Jenna Little
Staff Reporter

As the holiday season grows nearer, the Carroll County community is already preparing for their annual Neighbors In Need program. Neighbors In Need is a countywide holiday help program that is coordinated by the Human Services Program of Carroll County, a non-for-profit corporation. The program helps low-income Carroll County residents have a better holiday. In 2007, the program helped over 3,000 residents.Holly Hutchins, deputy director of HSP of Carroll County, states that “some people who use this program struggle all year long just to pay their bills and put food on the table. Others might have been unemployed for awhile or might have had an accident or illness that they didn’t figure into their ability to provide the ‘extras’ that make the holidays special.”

Local organizations and residents donate gifts which become organized and displayed in the holiday shop. Mid December, volunteers called “elves” walk around the shop with a family member and assist them in choosing holiday gifts. Donations range from the basics like socks, underwear, pajamas, and shampoo to things for children such as games, books, and stuffed animals to things for adults.

The location for the holiday shop this year will be at the Cranberry Square Shopping Center next to the Giant grocery store in Westminster. The shop will open in mid-November but will be open full-time by the start of December, Monday through Friday from 9 am to 4pm. The shop will also be open during the evenings and weekends.

Volunteers can help shop for items to donate to the holiday shop ,or they can work at the holiday shop sorting and arranging donations. Simply helping organize donations can be a major help.
Hutchins encourages people to “think about how simple things can bring such joy to a person or a family.” She welcomes and appreciates any volunteers. She says that this program is a circle and “the more people that we can bring into the circle, the bigger it will get and the more successful, and joyful, this program will be.”

Danger Souce Improv Troupe performs at Starry Night Bakery

Colleen McCarrick
Staff Reporter

The “ingredients” of Danger Sauce surely know the recipe for laughter. Combining nothing but quick wit, intuition and humor, these ten talented “ingredients” stirred up quite a show at the Starry Night Bakery last Saturday night.

Danger Sauce is McDaniel College’s Theatre Improv Troupe and the actors in the cast call themselves the “ingredients.” On Saturday, November 1, Danger Sauce performed its third show of the year at the Starry Night Bakery in Westminster. The entire performance was created before the audience’s eyes as the cast took inspiration from audience suggestions and instantly turned them into games and stories that delighted the audience.

Danger Sauce’s performance attracted a crowd of about thirty people. The crowd was both amazed and highly entertained by this form of theatre.
“All the performers are exceptionally talented and displayed their ability to think on their feet and witty comedic timing,” said Freshmen Gracen Carroll. The great thing about improv is that it’s always original and the audience never knows what’s going to happen next.

Danger Sauce’s recipe combines ten “ingredients,” including off-the-cuff humor, unscripted comedy, and an active audience. The final product: all the hilarious and spontaneous surprises of a night of improvised theatre.

When you watch Theatre improv you have to “expect the unexpected,” said sophomore Julia Williams.

And Saturday’s performance was no different: the troupe used audience suggestions to build scenes and then created hilarious characters, unique locations, and improbable situations.
“I want to give the audience something new to look forward to by trying different games,” said sophomore Cindy Sordo. Danger Sauce works with audience in improv games such as World’s Worst, Superhero, Emotion Party, Uncle Slug, Dear So and So, Press Conference and DVD game.

Williams said that she has a few rules to follow when cooking up a show: “Don’t push too hard, don’t take the spotlight, never say no, and accept what other actors have established,” she said. “Once you get those down the actors can make anything happen.”

Being an improv actor takes not only talent and creativity, but also a lot of nerves. When there is no script and you’re set up in front of an audience, it’s hard to keep your cool ? but that’s the beauty of improv.

“I still get nervous, but I know that in improv you can always make everything work. Someone can save you, you can save someone else or turn anything into a joke. The hardest thing about improv is accepting your confidence and allowing yourself to just do it,” said Sordo.

Members of Danger Sauce surely didn’t show any signs of nervousness in the performance. They kept the show a fast-paced entertainment and moved from one hilarious situation to another without any dull moments.

“I was laughing so hard I started to cry a little bit…that’s how funny it was,” Carroll said.

The “ingredients” surely have a knack for catering to the audience’s emotions. They surely do know the secret recipe for Danger Sauce.

Juliann Guiffre
Co-News Editor

Eric Lemmon, a triple science major, was, by his admission, a poor student in middle school.

“I was bright, but I didn’t do the work,” he said. Now, seven years later, as a junior in college, Lemmon is majoring in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and by picking up a few more classes will also fulfill the Bio-Chem dual major?technically qualifying him as a quadruple major.

Science first came alive for Lemmon in freshman year of high school, upon the realization of his talents in biology. “I realized, wait, I’m really good at this?and when I took Chemistry sophomore year and was the only one who knew what was going on, I said, wow, I’m really, really good at this.”

After taking physics in his junior year, along with forensic science and human anatomy and physiology, he quickly understood that his passion would not only lie in one branch of science.
“I really want to incorporate all the major sciences,” said Lemmon, “I feel like that’s where the world is heading, I think you will need to understand all of them.”

Lemmon’s goal is to integrate his numerous studies into a combined M.D./Ph.D program in molecular engineering or biophysical chemistry. He hopes to use the research background of a Ph.D and the medical background of an M.D. to run a lab with a Neuro-Oncology (brain cancer) clinic.

Lemmon ended up at McDaniel through a forensic science camp program recommended to him by his forensics teacher in high school. There, he met Dr. Brian Wladkowski, a chemistry professor, and Dr. Jeff Marx, a physics professor, whom he liked so much that he decided to apply to McDaniel.

“I found him to be very enthusiastic about and well prepared for the class,” said Marx. “I can say that Eric is a very hard worker and strongly committed to his scholastic achievement. He is also just a very likeable guy.”

