After years of effort, Alpena High School students produce two unique books

Laci Martin (left) and Brandy Martin were the driving force behind the creation of the cookbook. Photo submitted

ALPENA -- EAST Lab students at Alpena High School have created two unique books that have been years in the making.

The first, "The Alpena School Alumni Directory," was developed over a period of five years and underwent six revisions to preserve class and school pictures located in the hallway of the high school building.

Students Shawn Watts and Maggie Good used photo editing software to enhance, and in some cases reconstruct the text and pictures.

Shawn Watts and Maggie Good became proficient in the use of photo editing software. Working with digital photos of actual pictures hanging in the high school hallway, they imported them into computer based photo-editing software programs for reproduction in a spiral-bound alumni directory.

The second is a cookbook project that began two years ago. It was initially created and designed by students Brandy and Laci Martin. Shelby Daniels joined in to help with the second version when breakfast menus and spiral binding were added.

Cookbook

"Preparing meals is not always as 'EASY - AS 1..2..3 where you Find Combine and Dine,'" said teacher and project facilitator Randy Lane, "but Brandy and Laci Martin and Shelby Daniels developed a project whose end product was a unique recipe/menu book that would be an asset to any cook. They are accustomed to busy family life and know the importance of rounded nutritional meals."

He said the book of menus and recipes was designed, developed, and published as an Alpena High School EAST Lab project.

"It has 20 recipes in each of the three categories presenting 8,000 different menu combinations. The girls have shown the book to many people, and all stated that they had never seen one like it.

"All the cook has to do is open the book, browse the pictures within each of the three categories and select the ones to combine. When the choices are made, the recipes for all three are essentially on the same page."

He said the book was created with a simple stand that is folded out to hold it upright.

Recipes in the book came from Terri Woodworth of Alpena and Internet Web sites, primarily allrecipes.com.

"Almost all the recipes are simple in nature and use ingredients commonly found in most kitchens," said Lane.

He said the students used Microsoft Publisher to design and develop the layout of the book. All printing and binding took place in the EAST Lab.

"Several practice books were made before they finally found the right combination of paper, binding, and tabs," said Lane. "That was actually the simple part because it seemed to take forever to put everything in the proper order."

Another problem they encountered, he said, was designing a cover and title for the book.

"It couldn't be just plain and simple. It had to be catchy," said Lane. "Brandy compiled the pictures for the cover, while Laci focused on the title.

"From somewhere they stumbled upon the 'EASY AS 1..2..3,' and then added 'FIND...Combine...Dine.' When they saw it all together, they knew they had the right title."

Lane said the girls thought the book was done until it was pointed out that everything was not perfectly aligned and consistent throughout.

"They were tired of the project and wanted to call it good enough, but were instructed that anything worth doing was worth doing right, and right was only when everything was perfect or as near to that as they could get it."

Reluctantly they kept on working.

"When finished, they printed the pages on a color laser printer that had been purchased three years ago with funds donated by FedEx Freight of Harrison," he said.

"The next step was to find a means of cutting the recipes apart so they could be flipped through once assembled. Initially a manual paper cutter was tried, but accurate cuts could not be made."

He said calls were made to College of the Ozarks print shop and Quality Print of Harrison requesting assistance with the cutting.

"Both were glad to help and volunteered to help with additional cutting and any other needs," said Lane. "The final step was to fold the cardboard stand and assemble the books."

He said the girls found the project long, and at times frustrating. "But they were really proud of the book, what they had learned, and that they were pushed to do it right and not allowed to stop at good enough," he said. "As I visit with them about their book, the beam of pride shines brightly."

The cookbooks are for sale, priced at $15 each. "There are no real profits," Lane said, "because all funds must cover the cost of printing and supplies, maintenance and upkeep on the printer. Any leftover funds are used to purchase more supplies, software and hardware. The students are not in the moneymaking business and have no intention of competing with local businesses; they just learn skills that prepare them for the real world outside of high school."

Alumni directory

Another major project EAST students undertook was the creation of the Alpena School Alumni Directory.

"We took on this project not only to preserve history but, as the book motto states: 'So That History Forgotten Does Not Become History Lost.'"

Lane said they copied actual pictures hanging in the high school hallway in a format that would allow reproduction should the originals be destroyed.

"The process involved taking a digital picture of the pictures, and then importing them into computer based photo-editing software," he explained. "At this point each picture was cropped, colors revived, names and lettering rewritten along with other processes to restore the picture so that it could be printed in near-original quality."

He said some of the pictures had to be transposed to black and white due to color fading that could not be restored.

"The focus with the book was to enhance the quality of the prints and pictures," Lane said. "The students used Adobe Elements and Adobe Photoshop software to edit the pictures. They have not had any professional training, but have been able to learn enough to amaze most professionals."

He said the book also contains "an accurate as possible alphabetized and by-year list of Alpena alumni," which was another major product in itself that was accomplished by Kara Snider, a 2009 graduate.

He said the list is not 100 percent accurate, but was as close as they could get it.

"The primary source was the names taken directly from the class pictures and the stones in the sidewalks near the high school building," he said. "The names of graduates during the 1927 - 1948 school years were taken from a list within the 1948 yearbook, The Reflector."

As word of the initial project spread, he said, the question was asked if they could produce the pictures and graduate list in book form.

"The answer was yes," Lane recalled, "but at the time the cost was undefined."

Within a short time, he said, they had requests for 50 books.

"The first 20 books cost $75 each to print. At this point we were about to give up, but New Leaf Press came to the rescue and printed the books at their cost.

" After that we were able to established a contract for printing supplies. This allowed us to sell the books and break even."

Prompting them even more were the two alumni who contributed $1,000.

"It was at that point the students and I realized the importance of this project to the community," Lane said, noting that the task was to gather and preserve history "So That History Forgotten Does Not Become History Lost."

"These were major projects that could not have been accomplished without the dedication of the students, the assistance of fellow teachers, the generosity of Alpena alumni, and business associates," he said.

The Alpena School Alumni Directory sells for $30.

To purchase either the cookbook or Alumni directory, contact Randy Lane at 300a South Denver, Alpena, AR 72611, E-mail: rlane@alpena.k12.ar.us, or phone (870) 437-2228 or 437-5640 between the hours of 7:40 a.m. and 4 p.m. weekdays.