Students make video for high school anniversary

Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, April 3, 2008

Imagine being able to pop in a DVD and watch your memories of high school take shape before your eyes. Thanks to the Art Club members of Niagara-Wheatfield High School, such a DVD soon will exist, thanks to some very talented students.

A history of Niagara-Wheatfield High School is being created by the students in honor of the school’s 50th anniversary, which is being celebrated throughout 2008. The students are all members of the Art Club at the school, under the direction of advisor and art teacher Tracy Bloom.

They have taken the prospect of being “film makers” very enthusiastically, said Bloom. Students are researching and conducting interviews with those who have information for them.

“We’ve already received some input from community members, and the students are arranging interviews and things,” Bloom said. “We even have some tape from events in the high school’s history, like one that the culture teacher at Tuscarora School, Joanne Weinholtz, sent me of a special assembly put on in the ’70s by the Native American students, and the first ever prom. The students are very excited about the project, and they’re doing a great job.”

“I’ve been an art student since sixth grade, and I want to go to film school someday,” said the student director of the film, junior Kristen Salerno. “I really fell in love with it when we did the freshman orientation video. Of course, I’ve done a lot of home videos. This project is particularly interesting because of what we are learning about our high school from the people we’re interviewing and their memories.”

Junior Steven Bapiste, who is editing the film, said he isn’t even an art student and doesn’t really have plans to go to film school or go into the industry, but he loves working on this project. He also helped with the freshman orientation film and said this is different and more sophisticated. “This is more of a format, and it’s interesting, going back into the history of the school,” Bapiste said.

Videographer Chris Sirgey, also a junior, said he originally got interested in the project when he was part of another art project associated with the 50th anniversary, a sculpture project. “This sounded interesting to me and it is. I worked on the freshman orientation video also, so I had some experience.”

The project is completely extracurricular, “just for fun” say the students, but six to eight of them are currently working on it.

Its debut is set for June 7 at a special Remembrance Dinner set at Sanborn Fire Hall, after which copies of the DVD will be on sale.

The students are actively seeking information and input for the project, including those who have memories and are willing to go on camera for interviews about their experiences at the high school, as well as from those who may have clips of film from high school activities. Anyone with something to contribute is asked to contact Bloom at 215-3100.

After the history video, the students are planning to do a feature for their year-end film festival.

“I love it; it’s so much fun, and sometimes so much work,” Salerno said.

The first event planned for the 50th anniversary is a Soda Shop/Sock Hop set for Thursday, April 24, at the high school, featuring root beer floats for everyone and the music of “Big Wheelie and the Hubcaps.” Presale tickets are available by calling Ruth Guerin at 215-3159 and go for $5 per person or $15 per family. Also in the works is a Celebration Alumni Dinner in November, as well as an Alumni Band and Chorus concert set for November. Any alumnus of Niagara-Wheatfield who wishes to perform with the band or chorus is asked to contact Wallace Goodman at 751-6583.

“I think people will love having these DVD histories of the high school for themselves and to give as gifts,” said Luanne Zuccari of the anniversary committee. “I know I have several people who are friends and who went to Niagara-Wheatfield but now have moved away and I can’t wait to buy them as gifts for those people. I really can’t wait to see it.”