![Students in the National Art Honor Society work on the Mount Hood mural on the window of SouthLake Church. The students brought a variety of paints and mixed their own custom colors. “Instead of brushstrokes, we’re doing more dabbing, because it gives [a] better impression of tree foliage, rather than looking like actual brush strokes, because if we’re painting trees, we need it to look like trees,” Crawford said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/IMG_2397-1200x900.jpg)
![Main Street said farewell to summer on Aug. 30 through the second annual Chalk Walk Art Festival. Ruth Offer, Chalk Walk organizer, brought this tradition from Wyoming in an attempt to make use of the renovated sidewalks of Willamette Falls Dr. “[This is] a community event for the kids,” Offer said.](https://wlhsnow.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/image-12-1200x803.png)
During life class on Feb. 8, sophomore students participated in the annual Poetry Out Loud competition. They had to memorize a poem in front of the sophomore class in the Performing Arts Center and this was broadcasted to other students in their life classes.
Poetry Out Loud is a national program that allows students to practice public speaking by reciting a memorized poem and to compete with students nationwide. Anna Crandall, a tenth-grade English teacher, organized the competition at the school this year.
”No one else volunteered [to organize Poetry Out Loud] and I refused to see the program die so I stepped up to do it,” said Crandall. “[Poetry Out Loud] is a nice way to have a community-building activity that the whole class gets to be a part of.”
After reciting their poems in the competition, Brooklyn Carr Heuer and Misha Rana, both sophomores, tied for first place. They have the chance to move on to the regional competition.
For more information about Rana and Carr Heuer’s experiences in Poetry Out Loud and Crandall’s experience planning it, listen to the podcast below, hosted by staff reporter Lucy Forest.
