CCIS Class Helps Preserve Local History
Reprinted with Permission - Wednesday, January 30, 2007 The Carroll News
By Allen Worrell/News Writer
aworrell@thecarrollnews.com
For one ninth grade class at Carroll County Intermediate School, a semester's worth of work is now forever engraved in Carroll County's history.
During the past semester, Mrs. Dana Burnette's freshman mass media class spent much of its time interviewing important county figures and writing articles for the Fall 2007 edition of Chronicles -- Carroll County Historical Society's quarterly journal. The class got a first-hand look at the fruits of their labor Jan. 23 as each received a copy of the journal.
Burnette told the class they had quickly made a, lasting impression with the journal's readers.
"You have already had a couple of fans call me. They said it was really interesting and they liked reading your articles," Burnette said. "They said they liked how the articles told information that would be interesting to younger people, so I thought that was a great compliment."
Peggy Reece, Chairman of the Chronicles Committee, and Chronicles Editor Shirley Steele both were extremely impressed with the work of the talented and gifted class.
"The reaction has been great. Everybody has been real excited about it," Reece said. “I think it is wonderful and I want to thank Dr. (Strader) Blankenship, (CCIS Principal Dr. Kevin) Harris and also Mrs. Burnette and the kids for helping the historical society preserve some of the history of Carroll County.
To help produce the Fall 2007 edition of Chronicles, the CCIS students interviewed four key Carroll County figures — Raleigh Cooley, Velma Bowman Horton, Walter Winfred Burnette, and Mava Sutphin Vass.
The issue also includes bios of each of the mass media students that contributed to the edition, as well as a student perspective about by the class project from students Rachel Waddell and Honesty Rogers.
Dr. Harris visited with the students that participated while Reece and Steele gave the class individual copies of the journal. The CCIS principal told the students how proud they had made the school.
"I think this quality of work, to come from ninth grade students, is nothing short of incredible. We are always looking for ways to reach out into the community and to share our resources and make things better for the place where we live. And I think your efforts have done that," Harris told the class. "You have gone way beyond anyone's expectations in producing such a wonderful history of some of the residents of Carroll County."
To add extra personal meaning, Harris asked each student in the class to sign his copy of Chronicles. He then thanked Reece and Steele for allowing the class to participate in such a wonderful project.
Reece said the Carroll County Historical Society hopes to continue utilizing Mrs. Burnette's class for fu¬ture editions of the journal.
Since Burnette's class lasts one semester, the group that helped produce this edition of Chronicles has moved on to other endeavors.
But as they quickly learned Jan. 23, their legacy will live on.
"We are going to take your picture for the school's web page," Burnette said. "The new mass media class wants to do an article on you."
CCIS students who helped with the Fall 2007 edition of Chronicles were Blake Bowman, Priscilla Casas, Stephany Campo, Eden Hodges, Lauren Kamoda, Thuy Harrison, Kris Musser, Honesty Rogers, Summer Rigney, Rachel Waddell, and Tara McDaniel.
