thelegendonline Features, Uncategorized

Competing for the MNT cause

By Julian Rosete

Key Club hosts their first ever MNT (Maternal Neonatal Tetanus) Olympics on Sunday March 31st.

“This is the first time Key Club has done the MNT Olympics, but hopefully it will become an annual event for our members,” says Key Club Publicist and MNT coordinator Emily Vu.

“It was an event that our fabulous MNT coordinators had been planning for a really long time, and seeing everyone participate and have a lot of fun at the event was pretty rewarding”, says Key Club president Kathy Ton

This event is for contestants to come out to compete and for spectators to come and watch. The event was run by MNT coordinators and Key Club officers at Cataldi Park. There will be many games for contestants to compete in such as three legged race, water balloon race, water toss and more.

“Our division goal for MNT was three thousand dollars and with the registration, raffle tickets and concessions sold at the event, MNT olympics pushed us over the three thousand mark,” says Kathy

The admission costed five dollars for those who chose to compete in the Olympics and three dollars for those who came to watch the event. All the money raised went to the Eliminate project to help fight the MNT disease.

MNT is a disease that causes mothers and newborn babies to experience convulsions and severe pain that can lead to involuntary death. This disease kills a baby every 15 minutes even though this could be prevented with three doses of vaccines that cost $1.80, according to Key Club. These vaccines can protect mothers and children for their rest of their lives.

The Eliminate project is a cause which not only helps to solve the MNT crisis, but also to provide clean water, nutrition’s and other vaccines. The overall goal of the Eliminate project is to raise 110 million dollars to support these causes.

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thelegendonline Centerspread, Uncategorized

Plastic Water Bottles

By Mansi Patel

Downfall of the Future: Plastic Water Bottles (if you have a better title please us that)

On a regular summer day, people go out to swim expecting a bright sunny day and nice clean beaches. However, due to our recent misuse of plastic, especially plastic water bottles, beaches are ruined and the waterways polluted. Plastic water bottles can be found everywhere, from schools to the beautiful California coast. They are not just harmful to the environment, but are very expensive and add to the buildup of trash.

Plastic water bottles have affected the environment and community. It keeps adding up, but the problem still stays invisible to those who don’t want to know the truth of these harmful products. These plastic water bottles harm our environment and the animals that live around us, which we then eat and make us sick. Visualize bottles lined up end to end in a straight line. It would wrap around the earth 190 times. Plastic water bottles placed in the landfill today will take up to 1000 years to biodegrade, according to iSustainableEarth.

“Imagine if every (plastic water bottle) you ever opened you had to keep in your bedroom forever. At some point there has to be this tipping point where we say this is unmanageable. The waste is unmanageable,” says English teacher Nancy Kennett.

With this harmful effect on the environment, it is almost impossible to get rid of the plastic. Everywhere, one can find remnants of plastic water bottles. Even in the most isolated places, plastic water bottles can make their way there because plastic is almost indestructible, which is why plastic is so popular. The patch, a gyre of trash between California and Hawaii, comprises an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of scattered detritus, including at least 87,000 tons of plastic, according to The New York Times.

Americans use on average 50 billion water bottles each year and climbing, though only recycle 23 percent of the plastic bottles when finished.  This means that nearly 38 billion of those water bottles were trashed, leading to increased pollution and landfill waste Economic impact by producing more than $1 billion in wasted plastic each year, equivalent to 912 million gallons of oil, according to iSustainableEarth.

“Plastic water bottles negatively affect our world as it does not decompose quickly so trash can build up quickly as the majority of people do not recycle. Plastic also consists of toxic material causing it to harm living things. And because we are a part of our own environment, using these plastic water bottles directly affects us and our community as a whole,” says sophomore Esha Jain.

Not only are plastic water bottles harmful to our environment, but they are very pricey. At first, one may think that it is very cheap to buy a bulk plastic water bottle case from Costco, but that price really adds up. For example, you could spend 2,900 times as much, roughly $1,400 yearly, by drinking bottled water. If you use a New York City tap, those eight glasses of water you are supposed to drink would only cost you about $0.00135, or 49 cents a year, according to The New York Times.

“I try not to use water bottles because I’m trying to live. If humans continue to make and use plastic at this rate, we will inevitably face the consequences since plastic takes hundreds of years to break down. I reduce my plastic water bottle use by bringing a refillable water bottle to school and other events. There’s always a bunch of water fountains we have access to. Also, it’s just a lot cheaper to not buy cases of plastic water bottles all the time,” says senior Stacey Thai.

Instead of using plastic water bottles and adding to all the problems the plastic has brought, we should use reusable water bottles which is healthier and better for our community so we don’t have to suffer in the long term.

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thelegendonline Centerspread, Uncategorized

how bad is boba?

By Vincent Hoang

 

Many students drink massive amounts of boba and milk tea on a weekly basis, but do they know the health risks hidden within these delicious drinks?

