High School Campus Blog
Archives - October 2021
Homecoming – A Week to Remember
October 27, 2021
Homecoming is a fun and exciting time on the high school
campus at Cascade Christian. In fact, the festivities began even before the kickoff assembly. We hope you enjoy a quick glimpse into the events that made memories our students will remember forever.
On just the third day of school at the beginning of the year pep assembly, junior Edwin Rivera scored the first Homecoming date when he asked fellow junior Bella Hector; she said yes!
After Homecoming officially began with the kickoff assembly, it was time to dance. Here is a shot of some seniors arriving in style at the Homecoming dance.
Here’s a look at the Homecoming Court after Coronation. Congratulations to Lauren Hannus (yellow dress) and Kaleb Zetterberg (black bow tie) for being voted queen and king!
To conclude an amazing week, the seniors captured a championship in powder puff football.
Leaders and New Learning
October 20, 2021
Read the message below from your JH/HS Campus resource specialist, Alissa Nicholson:
As a previous elementary school student of Cascade Christian, I am honored to be serving students and families at the junior high and high school levels. I have lived in Puyallup my entire life and attended Puyallup schools. After my teaching certificate program was complete, I taught at a public elementary school in South Hill and then taught middle school at a private school in Auburn for 7 years. During my years teaching middle school, I earned my master’s degree in education with an emphasis in special education. Although I stepped away from teaching for a few years, I am delighted to be back in the school setting.
In this new position as resource specialist, I am thoroughly enjoying building relationships with our students, their families, and our school staff. As I work toward fostering relationships with our students and providing even more support to our students and staff, my hope is to build a relationship and gain the trust of the families of the students I serve, to improve their overall experiences at Cascade Christian. I look forward to using my skills to assist in educating students at their unique level of need and to ignite confidence and love for learning in our students.
I am so encouraged by this year’s spiritual theme Unshakeable. The past few years have brought many changes to my family including the loss of my mom (my best friend), the birth of our first child, moves across the state or out of it by most of our family, and job changes for myself and my husband. These many changes have really given me the opportunity to practice unshakeable faith in God and His plans for my life. I am beyond thankful that God has directed my path back to Cascade Christian Schools, and I couldn’t be more excited for what God has in store for this school year!
From Sammy Bratz, Student Life Director
There is nothing quite like being a Cascade Christian Cougar in the fall. As the student life director, I have a front row seat to the exciting traditions that make us uniquely Cascade Christian and help to kick start our year. One of the main driving forces behind all of these events and our school culture is the Executive ASB Team.
Starting at the end of July, our ASB Team was on a retreat together, planning and dreaming about all this year could be. Much of what our ASB Team does goes unnoticed, and this begins with many workdays through the month of August. Whether it is Preview Day, our annual Back to School BBQ, or our Fall Sports Kickoff Assembly, the ASB Team hits the ground running to serve our students and create a culture where everyone has a place. A huge part of this culture is our Youth Conference. It is a day during which our students come together to worship, have fun, and to seek out all the Lord has planned for this year. We are currently finishing up our spirit week and Powder Puff, and I am constantly amazed by the work ethic and follow through of our team. Regardless of their own schedules and commitments, they show up for their fellow students.
At our retreat back in the summer, the ASB team landed on one simple concept: Love and serve others. They strive to have this be the backbone of all they do. If the start of this school year is any indication, the Lord is going to use the team in a mighty way this year!
Fall Is Upon Us
October 13, 2021
It is crazy to believe that it is already the fall! In just six short weeks, there have been so many positives at the high school. Students are actively engaged in class, and they're learning lots. At youth conference, students worshipped our Lord and built strong relationships with one another. Our athletes are competing hard, and our arts programs are thriving. Last week, we enjoyed a fun-filled Spirit Week!
Meet Our Cultural and Creative Arts Team
We are so proud of our wildly creative and talented cultural and creative arts teachers. They lead our students on journeys to discover and develop their passions for art, foreign language, music, theatre, and more!
Pictured from left to right, with masks removed for photo:
Krista Severeid (Theatre), Brook Sikora (Electives), Tegan Hinojos (Music & Tech), Bryan Botka (Band), Lynanne Miller (Spanish), Katie Bohall (American Sign Language), Michelle De Monnin (Art & Photography)
Phone-a-thon dates – October 18-25, 2021
Phone-a-thon is a great opportunity for families and students to come and be together in a fun atmosphere where they will receive dinner, make new friends, win prizes, and help students stay at CCS!
All funds raised for Phone-a-thon go directly to our Variable Tuition financial assistance program! One student out of four depends on Variable Tuition to stay at CCS.
We need callers to reach out to the thousands of people who have expressed that they support the mission of CCS. These are not cold calls!
Last year’s Phone-a-thon helped 64 students stay at CCS!
Sign up here to make calls!
We have to have Courage
October 04, 2021
Have you ever had to exercise a good amount of courage to overcome a difficult situation?
I’ll never forget the time several years back when I had to be courageous to complete a high ropes course at senior high camp. I was doing just fine when something incredibly out of the ordinary happened to me. About halfway through the ropes course, a bird, weaving its way through the tapestry of trees and apparently not seeing me, slammed into the side of my helmet, causing me to lose my focus. Suddenly, I dropped to my knees while hanging on for dear life to the ropes on both sides of me. As I knelt there scared stiff, trying to piece together what had just happened to me, I wondered, “How am I going to pull myself up from this one?”
Noticing that I wasn’t planning on moving anytime soon, my wife hollered up to me, “Stop focusing on failing and start focusing on finishing!” As I processed what she was saying to me, I realized there was no backing out. I had to shift my focus. So, after taking a few more moments of collecting myself, I started to change my focus from failing to envisioning myself finishing. I found myself feeling more and more confident, eventually to the point that I was able to gather enough courage to pick myself up and finish out the ropes course.
Throughout the month of October, we will be studying what it means for us to have unshakeable courage, a mindset or feeling that empowers us to face and overcome difficulty and/or dangerous situations. Being a part of God’s mission to save the world is a lot like being on a high ropes course. It is filled with unexpected turns and twists. It is filled with surprises that can suddenly knock us off course. If we are going to move ahead, we have to have courage!
The Bible promises us that when we face difficult circumstances, by shifting our focus onto the One who is unshakeable and leaning into the support of those He has placed in our lives, we can have unshakeable courage to overcome any challenge we may face—big or small!
This month, our students will be studying people like Gideon and Hezekiah, both of whom relied on the promises of God for courage to overcome the challenging surprises they faced. We will talk about the roles of the church and the Holy Spirit in our lives as the means through which God gives us courage to do what He has called us to do. We will also study historical figures like Dwight L. Moody, who—through his confidence in God and the support of others—had the courage to do God’s work in incredibly difficult circumstances.
When things try to knock us off the “high ropes course” of the mission of God, we have His promises before us, His Spirit within us, and the church around us to help us overcome those difficult situations. My prayer is that as we make this journey together, we would lean into these things to give us courage to overcome any challenge we may face.