donations and sponsorships.
Donors who give $500 will have their company’s name “prominently displayed” on the team’s rocket. Anyone who donates $100 or more will have their donations acknowledged at the event.
Club Advisor Neil Morris said any donations are appreciated.
They can be sent to Coeur d’Alene High School, Attention: CHS Rocketry, 5530 N. Fourth St., Coeur d’Alene, ID 83815.
For information, contact Rocketry Club advisers Bill White at 661-8831 or Morris at 660-6378.
Student’s art to be displayed in Capitol
A Coeur d’Alene High student’s drawing of a soldier bending over to greet a boy is the winner of this year’s 1st Congressional District Congressional Art Contest.
“It’s About More than Just War,” by sophomore Grace Morrissette, will be displayed in the U.S. Capitol.
“Often we speak generically about the ‘fight for freedom’ taking place overseas in places like Iraq and Afghanistan,” Sali said in a press release. “Grace’s artistic achievement is that she has put a face on the fight. She shows soldiers who sacrifice and the children who benefit from that sacrifice in ways that words cannot describe or do justice.”
Timberlake High junior Bernadette Loibl’s watercolor of a horse placed second in the competition and CHS senior Becky Lau won third-place honors for artwork featuring veterans and a U.S. Flag.
Sali will display the artwork by Loibl and Lau in his regional offices.
Teacher honored for excellence
Coeur d’Alene teacher Nancy Larsen has been awarded the Idaho Education Association’s Marsha Nakamura Award for Teaching Excellence.
Larsen, a teacher at the Coeur d’Alene Charter Academy, was Idaho’s Teacher of the Year in 2000. She was formerly the Coeur d’Alene School District’s Teacher of the Year.
She founded Growing Idaho’s Future Teachers, a program aimed to encourage Idaho students to go into teaching.
Football camp at Hayden Meadows
A football camp sponsored by former NFL players John Friesz and Ryan Phillips, fishing trips and a Reno vacation are among the items up for grabs at a benefit auction Friday at Hayden Meadows Elementary.
The auction will raise money for the school’s International Baccaulaureate Primary Years Program, said Principal Patty Woodworth. Admission is $10 and includes dessert. Tickets may be purchased in advance.
Contact Hayden Meadows Elementary, 772-5006.