There are various milk tea stores that are scattered throughout San Jose. Like many, senior Vi Tran really enjoys her milk tea.

“If I had to give an estimation of how often I drink boba, I would say I drink like two times a week. Honestly, it’s dependent on whether I’m going out with friends.”

Vi does not like to get her milk tea extremely sweet.

“I typically get my drinks at 50/50. I don’t like drinking anything sickly sweet but I don’t want tasteless water so I go for 50/50,” says Vi.

However there are some who do not care as much as they should when it comes to milk tea.

“I drink milk tea at least two times a week at 100 percent sweetness for all my milk tea. I don’t care as much as I should, because I swim and work out a lot, therefore my sugar intake balances out with all the physical activities I partake in,” says senior Chloe Nguyen.

Lastly, there are the rare few who do care about what they drink.

“I drink milk tea once every 1 or 2 weeks, depends when my little brother wants it. When I do, I usually get it at 25 percent sweetness,” says senior Andrew Do.

In the end, most of us do enjoy a cool cup of milk tea anytime of the year, but the bigger question is how unhealthy the drink proves to be. On average, a 16-ounce cup of milk tea is 278 calories, 0.6 grams of fat, 68 grams of carbohydrates, and 1.2 grams of protein.

“I try to limit myself from getting drinks that have less calories and always get less sugar if it’s an option. If I get 100% I start to feel bad because it’s too sweet. Another way I deal with how unhealthy is by not getting pearls. I haven’t ordered pearls in about one year,” says senior Andrew Do.

This all doesn’t sound that awful, right? Wrong. The amount of sugar put into these drinks make it much worse. An average cup of milk tea, has an average of 22 grams of sugar; 12 of those grams comes from added sugar, such as the sweetener, syrup, and toppings.

Like Andrew, we should consider what we put into our boba drinks, such as the pearls and other toppings. The toppings add much more sugar and calories to your daily intake of food. Instead, opt for fruit toppings for natural sugar and great taste. Along with this, consider other types of milk to put into your drink such as almond or organic oak milk instead of condensed milk, which adds much more sugar.

thelegendonline Features, Uncategorized

Benefit Concert and District Festival hosted by the music department

By: Rose Lu and Victor Xie

On Feb. 27, both String and Symphony Orchestra participated in the annual District Festival, an event where all orchestra groups in ESUHSD (East Side Union High School District) perform for two adjudicators to be critiqued. Shortly after, on March 1, the Music Department hosted Rise from the Ashes, a benefit show dedicated to Paradise High School, which took place in the L-Building.

The orchestra performed at the District Festival because it was a great performance opportunity.

“The district didn’t have a festival for a number of years due to budget cuts. It’s good to have the festival in between so we can perform some music and go on to new music,” explained Orchestra Director Emily Ray.

All proceeds from the benefit show will be going directly to Paradise High School. Paradise High School lost many pieces of equipment, sheet music and instruments in the recent fires.

“The Music Dept.’s goals in hosting this concert include helping Paradise High replenish some of the musical resources they lost in the fire. We just want to help them recover,” said Choir Council President Lilly Liu.

This year, the District Festival was held in the auditorium at Evergreen Valley High School. The two adjudicators who commented on the performances both have a previous relationship with the Lynbrook High School music program, one of the best music programs in California.

“I think it’s good to have someone comment on your performance because being on stage and being in the audience are two very different experiences,” explained junior Nicole Chen.

The Music Dept. had been anticipating the performance at the benefit show.

“Concerts are always fun because we finally get to perform and share the pieces we’ve been practicing for so long. This concert is special because it’s directly benefiting Paradise High School,” shared tuba player Charles Ding.

Unlike the upcoming CMEA (California Music Education Association) festival, the adjudicators did not give scores, but only commented on how each group could improve on their performed pieces.
“(The festival) got us used to performing on a stage which is a lot different than the G-Building,” said String Orchestra Concertmaster Kaitlyn Chou.

Rise from the Ashes was able to raise over $2700 for Paradise High School’s music program. Both Instrumental and Choir Council hope this benefit concert will become a recurring event.

“We did a benefit concert last year and it was successful, so we decided to do another one, since we believe that we will have a positive impact on these families from the Southern California wildfires,” commented Concession Manager Huy Tran.
Both performances have helped all the music groups grow as musicians and practice for their upcoming concert in May.

thelegendonline Features, Uncategorized

Red Cross Spring blood drive

By Nghi Nguyen

Red Cross held their biannual blood drive of the year in the library on Fri., March 8. Red Cross collaborated with Vitalant, a nonprofit transfusion medicine organization that provides blood donation opportunities.

“The purpose of this event is to collect as many units of blood as we can in our school, so we can send the blood to others who need blood transfusions,” says Vice President Shannon Liu.

