Students Preventing Animal Mistreatment Club Raise $1,800 for Animal Relief Efforts - In just one semester, students in The John Cooper School’s unique SPAM Club (Students Preventing Animal Mistreatment) held fundraisers and raised more than $1,800 in donations for animal relief organizations.

In December, the group sponsored the annual Santa Paws fundraiser. More than 70 pets of all shapes and sizes had photos taken with Santa and his elves, raising $500. Bake sales and sales of dress down days raised the remainder of the money.

As a result, the SPAM Club is donating $1,250 to the Montgomery County Humane Society, $225 to the E-Rescue organization in Houston and $225 to The Little Woman Home for Animals in Dallas. Calah Pachman is the club president and Shannon Hill is the faculty sponsor.

Loading the Salvation Army truck are: (front row) Erica Walker, Kristian Castagnola, Michelle Tam, Billy Ross and Gina Valderrama; (middle row) Jake Teall, Sonya Bhatia, Isabel Sands, Salvador Recio; (back row) Jenna Hill, Cameron Ziegler, Amberley Ross and Matthew Jenkins.

Loading Up for Salvation Army Giving Tree - Lower school students at The John Cooper School and their families gathered gifts for the Montgomery County Salvation Army Giving Tree throughout the latter part of December. Members of Cooper’s lower school Student Council helped representatives from the Salvation Army load the truck with gifts. The annual service project is coordinated each year by lower school administrative assistant Margie Koehl.

In addition to gifts for children and senior citizens, the drive collected more than $930 on a Dress Down Day, when students could purchase the opportunity to dress out of dress code to raise funds for the Salvation Army.

Woodlands HS Leadership Council Donates to Interfaith’s Food Pantry - The Woodlands High School Leadership Council, led by Principal Gregg Colschen, donated $4,532.99 to Interfaith of The Woodlands. The group of students collected these funds from their peers after Hurricane Ike. The Leadership Council decided to donate proceeds to Interfaith of The Woodlands upon learning that the storm had depleted the Interfaith Food Pantry.

Sixth Grader Wins Cooper Geography Bee - Twelve students at The John Cooper School in grades 5-8 qualified to participate in the school-level National Geographic Bee by placing first during elimination rounds in their history classes.

Sixth-grader Colin Gaffney was the school-level winner and, for the first time in 15 years, a Cooper fifth-grader, Turner Yardley earned the title of runner-up. The final school-level competition was held for the first time in Cooper’s new Performing Arts Center.

Also competing in the Geography Bee were: eighth-graders Arielle Coughlin, Matt Lee and Joseph Toups; seventh-graders Jake Seefeldt, Zach Fojtasek and Joe Jared; sixth-graders Douglas Ziman and Stavros Ktendis; and fifth-graders Catalina Cura and Ellen Teuscher.

Eighth-grade social sciences faculty member George Albritton served as master of ceremonies for the competition, with the assistance of fellow faculty members Walt Steadman, middle school dean of students; Janet Taylor; Ellyn Hickey; Deborah Humes and Allan Barr.