Lemmon’s commitment has led him to pursue a multitude of research projects, ones which have left him in quite a different predicament than any of his classmates. He will now have to sift through all his research to decide what to use for his senior seminar projects, other than working hard to find a topic in the first place.

His first research project took place the summer after his freshman year with Dr. Peter Craig, who Lemmon says specializes in inorganic chemistry?anything without carbon, such as metals. They were mainly interested in cadmium?a toxic metal that Lemmon says may cause poisoning in industry workers?and the binding ability of two agents to this metal.

He turned this research into a poster, which later won first place in a competition for undergraduate research.

This past summer Lemmon worked at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, in the Department of Bio-Chemistry and Molecular Biology. He had applied to several labs and had not had any luck, so he called some contacts at Maryland and asked them to send his resume around; he even said he’d work for free.

There he performed basic science research, looking at proteins to see if they would bind to DNA, an experiment that he said he performed over and over again.

Lemmon was approached last semester by Dr. Susan Parrish, a biology professor, who asked him if he would be willing to travel to Washington University in St. Louis to learn a computer program that they would then use to look at a fly species genome and compare it to the genomes of more well known fly species?a process called Annotation.

“I was Eric’s professor for Advanced Genetics?I was impressed with his academic talents, his many majors, and his people skills,” said Parrish. These convinced her to ask Lemmon to be a teaching assistant for her upcoming Genomics course, one more activity to add to his busy schedule.

Besides his usual five or six classes a semester, Lemmon is the President of Gamma Sigma Epsilon, a chemistry honor society, Vice President of Beta Beta Beta, the biology honor society, and a member of the Society of Physics Students. He’s also on the film committee for CAPBoard and a member of the Jewish Student Union.

He’s a teaching assistant for the Organic Chemistry lab as well as a tutor, and yet Lemmon insists that “I get my seven hours of sleep a night?my girlfriend says I don’t have enough free time, but I think I do.”

“His face always lights up when he eagerly tells me about water bears, chemical structures, megalodons, and black holes,” said junior Melissa Atkinson, Lemmon’s girlfriend, “When the History Channel has a special on the evolution of birds or ancient sharks, he is instantly riveted.”

Many of Lemmon’s friends observe this uncanny dedication to his work. Senior Adam Pritchard often jokingly says that “Eric is indeed insane, considering the number of courses he packs into his schedule.” Pritchard points out that despite this, Lemmon is still a regular college student.

“He still likes to watch King of the Hill a lot, though,” he said.

KJ Mazurek
Staff Reporter

In May 2005, Dan Waeger, a former McDaniel College golfer, was diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer. With no family history or smoking habits, Dan began to fight for his life.
Since Dan’s diagnoses, he has started the National Collegiate Cancer Foundation.

“Our [National Collegiate Cancer Foundation] mission is to provide services and support to young adults who have been diagnosed with cancer,” Dan wrote. “Our goal is to help these survivors and their families establish a ‘Will Win’ attitude in their fight.”

In October of 2007, my teammates and I played in the “Waeger Cup” to help raise money for Dan’s organization. Dan spoke out before teeing off about his fight and how there are “Nearly 70,000 young adults in their 20s and 30s are diagnosed with cancer each year.”

The Waeger CUP, with CUP standing for Cancer of Unknown Primary, is a golf tournament played at Royal Oaks CC in Lebanon, PA. In 2007, there were 120 golfers who participated in the event as well as donated money for the NCCF.

After completing the Waeger Cup, the men and women’s golf team of McDaniel College decided to apply for Affinity Housing. Our hope was to give back to Dan Waeger for all he has done. Also, we wanted to make the students of McDaniel aware of how deadly cancer is in our world.

“The proceeds from the Waeger C.U.P. and your donations provide deserving young adults fighting cancer with $1,000 scholarships to stay in school,” Waeger wrote in a recent email. “These students have displayed bravery, determination, and unwavering faith in their fight against cancer. Their winning attitudes are infectious and their stories are inspiring. Reading the applications is both sad and rewarding at the same time.

“It is sad to hear so many personal struggles and know that there are so many other young adults facing a tough diagnosis in cancer,” the email continued. “Last year, very few applicants were diagnosed with an early stage cancer, and over 25% were diagnosed stage IV, just like myself. Their situations are dire, yet it is so rewarding and inspiring to see their displays of strength, determination, and ‘Will Win’ attitudes through such a trying time.

Dan Waeger is still going through treatment today and is fighting the same battle from 2005. After Dan found out his diagnoses, he stated, “I am going to die. Well that has to change.” Two years later, the National Collegiate Cancer Foundation is growing and sharing their message to have a Will Win attitude.

More information go to www.collegiatecancer.org or email at danwaeger@collegiatecancer.org.

Brent Lowe
Staff Reporter

If you were to walk into room 309 on the 3rd floor of Rouzer, the first thing that would probably come to your mind is, “Wow, those roommate surveys are a joke,” and with good reason. While one side of the room is covered with wrestling awards, hunting equipment and a RAGE energy drink poster, the other sports some origami cranes hovering above a computer desk and a set of bunny ears to complement a lamp. There seems to be such a clash of personalities here, it’s a wonder they haven’t killed each other.This, however, is not the case. “Yea we get along alright,” Skylar Snead, owner of the RAGE side, observes “how we set up our room isn’t really a big issue.”

“It’s okay I guess,” says Nick Turissi, owner of the crane side of the room, when asked how he felt about the difference in persona “it’d be nice to have someone who decorated like me but this is fine too.”
When asked if they would room together next year given the chance they both said would probably ask for someone more like themselves, but for now they were okay.