HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-01-12, Page 10PAGE 10. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012.Local student turns good news into dressMichele Studhalter, a 17-year-old
F.E. Madill Secondary School
student from the Blyth area, doesn’t
like the way teens are portrayed in
the media and decided to do
something about it.
Inspired by a headline in a June
2011 edition of the London Free
Press that read “15, dumb and
dangerous,” Studhalter set out to
prove that the majority of youth
doing good things and that the few
bad apples were making a bad name
for the youth of today.
She decided that she would make a
dress from the newspaper that
carried the headline and use that as
her vehicle to show the world there
are teens out there capable of
creation instead of destruction.
“The story admitted that idiots
take the spotlight from bright,
enthusiastic creative young people,”
she said. “But you rarely see
headlines about them. You see
stories about teenagers doing bad
things.”
Five months after starting, she had
her dress ready for the semi-formal
at F.E. Madill and, while it was
admired by fellow students and
teachers, Studhalter said her real
goal was to raise awareness and get
her story in the London Free Press.
“I started the dress as a means to
use recycled material, since I had
made similar dresses in other years,”
she said. “By the time I finished
though, my goal was to get into thenewspaper to show that teenagersare capable of good things. When itcame to the end the message of
recycling became equally important
with the idea of teenagers being
misrepresented in the media.”
Studhalter succeeded in her
mission as the London Free Press’
Alex Weber interviewed her for a
story that appeared late in
Decemeber.
The dress went through several
different designs before she picked
one with a cloth-base (made from
recycled clothing) and the
newspaper clippings attached to the
dress.
“I started with a bubble dress, and
it went through three or four more
versions before I picked the one I
used,” she said, stating that she
kept changing until she found
something comfortable she could sit
in.
For nearly half a year Studhalter
worked on clipping newspaper
stories that were big in 2011 and
using them to make the dress as well
as accessories for her outfit, but not
just any story could get in.
“Most of the stories had big
headlines to them and they were all
black and white,” she said. “I didn’t
enjoy the colour.
“Some were from the tsunami and
earthquake in Japan, some were of
the royal wedding, but they were all
big news stories,” she said. “The
tornado in Goderich also played an
important role in the dress because it
was so close to home.”Studhalter said she had beenplanning to make a dress of recycledmaterial since March of the previous
school year and, by the time she read
the article and decided to make more
of a statement than just recycling,
she had already made hair-pieces
from newspaper clippings.
Studhalter said that, while she
believes teens are maligned by the
focus of coverage they receive in the
media, local news outlets aren’t as
bad.
“It’s different at the local level,”
she said. “The Citizen for example,
has a lot of local stories about teens
doing good things. I guess that, in a
place like London, there’s a lot more
going on so the more outrageous news
needs to lead.
“You really have to do something
outrageous to catch the eye of the
media in a situation like that,” she said.
Her dress definitely generated a
lot of comments at her semi-formal
in December, but the most
memorable one was that her peers
couldn’t believe she didn’t win best-
dressed.
“It was a funny story, we ended up
being late to the dance,” she said. “I
wasn’t around when they announced
the best dressed award.”
Aside from missing the awards,
Studhalter said she has received a lot
of feedback about the dress.
“A lot of people were puzzled
about the dress, and others really
didn’t know what to think when they
saw it, but they were all interested in
it,” she said.
For the future, Studhalter plans to
wear a more commercial dress for
her own prom later this year, but her
designs may still end up on display.
“I’m making some dresses for my
friends but that might be the end of
it,” she said. “My future plans are in
businesses, hopefully on the
international front.”
She said that she had recently
applied to further her studies at the
University of Guelph, Wilfrid
Laurier University and the
University of Waterloo in general
business programs and hopes to
focus more after her first year to giveher a chance to test the waters.“I’m fairly sure I’ll go intointernational business, but I’m leaving my options open for the firstyear,” she said. “Who knows, Imight end up doing fashion businessstudies.”
With the recent departure of Chief
Administrative Officer Kevin
McLlwain, Central Huron has
welcomed one of the area’s familiar
faces into the fold for the interim.
Jack McLachlan, who retired
from over 30 years in municipal
administration, first as the clerk of
Tuckersmith Township and then as
clerk-administrator for Huron East,
will be working two days a week for
Central Huron.
McLachlan, who started Monday
with the municipality, will take on
the regular Chief Administrative
Officer duties while the process of
filling the void left by McLlwain
continues.
The process was made even more
complicated due to the departure of
Regional Equine and Agricultural
Centre of Huron (REACH) CEO
Richard Harding. Central Huron
Mayor Jim Ginn had said shortly
after McLlwain’s departure that a
possible partnership with REACH
and the Clinton Raceway could be
reached when considering a
replacement for McLlwain.
Ginn had said that rather than
hiring a direct replacement for
McLlwain, the possibility of hiring
someone for a new position that
would aid in promotion with the
municipality, as well as the
aforementioned facilities, was a
strong possibility.
“We’re going to play it by ear,”
Ginn said. “We’re not just going to
rush out and rehire someone.”
Ginn said he anticipates the
process taking between three and
six months, which McLachlan has
been agreeable to. Ginn says there is
no contract with McLachlan, just a
mutual agreement between
McLachlan and the municipality to
stay on while Central Huron gets its
affairs in order.
Discussions will be taking place
in the near future, Ginn says,
between the municipality and
representatives from REACH, the
Clinton Raceway and the YMCA at
the new Central Huron Community
Complex. Ginn says the meetings
will help to highlight mutual needs
and reduce redundancy and help
with the quest for a new body in the
office.
“”We’ll go over our staffing levels
and see what we need and what we
don’t need,” Ginn said.
Ginn said the departure of
Harding can be seen as an
opportunity for the municipality to
perhaps right some wrongs that
have occurred over the last year or
two.
“This way we can take our time,
have those discussions and look at
the right structure,” he said.
Ginn said he spoke with Larry
Langden, president of REACH’s
board of directors, who is in favour
of having those joint meetings and a
good working relationship with
Central Huron.
“I’m not sure that we got it right
the first time around and this is
probably our last opportunity to get
it right as far as management at
REACH is concerned,” Ginn said.
Ginn said the meetings will help
everyone understand the staff at all
of the municipality’s facilities and
similar jobs and equipment can be
identified, increasing the efficiency
with which the municipality is run.
“With our new community
complex, we really have a unique
set of facilities,” Ginn said, adding
that promotion of those facilities
will be paramount during the
ongoing discussions.
As far as McLachlan is
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A dress with a message
Blyth’s Michele Studhalter, 17, is a student at F.E. Madill
Secondary School and gets to see the good that teenagers
are capable of every day. After reading a story about several
misbehaving 15 year olds in The London Free Press she
decided she had enough of teenagers being shown only at
their worst and endeavoured to get in the paper herself and
show that teens are capable of acts of good. She decided
to take a dress she was already making and use it to show
people that the few teens the news picks up on aren’t the
rule but the exception. (Denny Scott photo)
By Denny ScottThe Citizen
McLachlan starts
as interim CAO
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 19