Who's in the Burrow?

Bee-ing a Winner!

The final 13 today at the California Central Valley
Spelling Bee. Zabell is at far left.
Good News Flash from the Fighting Marmot front. Two weeks ago I spotlighted Sam Zabell, a triple podium threat in Nordic skiing, fiddling and spelling.


Zabell is fresh back to the SBA Campus after taking third place out of 58 students competing in the California Central Valley Spelling Bee. 


The force was with him until he had to face the following word: "incorporeity" (incidentally, Blogger spell check doesn't even recognize this word!).


"I asked for an alternate pronunciation, because sometimes it helps to hear it a different way," said Zabell. 


"Then I asked for a definition so I could see if there were any kinds of roots in there, and I also asked for the language of origin. 


"I wrote it down on my finger on the back of the placard, and then I spelled it again as I was writing it out. I switched the 'e' and the 'i' toward the end, because the pronunciation could have gone either way, and I thought it followed the 'i' before 'e' except after 'c' rule.


"I did better than I ever have, and this is my last year in this Bee."


You can show your support and leave a comment below of CONGRATULATIONS TO SAM on making SBA proud!!!!

You're wearing WHAT to the WHAT??

SBA Student-Athlete Katrin Larusson
at a recent Trashion Show
If SBA Nordic skier extraordinaire Katrin Larusson ever strikes Olympic gold, it is no mystery what product she will be seen pitching in television spots.

(Hint: take a close look at the photo...)

That's right: Pirate's Booty.

She likes it so much she doesn't just eat it (a lot!). She WEARS it.

Not to school, mind you, but strutting down the runway at "Trashion Shows" put on by Truckee High School's Envirolution Club.

This Friday night - the night before departing for Junior Olympics in Minneapolis, Minnesota - Larusson will be seen parading on the Truckee High School stage in Pirate's Booty wrappers that she has fashioned into a dress, all to raise attention to recycling issues and to raise funds for an Envirolution Club trip to a convention in Atlanta this spring. The Envirolution/Trashion Gala begins at 6 p.m.

Larusson is the embodiment of the kind of personal investment in local and global environmental issues that guest speaker Rebecca Anderson of the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) asked of the SBA student body at last week's All School Meeting.

ACE and POW - represented by Savannah Cowley and YouTube phenomenon Mike Wilson - presented to SBA students and staff the science behind global warming, as well as some suggestions for how each individual can do his or her part to help reverse or slow the effects of climate change.

At the conclusion of the All School Meeting, students were encouraged to pick a "DOT" (Do One Thing) to make a change to their personal footprint. Students chose DOTS that ranged from shorter showers to not using plastic bags when they go out to the grocery store.

“It is so obvious to see the connection between global climate change and our lives as skiers in the Sugar Bowl community," said Dean of Residential Life and Math/Science Teacher Kristen Lew, who spearheaded efforts to bring ACE and POW to campus.

"I felt that ACE and POW could provide the students with ways to become aware and engaged with the movement to decrease our effects on the planet.”

Learn more about Envirolution, Trashion Shows and Larusson by listening to last night's phone interview: