The students who placed in the Science Exploration Day rankings were evaluated by their peers. The winners for each class were completely chosen by their peers on who did the best job in terms of presenting a good, solid science project that had science understanding behind it, Pieper said. The activities varied across the building and included student-led demonstrations and experiments, design challenges and model building, Lotrich said. Our upper elementary students demonstrated their activity to their classmates and explained the science behind it. Mrs. Pieper’s and Mrs. Nesselhuf’s high school science classes also contributed to the day with demonstrations and explanations.
LA Junta Tribune
La Junta City Council voted unanimously its Monday meeting to issue a one-time donation of $1,000 to the Arkansas Valley Court Appointed Special Advocate organization, which is a nonprofit in the valley that serves abused and neglected children.
Cynthia Sollenbarger of Arkansas Valley CASA attended the council meeting to request a donation as part of a round of fundraising she is participating in for the organization.
Sollenbarger said that despite a very challenging year due to limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 has been the valley court-appointed advocate group s most successful year since its start in 2017.
In 2020, Arkansas Valley CASA served 43 children. The group had to turn away 35 others, but 2020 marked the first year that the organization served more children than it had to turn down.
The Arkansas Valley community continues to support agriculture students at Otero Junior College.
The 2020 New Year s Eve gala was canceled, but that did not stop the support for these students attending OJC.
Individuals and businesses throughout the Arkansas Valley donated $10,600 for students pursuing degrees in the agriculture field.
Last year s New Year s Eve gala helped support four students in the 2020-21 school year. Each student received $1,500 to help pay for tuition, fees and books.
This year s scholarship recipients include sophomore Alison Bregar of Pueblo, sophomore Chris Wright of Downey, Idaho, freshman Tag Moses of Keenesburg, and freshman Hannah Cordova of Gardner.