News Briefs- 9/24-9/28

Homecoming Elections

Voting for Shawnee Mission East’s Homecoming Queen and King will begin Monday, Sept. 22. Voting will be done through the computers, during lunches and during seminar.

On Thursday, Sept. 20, the nominated Queens and Kings were shown to the student body during seminar via smeharbinger.net. The nominees for Homecoming Queen are seniors Madi Bradley, Helena Buchmann, Anna Colby, Caroline Creidenberg, Vanessa Daves, Rae Ehly, Leslie Hamilton, Maggie Niven, Emma Robson, Tiernan Shank and Chloe Stradinger.

The nominees for Homecoming King are seniors Chase Ainsworth, Joe Bahr, Will Cray, Ryan Dugan, Max Duncan, Bucky Kessinger, Nick Kraske, Drew Rusten, David Stewart, Sam Stewart and Geordy Williams.

The Homecoming Queen and her court will be announced at the Homecoming game on Friday, Sept. 28. The King will be announced at the dance on Sept. 29.

Changes Coming to the Village

The Village Shopping Center will undergo construction changes within the next year. According to the Prairie Village Post, one of the biggest changes facing Prairie Village will be a  new concept of a restaurant/theater by STANDEES, a company headed by Frank Rash.

Macy’s Home Store and Einstein Bro’s Bagels are the scheduled locations for the new project, but the site’s uncertain because STANDEES is still trying to find a new location for Einstein.

AMC is planning on opening it’s first ever theater in Prairie Village on the site, conjoined with a restaurant. The theater will be small, with 80 seats in contrast to the 250 in Town Center. The restaurant will seat 200, and the customer can then take his or her food into the theater with them, where a table is joined with their seat. With their alcohol license, STANDEES would be able to serve their customers alcohol in both the theater and the restaurant.

The proposed theater would show mostly independent films and films more mature in hopes of drawing an adult-based crowd.

There has been some speculation as to whether or not there will be enough parking for the theater/restaurant. In an interview with the Prairie Village Post, Rash said that STANDEES will not interfere with the 4:30 p.m. rush that happens every weekend at the Village.

Mole Day Changes

Mole Day, an annual event at East established in honor of the International System unit 6.02 x 10^23, will be organized solely by former Chemistry II students at East this year. In the past, Chemistry teachers Jerrod Bardwell, Stephen Appier and Cole Ogdon have organized the event in collaboration with their Chemistry II students, but with six classes to teach this year instead of five, they don’t have the time.

“I think it’s unfortunate,” Appier said. “I’d much rather be spending my time involved with Mole Day than the extra time to do other things for my extra class. It’s a little disappointing and I hope the kids are up to the task.”

The four students organizing Mole Day this year are seniors Stefano Byer, Ian Crawford, Emily Sneed and Claire Tracy. All four are previous chemistry students of Appier’s.

“We heard that Mole Day wasn’t going to happen…so we decided to get together and plan it ourselves,” Tracy said. “We’re planning everything as far as getting T-shirts designed, getting food, getting decorations and the activities, too.”

Mole Day’s traditional activities include whack-a-mole, a game in which one of the organizers paints his or her face and pops up from a variety of holes punched out of wood. When the moles’ head emerges, the player tries to hit their head with a plastic, blow up hammer.

Mole Day honors the mole, a very large unit used mostly in chemistry to measure the number of particles in a chemical amount, with a measurement of 6.02 x 10^23. The date and time of the celebration revolve around those numbers. Mole day will be held on Oct. 23, at 6:02 a.m.

“Hopefully we’ll keep Mole Day very similar, with the same fun activities and good food and fun,” Tracy said.