There are a lot of things that have happened this winter and spring as Helper Middle School heads into the last days of the school year.

“One of the things that we are doing this year is a school play at the Rio Theater,” said Robert Bradley, the Principal at Helper Middle School. “Our students are doing a performance of ‘Aladdin’ on May 17 and 18 at the Rio Theater.

In the past couple of months many students at the school have excelled in competitions regionally and at the state level too.

Jared Saccomano took Second Place at the Regional Spelling Bee, after taking first in the District Spelling Bee at Mont Harmon Middle School.

Bradley brought out a point about an eighth grade student who has excelled with words in a different way too. Jayden Allred has doubled the district reading challenge of 40 books read by an individual in the school year by  40 books by reading over 100 by April 1.

“She has just devoured books this year,” said Bradley. “She is near to tripling the challenge and has read 104 already.”

A number of students at the school also participated in the state FCCLA competition recently. Family, Career and Community Leaders of America is a nonprofit national career and technical student organization for young men and women in Family and Consumer Sciences education in public and private schools through grade 12. Winners from Helper included Ella Anderson for Advocacy, Silver and 2nd place; Gentrie Hansen, Makayla Pugliese, T’Kiah McArthur with Focus on Children, Silver; Emma Holm for Entrepreneurship, Gold and 3rd place; Belle Pugliese and Kaylee Leffler on Entrepreneurship, Bronze; Jadyn Nef on a Focus on Children, Silver; and Kelton Stockdale and Gavin Fausett for Sports Nutrition, Silver.

At the Regional Science Fair in Cedar City a group of students did well and the school got awards for discipline areas as well. Students who won included Hannah Ludington in Animal science, Honorable Mention; Veronica Cartwright  in Computer science with a third place finish; Allena Ison for Chemistry and she took a First Place; and Cole Yoklavich in Environmental Science who also took first place. The school also got the Southern Utah University Geology Club Award and the Eighth Grade Observer ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair).

Students at the school also competed at the Regional History Fair on March 11 at the Carbon County Fairgrounds.  Seven students from Helper competed using this year’s theme “Triumph and Tragedy in History.”  Gentrie Hansen, Sarah Ludington, Sophie Arrieta, and Bradley Sweeney all competed in the website category.  Emma Holm created an exhibit for the competition.  Hannah Ludington and Jayden Allred competed in the historical paper category.  All seven students qualified for the state competition which is being held at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley City.