“Mixed Media” by Matt D., Horseheads High School

Congratulations to Matt D. from Horseheads High School for his submission of this mixed media artwork!  Great job!

#Charlie by Albert D., Horseheads High School

Charlie stood at the edge of a cliff. A hundred fee blow, though it seemed a much larger distance to Charlie, the roiling ocean crashed against the cliff-face. A gray-green mass, tinged by whitecaps the ocean swelled, and roared; an intimidating sight.
The smell of salt hung heavy in the air, carried by a gentle breeze that didn’t ceased. The familiar scent calmed Charlie, even as he wavered between life, and death. He crept up to the ledge of the cliff, feeling no fear, and curled his toes over the precipice.
There, hanging between two very different fates, Charlie did not so much as pause to consider his options.
For the first time, Charlie fanned out his wings, the azure hue of his feathers flashing in the light of dawn. The first, real flash of fear he had ever experienced, bit into him when the breeze caught his wings, and he very nearly tumbled over the cliff. Somehow though, he managed to keep his balance and was spared an undesirable demise.
Shaken, but in no way deterred, Charlie swept his gaze over the ocean one last time. It pleased him to see the ocean wave back, as though encouraging him with a friendly gesture.
Charlie gathered himself a moment later, bunching never-used muscles for what could be, his final act. A minute chirp, hardly audible, escaped his parted beak.
Then Charlie leapt. As he dropped, the wind caressed him, and ocean spray shot past him. The ocean rushed up to meet him, to engulf him with a hold that would never loosen. Charlie, however, faced death, and with a resounding “NO!” swooped upward to greet the sun.

THANK YOU SORGE’S RESTAURANT!

OPEN DAILY 7:00AM – 9:00PM

68 West Market Street

Corning, NY 14830

607-937-5422 or email info@sorges.com

Check out their website for menu items and to make reservations at sorges.com !

A HUGE thank you to Sorge’s Restaurant for supporting Hawk Talk 2015 and Leaders After Hours.  Sorge’s great food and friendly atmosphere make it the perfect place, no matter what you’re celebrating! Thank you again to Sorge’s for supporting our local community and Leaders After Hours’ student authors!

A huge thank you to Gustin’s Gallery!

Thank you so much to Gustin’s Gallery for your support of Hawk Talk 2015!

#Charlie by Megan C., Corning-Painted Post Middle School

This is the story of Charlie the Fairy. Most of the fairies in the kingdom of Magestica are girls. There are male fairies, but most of the time, they can’t do magic. The first day Charlie figured out he could do magic was in the boys’ mischief-making class. He was having an argument in the group he was doing a project with. They were trying to figure out how to trick men into believing fairies aren’t real, and Charlie and Maximus were arguing about what to do. Charlie wanted to do one thing, and the others in the group wanted to do another. At the height of their argument, Charlie lost it. His hand sparkled, and covered the entire classroom in glitter! The teacher sent Charlie to the principal’s office, and Charlie was sent home to be home schooled in magic, by a female fairy. Charlie was doing well, until some kids in his old class told the neighborhood fairies about his power, and everyone picked on him a lot! Charlie was devastated. Everywhere he went, kids from the neighborhood teased him. They would say, “Hey magic boy! How are your lame spells going?!” Although they were weird insults, they still hurt Charlie’s feelings. People teased him all the time! At one point Charlie talked to his mom, and she said, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay!” Something changed in Charlie that night. He realized he didn’t care what anyone said. “I am one of a kind and that’s all that matters!” After that, Charlie just ignored their mean comments.

Eaves’ Dental THANK YOU!!!

Thank you Eaves’ Family Dental Group for your support of Leaders After Hours and Hawk Talk 2015!

#Charlie by Rhyleigh A., Corning Painted Post Middle School

I never knew that my life would turn upside down. I went from a nobody to a famous Youtuber. This is my story…. my name is Charlie. I live In New York towards Time Square. I go to Winchester High School. I don’t really have friends. Well maybe my best friend Sarah. Our parents attended school together so we grew up knowing each other. We went on sleepovers and playdates like almost every week in summer. We’ve known each other since kindergarten. She and I are very close and I intend to keep it that way. School is a disaster for me. I’m failing science and I get bullied pretty much every day of my life. I guess people don’t really like me because I’m different but who cares what people think. I don’t really have it easy at home either. My mother passed away when I was eight and my father is always on business. I was really sad the day she passed away. She and I did almost everything together, but then she got cancer and she didn’t make it. My father’s name is William but I call him Dad. He works as children’s book publisher. He never spends time with me so I usually stay home watching YouTube videos. I never knew that YouTube videos could bring so much laughter and joy. Then I started my own channel. Sarah would direct and I would start making funny sketches. At first I only had like ten views. Then as I started to progress I started getting hundreds and thousands of views. And I started to read the comments. They said: “We love you Charlie!” and “Show us more.” And “You have talent!” I kept continuing with the videos and I stopped being bullied, and I was finally happy with my life so I started focusing on science. Then my high school experience was starting to get a lot better. The bullies who bullied me throughout the years apologized. They said, “Charlie listen, I’m sorry for being, you know, not nice to you. I guess I was jealous that you had a best friend who treated you well. You were also so nice to me even though I was so rude. Could you ever forgive me?” Of course I said yes because I was sick of all the drama. Then this guy named Augustus asked me out to a movie. I had a crush on him forever. He is very nice and I couldn’t wait to go. At the movie we watched The Fault in Our Stars. It was really sad and at the end I totally cried my eyes out. But that was ok. As soon as I started crying, Augustus immediately came and comforted me. He’s a very sweet guy. Since me and Augustus are very close now, he and I started our own channel. It is very funny according to the comments.

