![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)
Smoking Skies
Colorado skies have become hazy throughout the past few months, causing for alerts to be sent out by the CPDE advising people to be safe outside.
September 8, 2021
In the past two years, Colorado has seen an increase of yearly fires throughout the United States, and last year, Colorado recorded the highest amount of forest fires according to Nasa.gov. “The number of large fires and extreme fire behavior we are seeing in our forests this year is historic,” Colorado Forest Supervisor, Monte Williams said. This year it’s a different story.
The skies of Colorado have been hazy these past few weeks. What’s the cause of this? It’s forest fires.
Who’s to blame for our hazy weather and bad air quality? The Coloradoan wrote a story and stated that the fires are originating from Arizona, California, Nevada and New Mexico.
“I’ve noticed the difference of the skies some days it will be sunny and blue, then days later it will be hazy and covers the entire sky,” Maddie Leonardi ‘24 said.
“The Telegraph and Mescal fires burning north of Tucson and southeast of Phoenix have burned more than 140,000 acres combined,” Interagency Incident Information Center (IIIC) said.
The air quality is currently a risk for the people of Colorado. For example, the difference in air quality compared to last year with the fires compared to this year, people can see that even though Colorado may not be on fire, the air quality is worse than the air quality last year. (CDPHE – Colorado.gov/AirQuality)
Due to the hazy skies in Colorado right now, the Department of Public Health and Environment (DPHE) has put out three air quality advisories for three different regions in the Colorado area advising them to be careful if they are elderly, have respiratory issues, heart issues, or have very young children.
Evan Chaulk ‘24 plays lacrosse in his free time running around in the smoke and said he could almost feel the smoke affecting him “When I run around outside playing lacrosse I feel like it’s hard to breathe some days when I’m outside doing my activities,” Chaulk said.
“The heavy smoke and air quality that has affected Colorado over the past several weeks has decreased significantly. However, light to moderate concentrations of smoke does linger in many areas. Additionally, residual health impacts may linger due to prolonged exposure to elevated concentrations of fine particulate matter. Unusually sensitive people should consider reducing prolonged or heavy exertion on Friday statewide,” according to Colorado Smoke outlook as of Sept. 8 at 8:00 a.m.
To find more information on the Air quality and smoke in Colorado visit the CDPE website.