Acuity Business Challenge

Student Reporter: Kayla Zimmer


On Saturday, March 7th, 48 teams of 96 students gathered at Acuity to compete in the Acuity Business Challenge. Students from nine area high schools competed to sell an imaginary product called the “Holo- Generator”. Students needed to use their brains and a lot of creativity to sell their product in different financial situations and real life economic times like booms and recessions. Not only did they have to make economic decisions, but they also had to deal with financial issues and running a business.


Teams were made up of two students and one adult business coach who could assist the students when they needed help. The students needed to run their business wisely, work hard, and make wise on the dime decisions to try to be one of the few to make it to the top.


Among the top contestants were Jordan Vrubley and Amanda Isken, who were runners up. They each won two year scholarships to UW-Sheboygan and were automatically entered into the state business challenge on April 30th. Also among the winners were students James Gallager and Alex Isken, who were Industry C winners of the groups ranging from A to F.


All of the students who participated in the event had a good time. Andy Post said, “The Business Challenge was a fun and exciting event, and I learned a lot from it.” The Acuity Business Challenge was an opportunity to learn how businesses are really run and at the same time have fun interacting with other people in the business world.

Badger State

Student Reporter: Eddie Guevara


This summer, Wisconsin will hold its 66th annual Badger Girls State and its 68th annual Badger Boys State events. This year, the Cedar Grove-Belgium representatives are Tyler Weavers and Kelly DelPonte for Sheboygan County and Jake Shanahan and Erika Kirst for Ozaukee County. When asked about being selected, Erika Kirst replied, “I’m honored to be chosen as Badger Girl rep and I’m looking forward to attending the program in June.
Badger State is a school of government training which divides students into two political parties which are the Federalist and the Nationalists. From there students will contrive their own issues, giving them the opportunity to learn government strategies firsthand.
The girl’s event, which is sponsored by The American Legion Auxiliary and the Department of Wisconsin, will be held from June 21-26 at the University of Oshkosh. Badger Boys State, which is sponsored by local American Legion Posts, will be held the week prior from June 13-20 at Ripon College campus.
Congratulations, Kelly, Tyler, Jake, and Erika!

Jarred Lucas Receives Honor

Student Reporter: Tim Baumann


One of Cedar Grove–Belgium’s high school seniors, Jarred Lucas, has been honored with Unanimous First Team All Badger Land. This is an honor for the five best and hardest working hockey players in the Badger Land conference. Being unanimously selected means that every coach in their conference agreed he deserved first team. The conference had a lot of great players, including Matt Pappe from state ranked number one Appleton United, Casey Holmes from the number six Fon du lac Cardinals, and Max McCormick from the number 12 Notre Dame tritons.


Jarred ended the season with 4 goals and 22 assists; great numbers for a defensive player. It is not all about the amount of points they have on the year, but also has to do with the effort and how much they contributed in their team’s success. Jarred averaged forty eight minutes of the fifty one minutes possible during the games. During the games Jarred helped the goalie out protecting the net, and only let 2.9 goals a game.


“It’s an honor to receive this award and it was fairly unexpected, but I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates, I couldn’t have done it without them,” said Jarred Lucas when asked about his award.


On behalf of everyone in the Cedar Grove-Belgium community, congratulations Jarred and good luck to you in the future.

Class of 2009 Salutatorian

Student Reporter: Ariel Beutel


This year the honored salutatorian of the Class of 2009 is Jordan Elizabeth Dykstra. Jordan is the daughter of Linda and Rich Dykstra. She has been a strong student and has worked diligently throughout her four years of high school. Aside from being focused on her studies, Jordan also juggled sports, clubs, church, and work. After graduation, Jordan plans to further her education at Marian University where she will study Elementary Education. Jordan has received the AAA scholarship from Marian University. This scholarship gives Jordan $8,000 per year and was granted to her because of her class rank, ACT score, and grade point average. With this scholarship, Jordan has also been admitted into Marian University’s Honors Program and gets a free laptop.


When asked about being named Salutatorian of the Class of 2009, Jordan replied, “I worked so hard in all my classes since freshmen year, and it’s really neat to see that it paid off. It is a great honor to be salutatorian.” Jordan would like to leave some advice for the underclassman, “…get involved in lots of school activities. Sports and clubs are fun to be a part of and by being involved in them; you can develop good time management skills.”

March Bada Bing Student of the Month

Student Reporter: Lyndsey Weyker


Another month has passed, and once again it’s time to pick a new Bada Bing student of the month. Teachers vote for a student that stood out to them and has shown great academic achievement. They also look for involvement in extracurricular activities and school functions.


