Northwestern Press

Eight Oaks Craft Distillers was named the January 2017 Business of the Month by the Greater Northern Lehigh Chamber of Commerce just ahead of its first anniversary.

“We’re certainly honored to be part of that community and to be recognized,” said Chad Butters, co-founder of the distillery along Route 309, New Tripoli. “It’s a very large network of professionals and we’re proud to be a part of it. We’re absolutely humbled to be recognized.”

“We’ve had an unbelievably warm reception from guests, the community, Discover Lehigh Valley and many others.

In the spirit of the season, an ugly Christmas sweater contest was held at Northwestern Lehigh High School six days before the winter break.

Junior Maya Hambrick and physics teacher Andrew Marth emerged the winners.

Marth said he actually purchased his sweater at Walmart.

Hambrick said her sweater was given to her by her mother.

“My mother couldn’t win the ugly sweater contest with this,” she said, but Lady Luck was on her side this year.

It wasn’t Santa’s workshop but it was close.

Under strings of Christmas lights, fifth graders were guided by high school students in using everyday items such as gum drops, toothpicks, fruits and vegetables in ways defying imagination in a veritable maker paradise called the STEAM Lab.

At one of the stations was a piano-like instrument using fruit and vegetables instead of keys.

“That was fun,” said Dean Corto, who was making sounds with his buddies. “I loved how the fruits and vegetables made different sounds.

Northwestern’s Language Arts Department had plenty to be thankful for ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday when the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival issued a call offering to stage one of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, gratis.

A week later, a troupe of actors appeared at the high school to perform “Hamlet” for the entire school.

They demonstrated the classic play remains relevant for modern day audiences.

The two performances allowed every student to see the play.

Cost is the main factor inhibiting the high school from making this an annual event.

Singers and musicians of all talents will welcome the community to their annual holiday concert Dec. 14 at Northwestern Lehigh Middle School.

Members of the chorus and band will be offering folks a musical gift the talented musicians would like to be a welcome respite from the shopping, decorating and baking frenzy that makes December the busiest month of the year.

“A field of red and white poinsettias, will decorate the stage,” said band director Jim Lykins, smiling. “I honestly don’t know if I could fit all the musicians and their instruments on the high school stage.”

Reader of the Northwestern Press may consider this article an invitation to the holiday open house, sponsored by the Lynn Heidelberg Historical Society 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Dec. 3 at the old New Tripoli Bank, Madison Street, New Tripoli.

Community members are welcome to take a step back in time and savor holiday treats while children embark on a scavenger hunt that will put them in direct contact with days gone by, all for free.

“We have been doing this for [over] the 10 years,” said Willard Snyder proudly.

Academics, service, leadership and scholarship were the qualities front and center at the annual National Honor Society induction ceremony held Nov. 14 in the Northwestern Lehigh High School auditorium.

“A large part of the 11th graders were able to qualify for National Honor Society,” organization President Bradley Shafer said. “It’s definitely a good measure of how the students and the school is doing.”

Shafer officiated the event, calling the group to order, offering a welcome and administering the National Honor Society pledge.

In the tradition of many holiday classics, “Elf the Musical Jr.,” is mainly about keeping the spirit of childhood alive and renewing family connections.

The play aptly premiers the first three days of December at Northwestern Lehigh High School.

Adam Lebrecht stars as Buddy Hobbs, the title character.

“[Buddy’s] kind of the outrageous funny guy,” Lebrecht said. “He’s put into a society where he doesn’t really know the rules.

In a mock election at Northwestern Lehigh’s High School, Donald Trump was the decided winner with 62 percent of the vote.

Hillary Clinton garnered 27 percent of the ballots, 8 percent went to Gary Johnson and 3 percent went to Jill Stein.

“We had 355 students cast their votes which is 79 percent of those students who registered,” said Jeremy Smoyer who aggregated the data. “We had 28 more students vote in the NWL mock election this year than did in [the mock election of] 2012.”

With the general election just a little more than a week away, first time voters, despite some trepidation, are looking forward to casting their ballots for the highest office in the land.

As with many Americans, the new voters are conflicted about making their final choice because of the candidates themselves.

“I think they’re both wild cards,” Dominic Mertz said. “They’ve both done some iffy things in the past, Hillary with emails. Trump is not really a politician.