The Santa Ynez Valley Union High School held its annual open house May 13 for students, family and friends to check out the different activities put on by different classes and programs.

The first sight when entering the campus were the 60 large chalk murals on the ground outside the office and theater. Coordinated by art teacher Dr. Emilio Soltero, this year’s Masters in Chalk festival featured replicas of famous paintings, pictures and even a few portraits of President Barrack Obama. There was also a giant Chumash historical mural near the office.

 

Freshman Mackenna Crane said she helped work on three murals, including the giant Chumash mural, which took about three days to complete. Her favorite to work on, though, was a portrait of President Obama wearing sunglasses because “it had really soft edges.” The artwork won second place in the freshman division.

The Latin class hosted “A Night on Mt. Olympus,” which featured various free games and prizes. Clad in a homemade Greek robe, Latin teacher Chris Mullin said it was the fourth time the Latin class has put on the event.

“Each (group of students) chose different gods or goddesses, and it’s like a carnival,” he said of the different game booths. Parading in their own bed linen or tablecloth robes, the students offered games such as Pan’s mini golf, Venus and Cupid’s arrow shooting and Dionysus’ non-alcoholic-grape-juice game. 

While most students awarded candy as prizes, at Pan’s mini golf, freshmen Caio Motta and Kenny Spaar offered sapling trees as prizes because Pan is the god of nature, after all.

“He’s very eco-friendly,” Spaar said.

 

In another part of campus, Jo Ann Reck’s English students put on a novel rendition of Shakespeare in the Park by rewriting and reciting the “To be or not to be” speech from “Hamlet.”

Reck said her students came up with creative and sometimes humorous ideas for remaking the speech to reflect new ideas and modern times.

Students from the Red Cross club accepted donations for Red Cross and advertised a blood drive at the high school on May 28. The students also had information about the Jesusita Fire and disaster kit instructions for interested visitors.

“We love helping people,” said club member and junior Josh Koppenjan.

The regional occupational program restaurant class, which makes all the cafeteria food for three valley schools, held an open kitchen event where visitors could watch students prepare food and even carve special arrangements out of fruits and vegetables. Mini pizzas prepared by the students were available to sample. 

While the open house itself did not raise money for the school, a small classic car show did feature raffle tickets for a Chevy small-block engine. Money raised will benefit the school’s auto shop class.

The drawing will be held at this year’s Wheels ‘N Windmills event Aug. 29.

 

Reach Lauren Crecelius at lcrecelius@syvjournal.com.