This month they chose Mary Asma, daughter of Shirley and Joe Asma. In addition to being a top-ranked student, Mary is involved in cross country, forensics, fast pitch, student council, and the school play. Her favorite classes are Chemistry, Band, and Algebra 2. When asked her feelings about receiving this honor, she stated, “I feel special because most sophomores aren’t picked and I guess hard work pays off.”

Music to build character

Student Reporter: Joe Dettmann



Grammy nominated children’s singer and songwriter Red Grammer has been featured on dozens of television programs including The Today Show, CBS This Morning, Nickelodeon, Showtime, PBS, and The Disney Channel. With a very extensive musical career, Red has reached the hearts of kids and adults alike by speaking messages of integrity, truthfulness, responsibility, character, citizenship and much more.


On Thursday, March 5th, the Cedar Grove-Belgium Elementary and Middle School students welcomed this kind hearted singer by adorning themselves in red clothing. Throughout the day, Red performed some of his Grammy nominated songs and held a night time performance at 6:30 PM. Our school is very lucky to have had the pleasure of hearing Red perform. I’m sure our local kids had a great time and learned quite a few valuable life lessons in the process. It’s good to see such a large amount of support over an extremely positive influence.

Spanish Student of the Month

Student Reporter: Lyndsey Weyker


The Spanish student for the second quarter is freshman, Dustin Groenwald. His favorite class is Spanish and he loves the movie Shanghai Knights. Dustin likes to play videogames and read books by RA Salvatore during his free time. When he is not playing videogames and reading, he is working hard at the County Grove, where he washes dishes. When asked his feelings about being the new Spanish student of the month he said, “I was happy to find out my hard work was paying off.”

Megan’s Library of Love

Student Reporter: Mariah Keller



Megan‛s Library of Love book drive began in 2006.The task began out of the inspiration to remember all of the memories of Megan, to help our community heal, and to make a difference in the lives of others. The 5th grade class at Cedar Grove-Belgium Schools combined these goals with Megan’s passion for learning and reading to create the Library of Love. The fifth graders at CGBMS are honored to carry on this yearly tradition.


Every February, close to Megan‛s birthday, fifth graders gather donations of recently purchased books and send them to schools in need. The “Love Books” are a gift of love meant to encourage learning and reading. The fifth graders have the responsibility of making posters, contacting businesses, labeling all of the books with a Library of Love sticker, sorting the books into categories, and packing all the books for shipping.


In the three years since the Library of Love project began, students have collected over 7,400 books to send to schools in need. In 2006, 3,419 books were sent to St. Bernard‛s Parish to help rebuild their school library after Hurricane Katrina devastated the community. In 2007, 1,613 books were sent to White Mountain School in
Alaska which is a small village that lost its high school due to a fire. In 2008, 2,431 books were sent to Greensburg, Kansas after a tornado destroyed over 95% of the town.


This year, students collected books from February 4-13th and were hoping to reach a goal of 2,600 books which brings us to a grand total of 10,000 books. The “Love Books” will be sent to McDowell County, West Virginia. This community has 38% of its population living in poverty and a 90% unemployment rate. Children there have not had new books in their libraries for decades and will be thrilled to receive them from Megan’s Library of Love.


This year’s total came to 4,614 books! It was our biggest year ever, and we now have exceeded the goal of 10,000 books to a total of 12,077 books! The students reward for reaching the goal of 2,600 books this year was a school wide read-a-thon.
Thank you to everyone for making yourselves a part of Megan’s Library of Love. Your contribution not only helps those in need, but it also keeps Megan’s dreams alive.

Rockets Top Oakfield, Prepare for Cambridge

Student Reporter: Nick Bornheimer



Orange flooded the Sheboygan South High School field house on Saturday afternoon, as fans draped in orange from both Cedar Grove-Belgium and Oakfield came out to watch their teams play. A battle of the number one and number three seeded teams had all the makings to be a great game, and it lived up to expectations.


Scoring went back and forth early on; with both teams matching up fairly evenly. The Rockets began to build a lead in the late first with dominate inside play from Jesse Anderson and Josh Peterson. Cedar Grove-Belgium led 15-9 at the end of one and took the momentum going into the second quarter.


Oakfield made some apparent adjustments and came out of the break swinging, going on an 8-2 run and tying the game at 17, forcing Cedar Grove-Belgium coach Jim Meinen to take a timeout and calm down his troops. The effort to calm the team down did not translate as sloppy play carried over after the timeout.


Oakfield could not capitalize on second quarter slump of the Rockets, scoring only 10 points and going 0-4 from the free throw line late in the first half. Despite the Rockets mustering only four points in the second quarter, they went into halftime tied 19 all.


Cedar Grove-Belgium got the ball to start the second half and made good with it, scoring a quick two from a foul troubled Anderson. The Rockets then orchestrated a 9-4 run, and with the help of a monster block by sophomore Weston Meinen as time in the third quarter expired, went into the fourth with momentum on their side.


The fourth quarter began with a bang for the Rockets. Chris Peterson hit a big 3-pointer that energized the fans and gave the team their biggest lead of the game to that point. Chris was key in the second half, scoring 10 of his 13 points. The Oaks switched to a full court press partway through the fourth quarter, pestering the Rockets and allowing their offense to slowly climb back into the game.


A questionable foul by Jesse Anderson late in the quarter fouled him out of the game, stripping the Rockets of their 6’7” difference maker and putting the Oaks into the double bonus. After a colossal block and quick two by senior Tim Baumann, the Rockets fan section went into a frenzy, assuming that would be enough to wrap up the game. This was before Kyle Hungerford hit a clutch 3-pointer, making it a one possession game and giving the Oaks life.


The full court press that flustered the Rockets so badly earlier came back to bite the Oaks at a crucial moment. As Oakfield looked to foul off of the inbound pass, senior captain Jason Croatt beat the press and scored a layup with 15 seconds to play sealing a 45-40 Rockets victory.


“I just found a seam in the defense and went with it,” said Croatt when asked about the exciting play. “They just let me go, so I did.”


Jason only finished with four points but made arguably the biggest shot of the game.
The Rockets struggled from the free throw line down the stretch, going only 10-20 in the fourth quarter, but the Oaks poor 3-point shooting allowed the Rockets to grind out a close one.


Chris Peterson of the Rockets and Cody Veleke of the Oaks both had a game high 13 points. Additionally, Jesse Anderson finished with 12 points and eight rebounds. For the first time in 18 years, the Rockets can hold the regional championship plaque up victoriously.


This thrilling win advances Cedar Grove-Belgium to the second week of post-season play. The Rockets will take on Cambridge Blue Jays this Thursday in West Bend, looking to take one more step towards Madison.

First Grade Snowshoeing

Student Reporter: Trevor Bublitz


On February 17th and February 26th the first grade students of Cedar Grove-Belgium elementary school were given the opportunity to go snowshoeing. Volunteers from Camp Y-Koda came to demonstrate how the snowshoes work and how to walk up and down hills. They also told the kids the parts of the snowshoe and where they originated from. The people from Camp Y-Koda also talked about winter traveling and how snowshoes have changed from the 1920’s to the current snow shoes.


Since there was a limit on how many snowshoes Camp-Y Koda had, Mrs. Sass and Mrs. Egan’s classes went on February 17th while Mrs. Loose and Mrs. Claerbaut’s classes went on February 26th. With snowshoes strapped and jackets zipped, students explored the area around the soccer field for approximately one hour. Afterwards, they all came indoors to enjoy hot chocolate and a muffin.

Sam’s Letters to Jennifer

Student Reporter: Kayla Zimmer


Looking for a good love story? Not too cheesy and not too far lost in the fantasy world? Sam’s Letters to Jennifer is for you. Jennifer is staying at her grandmother’s house in Lake Geneva after she fell into a coma. Sam and Jennifer mean everything to each other and Jennifer has already lost her husband and their little “peanut” and she can’t bear to think about losing Sam too.
She goes to Sam’s house and finds a series of letters addressed to her from Sam. Inside they tell about Sam’s lack of love in her marriage and findings of new love with someone else. Jennifer learns about the two kinds love and finding it for a second time as told by Sam’s wise words.


Also while staying on the lake Jennifer is reunited with her childhood friend, Brendan. They reminisce about the old days and soon fall in love. Brendan although is not telling Jennifer everything; he has a life threatening brain tumor that is incurable.


Jennifer now could lose the two most important people in her life again. Will Brendan live though his experimental surgery? Will Sam ever awake from her coma? Find out when you read Sam’s Letters to Jennifer, by James Patterson.

Power Speaker Makes it a Power Round

Student Reporter: Samantha Lamers



To many of us, public speaking is something we try to avoid whenever possible, but to one sophomore, Mary Asma, forensics is an exciting activity. Mary has currently been doing forensics for two years now and she is in the storytelling category. In the storytelling category, there are five different subcategories; A Story with Numbers, A Hans Christian Anderson Story, Chinese Folktale, A Story with Music, and A Story with Poverty. For each of these categories she must have a story prepared for the judges. The judges will then randomly select which subcategory she will read from.


