Cannon Blast Returns To Mark Generals’ Touchdowns
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
Members of the Class of 2011 might be off at college or on the job, but their gift to Anthony Wayne High School is sure to be felt and heard for years to come – at least every time the Generals make a touchdown.
High school principal Jeri Hoellrich said the class donated the $2,200 to purchase a cannon from Canton Cannon Works of Ohio. Beginning during the home game against Bowling Green on Friday, September 30, it will be shot once each time the football team scores.
“I think the cannon is a great addition to Anthony Wayne football games,” said class president Amanda Levison. “It’s not a traditional senior gift but I know that it represents the class of 2011 pretty accurately.”
The cannon will be placed near the flagpole and fire toward the practice field in the back, away from cars and people, Hoellrich said.
“The trees and open space should muffle the sound,” she said.
The cannon uses 12-gauge shells filled with black powder – a substance that Anthony Wayne Junior High teachers Matt Beakas and Jake Nekoranec are familiar with. The men have both taken firearms and hunter safety classes and are experienced with black powder hunting.
Police, fire and neighbors have been alerted about the addition of the cannon, and the men are working on safety procedures before its inaugural use.
“I think it’s awesome to reestablish the school tradition,” said Beakas, a 2002 AW graduate.
“We hope this adds to the excitement and positive experience of Friday night football,” Nekoranec added.
No one can remember the last time a cannon – used to symbolize the battle of Fallen Timbers and the school’s namesake, Gen. Anthony Wayne – was fired.
But in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Jeff Chamberlain carried on a tradition he believes was started in the 1960s by the late Richard “Stub” Myers.
Richard’s widow, Beatrice, explained that when their son Rick played football, her husband and Kenny Conklin were running the chains, and they decided to make a cannon.
It had a 10-gauge shotgun inside a pipe painted to look like Gen. Anthony Wayne’s cannon, Chamberlain said, and used blank 10-gauge shells.
“Those got to be expensive to buy, because they had to be custom made,” recalled Chamberlain, who was friends with Stub. “It wasn’t just 25 cents a shot.”
While Beatrice continued to work as a secretary at the north and south high school buildings and in the cafeteria, Richard stopped volunteering at football games a few years after their son graduated.
“I don’t know what happened to the cannon,” Beatrice said.
Living across the street from the high school, the Myers got a chance to hear cannon fire again in the mid-’70s, when 14-year-old Chamberlain saw plans for a cannon in Mechanics Illustrated.
“I was a freshman in high school and I decided to make one. It was loud,” he recalled of the creation, which used a steel pipe inside a 7-foot barrel painted to look like a cannon.
Instead of shotgun shells, he used calcium carbide rock, which, when mixed with water, creates acetylene gas, Chamberlain explained.
“I fired it the first time with my dad. I couldn’t believe how loud it was. If you didn’t get the mixture just right, it could knock the breath out of the people in the stands, it was so loud,” he said.
On carriage wheels that were almost 4 feet tall, the cannon was so heavy it had to be hauled to the field on a trailer.
Chamberlain and his fellow cross country runners dubbed themselves the “spirit crew” and set the cannon off during home games. A 1980 graduate, he continued that job until his future wife Rebecca DeLong graduated in 1982.
“It was a lot of fun to fire. I was a student so I didn’t have any fear of anyone suing me,” he laughed. “It’s been more than seven years, so I can’t be incriminated.”
The old cannon is now stored in a hay mow in a barn. But Levison expects the new cannon to be around for a long time.
“It is something that students have been talking about for a while and many classes will be able to enjoy in the future, “ Levison said.

SoulShoppe Program Empowers Youth To Stop Bullying Behavior
BY KAREN BERGER — MIRROR REPORTER
Sitting on the “chair of help,” Johnny finally shared a secret that no one in his school knew: his brother had died while fighting in Iraq, and in her grief, his mom forbade him to utter his brother’s name.
Since he couldn’t talk, Johnny instead hit kids on the playground on a regular basis, until he had a chance to let out all of his bottled-up emotions safely. Then he didn’t have to visit the principal’s office any more.
“When kids open up and talk, bullying virtually disappears,” SoulShoppe founder Joseph Savage said.
During a weeklong visit to Anthony Wayne primary schools, Savage shared tools for reducing bullying behavior and encouraging problem solving.
A Cleveland native, Savage was a teacher in California and noticed that while programs focused on how to deal with bullies, none looked at addressing why people bullied and how to stop it.
“I want to give the kids who are doing the bullying the language and ideas on how to stop,” Savage said.
That language centers around balloons – the place where kids keep feelings and memories they don’t know what to do with, such as the death of a family member, friend or pet, divorce, or trouble with friends.
With parents losing jobs and homes being foreclosed, some kids have even more to deal with. And when parents mentally check out by watching too much TV or spending too much time on the computer, kids’ balloons fill up even more, Savage said.
The safest way to empty a balloon is through talking or drawing about it. When a child can’t empty a balloon, it gets to a point of bursting – and can result in destructive behavior such as fighting or mean words.
“There aren’t bullies, just bullying kids. They need attention and help. They need to be listened to. They need love and friends,” Savage said.
While adults often focus on punishing or labeling a bully, SoulShoppe focuses on giving kids a safe outlet.
“In a lot of homes, kids aren’t allowed to have a voice,” Savage said. “We want to give them a voice in a safe way, but where the family isn’t getting exposed.”
Standing in front of a group of Waterville fourth-graders, Savage pointed to a stool.
“This is the chair of help,” he said. “Does anyone here need help cleaning up a problem?”
A girl sat in the chair and told how a friend teased her about something that happened in her family.
“Would anyone like to help?” Savage asked the classroom. Every hand went up.
The girl called up several teachers and friends to “have her back” while she asked her friend to clean up the problem.
Using language that included “I’m sorry” and “What can I do to make it better?” the friends reunited.
This same process that Savage used in assemblies and individual classrooms was also shared with “peacemakers” – student council members in third and fourth grade who will resolve conflicts on the playground.
On the Whitehouse Primary playground, peacemakers Griffin Cook, Ella Gorniak, Camryn Kaestner and Jillian Mundo held cue cards and demonstrated how to walk the 10-step path to find solutions in a peaceful manner.
While SoulShoppe has visited Whitehouse before, the district was able to bring the program to all of the primary schools, thanks to funding from Awake Community Coalition and Spring Green Educational Foundation, said Whitehouse principal Brad Rhodes. Additional funding was provided for a September 13 parent training seminar and peacemaker training.
“This is being done to proactively promote positive student interactions with one another,” Rhodes said. “This is just one piece of what we do in Anthony Wayne Schools to work on that issue.”
For more information, visit www.soulshoppe.com.