A keepsake for all to cherish

Putting out the yearbook takes a year’s worth of work, By Matt Sandler Vernon — Every year, high schools across the country compress a year’s worth of memories into the school yearbook. It’s a tough job, but worth the work. Vernon’s Viking Explorer was published this month, and the students who put it together, members of the school’s Publication Design class, say the effort was well spent. They called the 2009 yearbook “Story of Our Lives” and in its pages the students poured their memories and hopes. Putting the yearbook together was a rigorous task. “It took a lot of heart,” said yearbook staff member Chris Longano. Throughout the year, staff members spent hours during school, over vacations and at off-site locations taking many of the pictures they say were essential to creating the book. “We traveled all over Sussex County to take pictures of different sporting events and wandered around the school to take pictures of students going through their daily routines,” said staff member Kristie Weimmer. Selecting photos that capture the spirit of the students was just one of many tasks the yearbook staff undertook. They also put in a lot of creative energy to choose the book’s theme. “We started with 12 different themes,” said staff member Ashley Hastings. They considered: board games, amusement parks, an old-fashioned yearbook and the scrapbook theme, which ultimately won out. The staff came up with another new idea. They decided to inscribe the name of every senior on the cover as a way to highlight the graduates. “I am very proud of the effort and dedication the yearbook staff put into this year’s book,” said advisor James Labar. “They worked very well with one another and should be very proud of the final product.”