![Minutes before the Activities Fair in the gym, president Abhi Gowda ‘26 prepares the stall for his club Helping Hands, Sept. 4. A relatively new club, Helping Hands was co-started by Gowda and focuses on assisting the homeless, and just last year they succeeded in raising a couple hundred donations to send to shelters. This year, they have goals to expand, with hopes to increase volunteer opportunities and take in-person trips to shelters, as well as extend their help beyond just homeless people. “The Activities Fair gives a lot of underclassmen the opportunity to really get to know the Canyon culture, and it gives them many opportunities for service and volunteering,” Gowda said. “[Through the Activities Fair,] I hope to find a bunch of new and passionate members about our club and just get our name out there and spread awareness to the cause that we’re fighting for.”](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/1-2-1200x885.jpg)
![The winter guard team makes fifth place at the state championship finals in the Denver Coliseum, March 30. The team performed to Barnes Country's “Glitter and Gold,” lead by coaches Margo Sanford, Blair Bickerton and Anna Orgren. In their class there were a total of nine groups participating, and the top five who made it to finals received a plaque. “[Walking onto the stage] is very nerve-wracking, but also very exciting as well. When you first start color guard there's a lot of anxiety and uncertainty when you first perform in front of an audience, but once you've done it for a while, it starts to become the best part of the season,” Ella West ‘25 said. “It's very fulfilling to see an audience react to something you've put your heart and soul into.”](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Both-socal-media-nd-website-main-1-1200x846.jpg)
![April marks the 25th anniversary of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, created by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC). This month is to spread awareness of the harassment, assault and abuse that happens around the world. The symbol that represented the month was a teal ribbon; however, some survivors of assault create different symbols and movements like the TikTok trend in 2022, where survivors would tattoo Medusa on their body, in honor of her backstory in Greek Mythology. “I don't think [this month is known] at all. I rarely see anybody talk about it. I rarely see much of an emphasis on posting it online, or much discussion about it, and I feel like there needs to be way more discussion,” an anonymous source said. “I think just validating every experience that a person has gone through, regardless of the degree of it, the severity, is an essential step into making sure that people are aware that this is a very real problem in a society and that we need to do better in addressing it.”](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_0011-1200x900.jpg)
![Lesbian Visibility Day is April 26, and it’s a holiday to celebrate the lesbian community of the world. Lesbian Visibility day was established in 2008 by many queer activists and organizations who sought to raise more awareness for lesbian history and culture. “So this is why during Lesbian Visibility [Day] we celebrate and center all lesbians, both cis and trans, while also showing solidarity with all LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people,” Linda Reily, in an article written by her, said.](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Lesbian-Visibility-day.jpeg)
Improv Club, theater classes, plays, a spring musical, One Acts, theater production ensemble and tech theater.
All of this is run and produced by one woman: Cindy Baker
Baker, a theater teacher and fanatic, has taught high school theater for 39 years. She teaches all drama classes and directs both the plays and spring musical. Baker always knew she wanted to be a teacher, and once she saw what theater did for kids, that’s how she knew what she needed to be.
Baker’s favorite show that she has ever directed is “The Women of Lockerbie.”
“It was such a moving and tragic event and the story that was written was in a unique style and we ended up taking it to Nationals.”
Theater requires students to commit to their roles and put themselves out there to present a product, which can be a valuable skill in learning.
“Theater teaches kids to just passively try and actually absorb the information. They have to make creative decisions and stick with them. Students really put themselves into the product, which is a really valuable thing to learn,” Baker said.
Baker also has kids work the sound and lights, make all of the sets and create props.
Baker looked back to the school’s 2019 performance of “Newsies” as her craziest teaching experience.
“[We] ended up having the ambulance come for three nights in a row for three different types of emergencies involving students,” Baker said. “The worst injury was a student stepping off a small platform. [She] rolled her ankle to the point that she broke several bones.”
Alina Sabalevskya ‘27 is a student in Baker’s Theater I class and was an understudy for Countess in this year’s play “Murder on the Orient Express.”
“I enjoy Mrs. Baker’s class because you have a lot of different opportunities and meet a lot of different people. I also enjoy the scenes that we do with learning new things,” Sabalevskya said.
Baker Cindy • May 12, 2024 at 4:50 pm
I never saw this til now, lol!