Wednesday, June 19, 2013

The "Arrival of the Yearbook: Intermediate Edition" Story

Cover of the 2013
Landis Run Intermediate School
It was an ordinary day.  Helping with the distribution of the Manheim Township Intermediate School Yearbook.  First time ever to help with this book, since the Landis Run Intermediate School just opened in September of 2012.  Really neat school for students in grades 5 and 6.  I have helped with yearbooks in the township school system for over 40 years now and last year's 6th grade principal, Chris, asked if I would be willing to take on the job of yearbook advisor to the new intermediate school where he would be the principal.  I was already the advisor to the middle school which used to be grades 6, 7 and 8, but now would be just 7 and 8.  Hey, I have plenty of time so it took me all but 5 seconds to respond yes.  This book has much the same look as the middle school book with 56 pages and a hard cover.  Jostens Yearbook Company also is the printer of the intermediate book.  Since this was the first year for the new school, I made sure we did a few special things for the yearbook.  Naturally had to have the student and faculty portraitures, administration and office photos, nurse and librarian photos and club and organization photos.  I asked the students to fill out a questionnaire midyear with questions such as: If you were the architect of the school, what would you do differently?; What is your favorite feature on the Landis Run Intermediate School; and How hard was it to adjust to a brand new school.  Had quite a few students return the questionnaire and after reading the results, picked out about a dozen students and included a photo of them with a few of their answers.  Also had Matt, the 6th grade art teacher, help me with a contest to design the cover of the 1st ever cover for the Landis Run Intermediate School Yearbook.  Again, had about a dozen entries and selected one which featured the school as the main theme of the cover.  As with the middle school book, the Jostens representative spent a day with me at my home to help with the design of the interior pages.  After he left, I began to work on the book and in two days had it complete.  Today the students of the Landis Run Intermediate School will receive their copy of the inaugural school yearbook.  Pretty neat that I was selected to produce this historic piece of memorabilia and even neater that I got paid to do it.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.


Photo I took for the title page
6th grader who drew the cover design
The LRIS Library
Phys-Ed Room

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