The blood collected from the event goes to the Centers of the Pacific, a nonprofit community based blood center that collects the donations and provides them across the local community.

“Red Cross hopes to have 100 donors. Each pint of blood will be able to save three lives. If we have 100 donors, Red Cross will be able to save 300 lives,” explains Treasurer Isaac Wen.

In the past blood drive that was held in October, Red Cross was able to collect 57 units of blood. Not only would these units of blood be saving about lives, it shows the potential the youth has.

“I think the best part of the blood drive is just being part of the process. Seeing the number of people willing to give some of their time in order to save lives makes me smile. It’s amazing how we are all able to work together to save lives,” states Co-Secretary Lily Do.

The Red Cross Spring Blood Drive followed Red Cross’s main mission of alleviating human suffering in the face of human disaster. This event allowed the club to enact change and aid public health.

thelegendonline Features, Uncategorized

Take a Teacher to Lunch

by Devonna Dang

 

CSF will hold its annual Take a Teacher to Lunch at the PHHS Library this Wednesday to recognize all of the talented and dedicated staff on campus. All teachers and staff are invited to this event.

“We want as many teachers to come, because they have all done amazing things for the students at school, so we usually hand-deliver invitations to teachers and staff,” says Co-Publicist Lauren Lin.

CSF provides the main course. This year’s main course is from Jade China and includes Chow Mein, salad and Egg rolls.

The students who volunteer to participate in the event get split up into groups. Each group has a theme and is responsible for providing any decorations, appetizers and desserts. They decorate the meal based from a theme of their own choice.

“These themes are entirely up to them and often people have fun themes like Hawaiian, Disney, etc. The main goal of this event is both to thank our teachers and get to know them outside of a formal environment,” said Tech Chair Jerry Xu.

This tradition has become the heart of CSF, as the club revolves around academics and education.

“My favorite thing about Take a Teacher to Lunch is the fact that this event is a chance to say thank you to your teachers and really get a chance to know your teachers outside of school,” said Co-Secretary Ritika Randhawa.

“I probably don’t say it enough but I do appreciate everything my teachers do. They have all pushed me to be better and didn’t focus on getting only good grades but actually learning and retaining valuable information,” said Lauren.

thelegendonline Features, Uncategorized

Music/ChoirDisneyTrip

By Sarah.Shafaeen

The PHHS music students left for their Disneyland trip last Friday. The trip was meticulously planned and the music students have been working hard to be ready for their performances.

“The Disneyland trip is usually planned by Mr. Ellis and Mrs. Ray. They organize the itinerary and contact the festival organizers. In instrumental council, we also help with the process by filling out paperwork and letting that music students know what’s happening regarding payments and fundraisers,” informs senior Symphony Orchestra member Asher Twu.

Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble performed “Ave Maria” composed by Franz Schubert, “Rumble on the High Plains” composed by Michael Sweeney, “Festivo” composed by Vaclav Nelhybel, the third movement from George Bizet’s Symphony, “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia” composed by Aram Khachaturian and “Danse Espagnole” composed by Tchaikovsky.

The event is something the music students really look forward to.

“I’m excited to go on this trip because it only happens every two years and it’ll be a fun experience that I’ll be able to share with my friends in my last year of highschool. Also, I’m looking forward to eating dole whip again,” states senior Varsity choir member Samuel Dai.

The choir classes will perform the traditional Indonesian song “Hela Rotan,” “Good Night Dear Heart” composed by Dan Forrest and “Canticum Novum” composed by Ivo Antognini.

Many students were excited about all the activities and fun events that have been planned.

“We will leave on Thursday for Disneyland and arrive near evening. The performance itself is on Saturday, so we’re going to Disneyland on Friday. We’re also planning to watch the Aladdin musical and we’re visiting a university for an organized lunch one day. On Saturday, after the performance, there is an awards ceremony. We arrive back in San Jose on Sunday in the afternoon,” discloses Asher.

Others were eager to visit Disneyland itself because the park is where they will make long lasting memories.

“I don’t go to Disneyland often so I’m just looking forward to exploring the park with my friends and then performing,” comments senior Wind Ensemble member Neha Kaza.

Many of the students were ready to see all of the hard work and effort put in throughout the year pay off through the performance.

“I’m sure all music students are excited and nervous for the music festival, including myself. The Disneyland trip itself will be fun, but we’ve put in a lot of practice for the performance, so we’re hoping to be able to pull off all the pieces we’re going to be performing. While Disneyland is sort of a reward for performing, the performance itself is exciting. There are four rankings: superior, excellent, good, and needs improvement. We always aim for the superior, and first place if we are competing with other schools,” states Asher.

The Treblemakers, performed “Voice Dance” composed by Greg Jasperse, “Bumblebee” composed by Anders Eroth and “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square” composed by Manning Sherwin.

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