#Charlie by Alex B., Corning-Painted Post Middle School

“Good Morning Aunt Sally. How did you sleep?” I live with my Aunt Sally because when I was young, my parents died. “Good Morning Charlie. I slept well thank you, what about you?” “I slept great, thank you. So, today I am going to stay after school until 5:00 so I can hang out with my friends. Is that okay with you? ” I asked. “Sure, just remember to be home by 6:00 because we still have to do that laundry” she said. “Okay. I have to go before I miss the bus. Have fun at work.”
When I go to school I usually don’t actually pay attention in school. I honestly pay more attention to the people around me. I have this collection of composition notebooks I keep in a safe in my closet and I write in them every day. I look at the people around me and I try to make up a story of what there life is like. Almost in what’s behind scenes. For example there’s this guy named Carter. I have been watching him for a while… not like the stalker way though. I just try to figure out what his story is. I find him quite interesting. I know his mom died when he was younger and his dad left him on his grandparents door step when he was like, 11 months old and he still doesn’t know his dad. He lives with his grandparents now and I appreciate his geeky but shy style. There is this girl too. She’s really outgoing, determined, courageous, beautiful, and brave. Her name is Jamie.
I love writing about other people. They keep me intrigued and everybody is different.
“Charlie? What are these?”
Oh no. She found them.

#Charlie By Abby T., Corning-Painted Post Middle School

Charlie. He’s the boy who you see around school who makes your heart skip a beat. Every girl wants to be with him and every guy wants to be him. We had known each other since kindergarten and he was my best friend, we always talked about everything together. Everybody thought he was just the cool guy who had a perfectly amazing life, nobody else knew that three years ago he had braces and glasses, and was the president of the chess club. At that moment I was waiting for him to get out of soccer practice. All I could think about was the dance coming up soon, I was pretty sure that he already had a date, when I was watching the gymnastics team walk out from practice. At that moment, I was 88% sure that the smile on McKenna’s face gave it all away. I had known her since third grade and I HATED HER. She had perfect blonde hair and blue eyes, and most people like her, but in my opinion she is the queen of catfights and drama. Then something interesting happened. McKenna walked over and said, “Stay away from Charlie I am asking him to the dance.” All of a sudden I felt my cheeks turn a bright shade of red. Just then Charlie came out of practice and looked for me. He saw me with McKenna and he knew she was bothering me. He just walked up and said “Hey McKenna.” And grabbed my arm and pulled me away. “Are you seriously taking her to the dance?” I tried not to pout. He looked around and he simply responded, “Follow me.” Just as he said that everybody started tiredly filtering out of a long student council meeting. He walked me down a dark hall, and next thing I knew we were alone in a janitor’s closet. “The whole McKenna thing is complicated. The last thing I want to do is take her to the dance.” I looked into his milky brown eyes; I was way past confused. “What’s going on?” I asked “She’s blackmailing me.” I was shocked. “She is making me go to the dance with her, because she knows something bad about me…Ok, so this is kind of awkward, but I am the mascot at football games.” I was blushing now; I wasn’t sure what to say and I was trying not to laugh. “How did she find out?” I asked. ”It’s complicated” he replied.

The #Charlie Project

What if you only had 500 words or less to tell a scene from your life? What would make it interesting? This was the challenge presented to students at the Corning-Painted Post Middle School and High School and the Horseheads High School. Students were given the name of a character (not necessarily the main character) for their stories and challenged to build a scene or story that included “Charlie”. Students were then instructed that the character did not need to be human, but could be any person, place or thing in the story. Students were also instructed that they should construct hashtags and keywords that would allow for their stories to be posted on social media, making their connection with their desired audience stronger, have their posts indexed by Google, and help interested parties find and read their works. Interested in learning more? Email us at lah@the-leader.com or contact us by phone at 607-936-4651 ext. 339 to learn more about The #Charlie Project and how you can get involved!