Get involved

J-W teen board meeting

The next Journal-World Teen Advisory Board meeting is 7 p.m. Dec. 15 at the News Center, 645 N.H. If you want, bring holiday treats we’ll photograph for 18 & Under (and then you can eat them). For more information, call Christy Little at 832-6361 or Steve Rottinghaus at 832-7254, or send an e-mail to teens@ljworld.com.

Contributions

Turn in your poems

We’re looking for original poems from students of all ages to publish in 18 & Under. Here are two of our latest entries:

‘Tranquility’
The bridge,
Wood weathered and worn,
Arches alone above the placid stream.
Tranquility engulfs the grove.
I pause for a moment,
Settling myself on the tired trusses.
The tips of my toes I dangle
In the slumbering brook below,
Jeans cuffed and bunched about my ankles,
As sunlight shimmers and dances
About the mute, mirror-like waters.
The gentle quietude reflects my thoughts.
A kaleidoscope of color enfolds me,
The vegetation transformed into a prism of light,
As blooms burst with brilliant colors,
Ignited by the incandescent rays of the sun.
At this moment, all is blanketed in equanimity,
Hushed and becalmed,
While serenity embraces me.

— Kailey Mesler is a Lawrence High School student.

‘Around the Corner’
Sitting, I am,
Rife with fear.
Hand touching hand, I am,
Moist palms clamped.
Tears seep from their seams,
Landing one by one on the bitter sidewalk.
Hopelessness fills the bird’s song;
There are no smiles around me.
Footsteps dwindle.
I reach a turn in my path,
And teardrops dissolve.
My life deviates once more from the darkness.
He has come,
And in a moment, doves take first flight.
Ancient flowers bloom, and my reason is restored.
Worries flee from my mended heart,
Escaping from their stony shell.
I embrace his body:
His smell,
His touch,
His heart.
Life re-opens its immutable window of hope
As I come around the corner.

— Meghan Klingler is a Lawrence High School student.

Study

Kids ski safer than adults

Jeffersonville, Vt. — Kids appear to be getting the message about wearing helmets while skiing and snowboarding, but adults don’t seem to be getting the message.

Two-thirds of the respondents younger than 18 wore helmets when skiing or snowboarding, according a study conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Vermont and Burlington’s Fletcher Allen Health Care Hospital. Less than a third of the respondents older than 18 wore helmets.

The team amassed more than 10,000 observations last winter in Vermont at Smugglers’ Notch, Jay Peak, Mad River Glen and Stowe Mountain Resort.

“Our goal is to get this message out and find ways to voluntarily achieve universal helmet use among both children and older skiers and snowboarders,” says Dr. Robert Williams, a pediatric anesthesiologist and critical care specialist at Vermont Children’s Hospital.

Williams compares helmets to seat belts: Both are important safety measures that should be used habitually, he said. According to a 1999 report by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, helmets could prevent about 7,700 head injuries and more than 10 deaths annually if they were used more.