So far this year, Mary has won a total of two awards, one at the Westosha tournament in which she received third place in the power round for the storytelling category and another at the Waterford tournament where she received first place in the power round also for storytelling. When Mary was asked about forensics she replied, “Being in forensics is an awesome experience. To most people, public speaking doesn’t sound fun, but we all have a blast at forensic meets.”

Valedictorian for the Class of 2009

Student Reporter: Jordan Dykstra



Every year people ask the question, who is this year’s valedictorian? The answer this year is Amanda Isken. Amanda is the daughter of Sherry and Michael Isken. She has been involved in many activities throughout her four years of high school and worked hard in school while participating in them. Amanda has been involved in the school drama program, student council, book club, Lakeland College math meet, and forensics. She is also a member of the track and field team and has recently joined the DECA team. She also is a junior member of the Cedar Grove Public Library Board.
Amanda does not know what college she plans to attend, but wants to major in Business Economics and might like to become an economics attorney by attending law school. Her favorite classes in high school were band, chemistry, and advanced chemistry She has learned to manage her time by getting her priorities in the right order and not to spend endless amounts of time on a homework assignment trying to get it perfect. She found out that she had more time this way and was able to participate in other activities.


Amanda’s advice to underclassmen is to try a lot of activities. She says to make sure they don’t take away from school work, but activities will make you a more rounded student, help your stress level, and help when you apply for schools and scholarships. “I am so grateful to be Valedictorian. Many people congratulate me on being so “smart”, but I’ve really just been blessed in so many ways.” Congratulations Amanda and keep up the hard work in college!

Cedar Grove-Belgium Avoids Upset, Advances to Quarter Finals

Student Reporter: Nick Bornheimer


The air was tense as the number one seeded Cedar Grove-Belgium Rockets took on the eighth seeded Horicon Marshmen in the first round of post-season play on Tuesday, March 3. The Rockets exploded out of the gates, scoring the first seven points of the game, but early foul trouble for the Rocket’s big man, Jesse Anderson, helped the upset hungry Marshmen to put together an impressive surge late in the first quarter. Horicon went on an 11-3 run to close out the quarter and take their first lead of the game.



Scoring went back and forth at the beginning of the second quarter until Chris Peterson, senior forward for the Rockets, sparked a 17-3 run off the bench which accounted for 13 of his 17 points in the second quarter. Peterson hit a fade-away three pointer as time expired in the first half, giving the Rockets a 32-19 lead and full momentum going into the second half.



“I knew someone needed to step up,” said Chris Peterson in a post-game interview. “I wasn’t ready to stop the train in the first round; I still have a lot of basketball in me.”



It was smooth sailing the rest of the game for the Rockets, starting the third quarter on a 9-2 run and not looking back. Bench players contributed down the stretch, scoring 31 points in the team’s 66-43 win. The victory advances Cedar Grove-Belgium to the quarter finals and marks their fourteenth win in their last fifteen games.



Chris Peterson scored a game high 17 points, and Josh Peterson earned a double-double, finishing with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Senior Mike Michalovitz of the Marshmen led the team in scoring with 10 points and added 4 boards. The Rocket’s next mission will be to take on the fifth seeded Dodgeland Trojans this Thursday at home, hoping to prolong an exciting season for both the players and fans alike.

Pennies for Patients

From February 23 through March 13, the Cedar Grove-Belgium elementary school will be collecting money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Pennies for Patients. The donated money will go to support a very special cause. All your pennies, and yes, even nickels, dimes, quarters, dollar bills, and checks, help in finding the cure for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma.
Their goal this year is to raise $3,500. Last year $5,000 was raised, earning the school Lifesaver Club status for the 4th year in a row. They also deserve special recognition because last year they raised the most money in all elementary schools statewide!
Donations can be dropped off at the elementary school office or given directly to Mrs. Ketterhagen. You also have the option of donating online. For online donations, follow these steps:
1. Access our school’s online donation page atwww.active.com/donate/sywi
2. Leave the first name and last name fields blank and click search.
3. Select Belgium Elementary Cedar Grove from the list. Please note our
name is listed with Belgium first.
4. Then follow the simple steps listed there to complete the donation.
Be sure to enter the classroom you’d like the donation to be credited to. This can be done by entering the teacher’s name or student’s name.
Teachers, staff and students, please bring in those pennies! All your help is great appreciated and does make a difference in this process. We need a cure for these diseases; wouldn’t you like to be a part of finding that cure?
If you would like more information, feel free to contact Sally Ketterhagen at (920) 668-8518 or (262) 285-3031 x.333 or email her at sketterh@cedargrovebelgium.k12.wi.us.