Campership Recipients Share Experiences with Hononegah Woman’s Club

By Marianne Mueller, REPORTER

Every year the Hononegah Woman’s Club expands educational opportunities for young men and women. As a result of money that is raised from the annual arts and craft fair, scholarship and campership recipients that meet criteria are chosen to experience camperships. Scholarships are given to females only. Three outstanding young girls shared experiences of recent camperships at the last Hononegah Woman’s Club meeting.

Alisha Rebka attended the University of Illinois Materials Engineering Camp. “I made lots of friends,” she said. “We studied girl’s adventures in math, science and engineering. We played games, participated in lab activities and made a mold. Bio Electronics is combining electronics and electricity with the human body. Temporary tattoos can send and be received for the purpose of studying for the use of a new style of pacemaker. Three Dimensional printing and light sensitive polymer researches the effects of ultra violet versus other types of light,” explained Rebka. She displayed a model of the Tajma Hall solar cells and talked about the use of beet juice and titanium and the way the beet juice absorbs the titanium. Titanium attracts negative particles. “I am interested in pursuing a career in Engineering,” said Rebka. “I spent one week learning this year and last year studied aerospace at a camp.”

Abigail Hiroth went to the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater Band Camp. “I shared a room in a college dorm. It was so hot in there and we had no air conditioning,” said Hiroth. “I knew nobody so I approached a group of girls who looked friendly. We went to Jimmy Johns and the food was terrible.”  “A concert was held on Friday which was the last day of camp. We had to learn music that was very complicated. We had two teachers and were part of a purple band practice. One of our teachers was a senior in college and is best in his class.  I played the saxophone. We were taught how to tune without using a tuner. We could easily hear if we were going sharp. Sounds came in flat, slow waves or no waves. We got to practice with the best of the best, War hawk,” lauded Hiroth. “I sat by the first chair and stayed after class. She helped me with the music if I wasn’t getting it right. There was a concert for the students. We got to play and show off for other kids.” “We played something called, ‘Trumpet Voluntary.’ We were exploring music and learning how to conduct, the history of jazz, how to tune and why that works the way it does. We had a rehearsal on Friday where we played ‘The Battle of Gettysburg’ which sounded like percussion. We also played a big circus march which was a big, complicated song and ‘Spy Games’ which had its own melody. At one point the percussion was dropped and only the drums were heard. ‘A song for Friends’ was a slower song. I learned I do not like playing slow songs; they are boring.” “I am currently practicing for the IMEA. On Oct. 8, tryouts happened. I would get to play with the best of the best conductors. It would be really hard, but really fun. I am a student at Roscoe Middle School.”

Victoria Sweeny who is a junior at Hononegah High School attended art camp at Northern Illinois University. “This is my second time going to an art camp,” said Sweeny. “We had a presentation with local artists and professionals. We studied abstract art painting in class. We would zoom in on an object to work off of using a complimentary color scheme.” Sweeny held up a stunning portrait that she created with a charcoal pencil. “I stayed in dorm rooms, but unlike Abby’s our rooms were air conditioned,” said Sweeny. “We worked on two main projects and warm-up projects. We made a color wheel blended with different paints. We used an ink pen and I did a portrait of my friends with me. I plan on going back next year,” reflected Sweeny.

MARIANNE MUELLER, PHOTO – The Herald.
Alsiha Rebka, Victoria Sweeny and Abigail Hiroth each spoke about camps attended through camperships awarded by the Hononegah Woman’s Club.

“We had teachers from Boylan. I was in a young artists program every year in grade school but did not make it in high school. In the future I would like to go into fashion design,” closed Sweeny.

All of the recipients expressed great thanks and gratitude for the opportunity given to them by the Hononegah Woman’s Club.