#1StudentNWI: Westville Celebrates Pumpkin Festival and More

#1StudentNWI: Westville Celebrates Pumpkin Festival and More

What’s Happening: Pumpkin Festival

This past month, the Westville chapter of Tri Kappa held their twenty-seventh annual Pumpkin Festival. For those who don’t know, the Westville Pumpkin Festival is one of the biggest events in the Westville community, and almost the entire town is somehow involved in the festivities. This year, there were so many events they couldn’t possibly be listed in one article.

The weekend started with a Middle School dance and the crowning of the Pumpkin King, Queen, Prince, and Princess on Friday evening. The festivities continued the following morning with a 5K run and then one of the main events, the parade. There were dozens of floats representing many of the different community groups including the Westville Leo/Lions Club, the local Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, and the Westville Police and Fire Department.

After the parade, everyone headed to the festival where there were many other fun events taking place such as the tractor pull and a pie eating contest. Along with the various events, there was also live entertainment provided by some local bands, the high school band, and the high school choir. There were many rides and carnival games. The festival wrapped up on Sunday with a pancake breakfast put on by the Westville Lions Club and a three on three basketball tournament at the high school.

The Westville Pumpkin Festival was an extremely fun and entertaining experience. Every year it brings the town closer together, and provides everyone with a real sense of community.

What’s Coming Up: Eighth Grade Washington D.C. Trip

1Student-Westville-October-2017-02This year’s eighth grade trip to Washington D.C. is coming up on October 18th. The annual trip has been going on for the past twenty-eight years, and each year the class is more excited to go. This year, twenty-five to twenty-seven students will being going on the trip including one student who won an all expense paid scholarship for the trip. In preparation, students have been raising money since last October by selling candy bars. Some trip goers even raised enough to almost completely pay for their expenses. After all of this hard work and anticipation, the students will finally be heading off on their big adventure.

The students will be starting the ten hour drive to D.C. early Wednesday night and getting there very early Thursday morning. From that point, their weekend will take off and they will see a whirlwind of different places and landmarks including the Capital Building, the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington Cemetery, and the White House. This year, the students might even have the chance to go inside the White House!

Along with this amazing opportunity, the previous trips have been known for bringing many fun surprises such as meeting government officials and war veterans, so the class of students has a lot to look forward to.

The 8th grade students are in for a very fun and educational field trip to Washington D.C. They are sure to have a wonderful weekend that they will never forget.

Teacher Spotlight: Ms. Hewitt

1Student-Westville-October-2017-03Meet Miss Hewitt, Westville’s music teacher for the elementary, middle, and high school. Miss Hewitt has been teaching for four years, three of which she has been at Westville. Her favorite part about teaching is the feeling she experiences when the lessons she's taught begin to click for the students. Furthermore, her favorite part about teaching music specifically is sharing her passion and hopefully passing that same passion on to her students.

Miss Hewitt wears many hats. Along with teaching her classes she also sponsors the Advanced Choir and the musical honor society, Tri-M. She is working towards more performances for both of these groups and more community service projects for Tri-M.

This year Miss Hewitt is eager to try many new things. The Advanced Choir was able to perform at the Pumpkin Festival this year for the first time, and Miss Hewitt is planning on adding some choreography to upcoming performances to add a little something new. For example, the Advanced Choir will be performing Thriller at their fall concert on October 23rd and along with singing the piece, the students will also be dancing to spice up the performance.

In addition to being very passionate about her career, Ms. Hewitt also has many interesting hobbies that she pursues after school. Some of these include riding her motorcycle, crocheting, and going country line dancing. She also enjoys playing board games and adoring her two cats. Wesvtille is very luck to have such a talented and passionate teacher working with students.

Student Spotlight: Pumpkin Queen: Julia Kozub

1Student-Westville-October-2017-01Every girl has dreamt of being a princess or a queen at one time or another. For Julia Kozub, those dreams came true when she was crowned Pumpkin Queen at Westville’s annual Pumpkin Festival. Julia is in sixth grade at Westville Elementary School and has gone to Westville since third grade. After school, Julia enjoys participating in cheerleading and hanging out with her friends. She said having the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends is her favorite part about Westville. She has two siblings, one older brother and one younger brother, and when she grows up, she wants to be a nurse.

Julia was drawn to the Pumpkin Festival Royalty competition because she felt like it was something important to her and it would be something fun and completely new to do. Once she knew that she wanted to participate, she had fun decorating her donation cans with all kinds of scrapbooking material and putting them around the town.

When it came time to crown the Pumpkin Queen and Julia found that she had won, she was overjoyed. The crown goes to the partipant who collects the most in donations. WIth this title, Julia was able to ride on a float in the parade and throw candy. She said that was one of her favorite things about being queen, along with being able to watch and participate in some of the many contests going on throughout the weekend.