Greetings Rainier community! The calendar has flipped to March, which in most places in the Northern Hemisphere means spring is around the corner…but for us it might be time for second winter. 

Spring sports have begun, with contests starting on Mnday the 17th of March. The maintenance crew has been doing a great job getting fields ready for the season and things are looking great! This is the time of year where everything seems to speed up and it seems like there are events and activities at the school almost every day. 

In addition to sports we are getting into festival season for the music and competition season for our history bowl/history club members. We also currently have a large group of our best students serving as counselors at Outdoor school as well. Indeed, these are exciting times.

In student of the month news, integrity is the character trait we are celebrating for the month of March. March students of the month are: Elin Shulda, Maris Lever, Trinity Anderson, Riley Underwood, Heather Pruyne, Gunner Miller, and Charisma Ryder. These students exemplify this trait and we are very proud of them. 

The Rotary Club of Columbia County’s March student of the month is Kasey Neal. Kasey is one of our busiest students, taking part in multiple sports and activities, including a 3rd place finish at the recently concluded state wrestling tournament (the highest female finisher in Rainier High School history). Kasey (along with students from Scappoose and St. Helens) will be honored at the Rotary Club’s monthly luncheon  at the Warren Country Inn. Congratulations Kasey, we are very proud of you!

In addition to Kasey, 3 other wrestlers competed at state: Kaydent Twitchell, Jonny Rice, and Keaton Mattinen, with Keaton placing 6th. Congratulations to all of our state wrestlers!

At FFA district competition, Hailey Smythe took second in extemporaneous speaking and qualified for state competition. She will be competing on stage in Redmond. In addition to Hailey, Lilly Fox will be receiving her state FFA degree, the highest achievement an FFA member can possession the state of Oregon. We will be taking 9 other students to the FFA state competition in Redmond as well. The chaperones (Mrs. Wait and myself) are very excited. If you’ve never been to the state FFA convention you should go at least once. I guarantee you won’t forget it.

In history bowl news, our middle school history bowl team competed in a national competition on Sunday and thought they did not bring home any hardware, they gained valuable experience for future competitions. Special congratulations goes to Jasmine Robb who took first place at the Oregon regional Science Bee as well as taking first place in the 7th grade history bee. She has qualified for nationals, which will be held in Orlando. A hearty huzzah to all of our team members!

An exciting opportunity for our juniors and seniors has come to my attention and I would like to share it with the board (it has been shared with students and as it gets closer there will be reminders). A couple weeks ago, Chief Smythe and Lt. Chandler from Columbia River Fire and Rescue let me know that there will be a 2 day Fire camp for students from Rainier and St. Helens. The camp will be free and lunch will be provided. Students will learn and practice basic firefighting skills like hose and nozzle deployment and control, ladders, hydrants, forcible entry, searching for victims, PPE, CPR, emergency medical skills and more. This is a great opportunity for students to learn if a career in firefighting/EMS is right for them. Camp will take place on May 3 and 4 at the Broadbent Training Center in ST. Helens.

Upcoming events of note:

*3/17: first day of spring competitions

*3/19: NW Youth Careers Expo field trip

*3/20: Spring Concert

*3/20-3/22: FFA state competition

*4/2: band festival at David Douglas

*4/4: FFA Bingo night dinner

*4/8: Choir festival at Tillamook HS

*4/9: Band festival at Astoria HS

With everything going on, life at RJSHS is busy and we wouldn’t want it any other way. It’s a great day to be a Columbian!