German folk club honors student and attends festival

STANHOPE—Lenape Valley student Tina-Marie Payne received the Steuben Society Award, given to a graduating senior who has excelled in the study of German, at the 2005 German Fest Award Ceremony held at Lenape Valley Regional High School on Thursday, June 2. Mr. Hans Arndt of the Steuben Society presented the award to Payne, who is an advanced-placement German student, an officer of the 87-member German Folk Club, a National Honor Society member, and a Delta Epsilon Phi-German Honor Society member. Payne traveled last year with the German exchange program to Hamburg, Germany, for three weeks where she lived with her German partner family, and attended a German college prep high school. In addition to the awards, the 2005-2006 German Folk Club officers were installed. They include president Mark Fersch, vice president Roshni Shah, secretaries Kate Klinck and Erica Cooper, treasurer Maria Hancock, Oompah leader John Hebble, historians James Miceli and Ksenia Rogalo, dance masters Jason Grube and Laura Fitzsimmons, and choir leaders Bobby Giglio and Shannon Odell. The Lenape Valley German Folk Club also performed at Fruehlingsfest (a spring festival) of the Deutscher Club (the largest German club in N.J.) in Clark, on Sunday, May 29. The festival hosted 33 members of the Lenape Valley club, who performed a number of traditional German folk dances. The club's Oompah Band also had the opportunity to play numbers such as "Ein Rundgesang" (a round) and "Kommt Ein Vogel Geflogen" (a bird came flying). Spectators were invited to join the performers in select dances. The afternoon concluded with a meal of bratwurst, potato salad, and apfel strudel for the performers.