Ski Trip to Mt. Wachusett

by Bradley Rowan '15

Bradley Rowan

A few lucky seventh and eighth graders spent their Martin Luther King Jr. day off at Wachusett Mountain, a family owned mountain since the 1930's.  Wachusett Mountain has twenty two trails and eight lifts and is located in Princeton, Massachusetts, about one and a half hours away from CM.

When the CM buses departed at 7:30am the mood was rather quiet. Mr. Murray wouldn't have any of that, so we cranked up the radio and sang rock classics all the way to Wachusett. When we first arrived at the mountain we set down our gear and took a breather. Mr. Murray and Mr. Jordan took attendance and thankfully everyone was there so we got our lift tickets and started our day.

 My friends and I began our long trek to the ski lift.   We noticed on our way up how large the mountain was and how far the trails branched out.  After, finally reaching the top I suggested we take the shorter route down the mountain, unfortunately we had not realized that this trail was for toddlers and ski patrol so we had a hard time avoiding small children who didn't know how to stop.

After we left that trail I realized that I was bitter cold and could not feel my nose so I took a small detour and purchased a face mask. When I met back up with my friends I found them at the Waffle Shack.  I decided it was as good a time as any to get a bite to eat.  When I bit into that waffle I swore I heard Angles sing. It was like biting into your favorite food and multiplying that by ten and to top it all off they gave me a complementary apple cider.

After lunch we ran into the other eighth graders that accompanied us on the ski trip, while we were standing in another lift line.  When all of us got to the top of the lift we decided it would be fun if we went into the terrain park. We got to the terrain park and went through the series of loops, bAll of us got down the mountain and were itching for more fun, so we headed back up the mountain for a few more runs before we had to head back to CM.  Some decided to take another try in the terrain park, but most of us just wanted to go down through the moguls.  After a few more runs down the mountain, we looked at our watches and saw that it was time to head back to where Mr. Murray and Mr. Jordan were waiting for us.

 When everyone got back to the lodge we packed up our gear and headed towards the buses. We boarded the buses and I noticed that most of the kids were pretty sad we had to leave and that the day was over.  So, we had John Tondreys perform his famous Livin' in a Van Down by The River skit from Saturday Night Live.  Everyone was laughing and in a better mood after that, so Mr. Murray decided to blast the rock tunes for an encore from the morning's performance.

The Ski Club's first trip to Wachusett had a great turnout and was a great success.  On behalf of the entire Ski Club we would like to thank Mr. Murray and Mr. Jordan for spending their time and organizing this trip for us.          

Black History Month:

In Remembrance of

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By Dakota Lowe '15

Dakota Lowe '15

Martin Luther King Jr.  was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929.  He was born Michael Luther King, Jr. but changed his name to Martin. Martin's father was a Reverend in the Baptist Church and his mother had a huge role in the church. Martin worked in his father's church's choir when he was 10 years old.  Martin, his grandfather and his father served as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Martin was the middle child in the family.

Martin Luther King skipped two grades in high school and was accepted to Morehouse College. Morehouse College is a well known black all-male college in Atlanta. Both his father and grandfather graduated from Morehouse College. Martin graduated from Morehouse in 1948 with a degree in sociology. 

In 1975, Free at Last, the soaring sculpture by Sergio Castillo was unveiled in memory of one of BU's greatest's alumni, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is in the front of Marsh Chapel at Boston University

 Martin next attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania. At Crozer, Martin was elected president of a predominantly white senior class. Martin next attended Boston University where he received his doctorate in 1955.  Martin was 26 years old when he received his doctorate.  While in Boston, Martin met and married Coretta Scott King.

In 1954, Martin Luther King became pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.  Martin was a strong worker for the civil rights for members of his race.  In 1955, he became the leader of the first great Black nonviolent demonstration. He led a bus boycott which lasted 382 days.  In 1956, the Supreme Court of the United States stated that it was unconstitutional for buses to be segregated. Whites and Blacks should be able to ride the buses as equals.  During the days of the boycott, Martin was arrested, he was harassed and his home was bombed.   Others involved in the Montgomery Bus Boycott also suffered from harassment and intimidation, but they continued to protest.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide leadership for the civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization were from Christianity and Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice and protest. He also wrote five books and a number of articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a ''coalition of conscience."  He directed the peaceful march in Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered the, "l Have a Dream" speech. At this March on Washington, he talked about living in a color blind society.  

During his life he met with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and he was awarded five honorary degrees; he was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963, and became the leader of American blacks and also a world figure.  In 1964, Martin became the youngest person to receive the Noble Peace Prize. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end segregation and discrimination through nonviolent means.  King was also focused on ending poverty.

Unfortunately, King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee while he was standing on a hotel room balcony. After his death he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. In 1986 his birthday, January 15^th was recognized as Martin Luther King Jr. Day and became a United States federal holiday.