Through the Eyes of a Bulldog – 20/20 is the theme of this year’s Lakeview High School Epic, our school yearbook. To gather information related to our theme, the yearbook staff is asking all students 9-12 to respond our Yearbook Final Survey.

Throughout the entire 2019-2020 school year, the Epic staff and others have been attending school activities to capture images of our year together. But since the stay at home order was issued in mid March and spring sports and activities were cancelled, Lakeview Publication students are now asking for some submitted photos.

You are no doubt already in our pictures somewhere. Maybe you were bugged endlessly by senior Demetrios Kakiou to show up for your Senior Superlative photoshoot. Or maybe you showed off your future occupational skills as junior staff members Kylie Woods, Mara Crish, Alivia Oravec, and Abbey Leonard spent an entire day in January capturing images of Lakeview students working in their TCTC programs. If you participated in a fall or winter sport, local professional photographer James Williams captured action shots and if you were in the student section, Crish got you in the crowd shots. In a play? Auditorium supervisor Ken Young shared cast photos from the dress rehearsals with us. Attended a dance? Publications adviser Angela Sarko snapped numerous crowd shots – and you are in them! Several club advisers have submitted photos from their meetings and activities. If you are not in the Epic already, you must have been staying at home long before the order was issued.

Yearbook staff is committed to documenting this last quarter of the school year, even if we can’t all be together. Sarko safely captured pictures at the the cap, gown, and sign distribution and will photograph the parade participants as they drive through the high school parking lot for the last time as a group. Look for Crish taking pictures somewhere along the route as well. Sarko will return later to get some fun shots of the senior sunset. Finally, the official cap and gown portraits will be shared with the yearbook and staff will work to group friends together on the graduation pages. Let us know your groups of friends through the survey link in the first paragraph above.

What the staff needs help with immediately are those pictures they cannot capture. Fully committed to granting a two page photo and information spread to each sport, the Epic staff is asking ALL spring sports athletes to submit a picture of yourself in your team uniform to our adviser. If you don’t have your uniform, you can wear Lakeview colors in practice clothes. You can assume an action stance typical for your sport or you can just stand straight. A second type of picture we are asking to be submitted is of seniors in their prospective college gear. For whatever picture you send, please look at the camera – we like faces! For good yearbook quality, enlisting the help of a family member to take the picture is always better than a selfie.

The Publications staff has enjoyed a great year reporting on the news of Lakeview High School in The Bulldog Bulletin and organizing evidence of school activities for the Epic. Of all the classes offered at Lakeview High School, Student Publications is the only one in which students practice real world skills in a way no other course does – by actually producing, distributing, and in the case of the yearbook, selling real products. 

Senior Sebastian Nutter said, ¨I love that I can have a hang out session as a class while still being able to express the artistic side of my writing and I even get to help the school at the same time by reporting school news and putting together the yearbook, but now it is just not the same.¨

Publications staff practice all the steps in the publishing process from generating ideas to planning and creating layouts; researching, interviewing, photographing, writing copy, placing in the layout, and editing copy; selling advertising space to real customers at local businesses and creating their ads; documenting this year in the life of Lakeview students and creating what will be a cherished treasure for many years.

Junior Abbey Leonard added, ¨It has helped me determine my career path as a journalist and even helped me look into scholarships¨ Leonard was chosen to be a student reporter for the Cortland newspaper thanks to all her hard work in the publications class.

Documenting this year in our lives is the most important part because a yearbook is an official historical document of a school. A yearbook is sold at cost – meaning the amount taken in is the exact amount it costs to print the yearbook. They’re not raising money for pizza parties or taking field trips – they’re publishing a yearbook. Each year the staff sells ad space in order to be able to offer the fall sales price to early bird students and also to pay for cover art and any special finish or texture they might want on the cover, but after that the cost of printing the book is the cost at which it is offered to students. That cost has remained steady at $65 for several years. All yearbooks are sold online and students can order theirs by going to Jostens online. At the writing of this article, Lakeview has just under 40 books available to sell. Order yours today so you don’t miss out. Once the book is submitted for printing in mid June, no more orders will be taken. Books are shipped to the school in mid August and students will be notified when and where they can be picked up.

Due to the recent pandemic of COVID-19 students now can’t come together in the publications classroom anymore, but prior to the stay at home order students had a lot of fun learning the life of journalists. One of the highlights very early each year is visiting local businesses to sell ad space.

Senior Sydney Whipkey enjoyably quotes, ¨I will never forget when we were going to get ads and a plunger fell out of the car window.¨

Gathering stories like this is one of the many small things that Lakeviews seniors will remember for the rest of their lives and the yearbook class is dedicated to completing the official book of those memories.

Thank you, Lakeview for being such a kind audience.