![Adding a tray of canned corn to the pile, junior Michael Collop assists in transporting donations for the Holiday Food Drive. The event, hosted schoolwide from Dec. 10-17, raised over 5,000 food items to deliver to the Parkway Food Pantry, helping several families in need. [The drive] is a great thing for us to do because you're giving to those who are less fortunate, and it helps provide for people who can't provide for themselves. [The] competition is always fun, too. It was fun to be in [social studies teacher Jess] Chazen’s class, because he always gets worked up over [the competition]. He made it exciting, and was always convincing us to turn in cans for the drive,” Collop said.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/feature-photo-unsung-2.png)
![NEW CHALLENGE, NEW TEAM MEMBERS: Every season, VEX creates a new game that robotics team members are faced with and have to build a robot to compete in. This year’s game forces students to create a robot that is able to stack rings onto mobile goals in order to score points. The change in games each season is something that robotics teacher Audrea Moyers appreciates.
“One of the things that I like about VEX is that they have a new problem to solve every year,” she said. ¨Even though the equipment’s the same, they have to analyze the game, and they have to come up with solutions that are unique that year. They are using their knowledge from prior years, but they have to kind of redesign a problem.”
As returning teams were faced a new game, some new teams and members had to adapt to a uncommon playing field and game.
“Three of our four teams were competing for the first time this year, and they had very different experiences match to match, so I think they learned a lot,¨ she said. ¨It’s hard just watching a video online to know how it’s actually going to be in person, so they all learned a lot about what gameplay is like, how to work with an alliance partner [and] how to adapt during the day to changes.”](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/IMG_9283-1-1200x800.jpg)
While it’s common to have one or two pets at home, junior Ibs Rowe has over 200. A 1,500-square-foot barn on his property houses hundreds of reptiles and holds memorable experiences along with a passion for his future.
For as long as he can remember, Rowe’s life has revolved around reptiles. Many of his core childhood memories and moments stem from his interactions with reptiles.
“I’ve had animals since before I could walk,” Rowe said. “I played with snakes and rode giant lizards when I was a baby.”
During the COVID quarantine, Rowe and his family housed over 500 reptiles. Although this number has decreased, there are currently 20 snakes (most of them being Christmas Tree Gophers and Spotted Pythons), 15 armadillo lizards, 35 iguanas, one Lace Monitor and two Blue Iguanas. His biggest reptile is the 9-foot carpet python and Rowe’s oldest pets are his ten 22 year-old lizards.
Rowe and his family sold 300 reptiles to focus on armadillo lizards because they are rare and cost more than other reptiles, and because Rowe and his family can make money on the armadillo lizards. An armadillo lizard is a brown lizard around 10 inches long. On the other hand, the Rowe’s house only has one Lace Monitor, which is named unlike some of the family’s other reptiles.
“Tucks is a Lace Monitor, which is in the same family as Komodo dragons,” Rowe said.
Once or twice a week, Rowe goes into the barn for 90 minutes to feed all the reptiles from the shipment of reptile food that comes in once a week.
“We’ll feed the lizards crickets and the bigger lizards rats, while the snakes get mice or rats,” Rowe said.
Living and playing with reptiles before Rowe could walk, and continuing to live with them throughout his childhood, has shown him responsibility and impacted his perception of life.
“[They] really showed me the life cycle of things and showed me how amazing things are,” Rowe said.
Living with reptiles does have its difficulties. One is finding someone to babysit all the reptiles when the family travels. Another difficulty is figuring out how to deal with the weather, especially New England winters.
“If you have a building full of animals and they have enclosures then they create a lot of heat, and you actually need a lot of AC so the building doesn’t overheat,” Ibs’s father Dan Rowe said.
Dan Rowe said that the most memorable moments happen when something shocking occurs, like when an animal jumps unexpectedly on your shoulder.
“Sharing those moments when we got a new animal or hatched out a baby is always a good moment,” Dan Rowe said.
When he gets older, Rowe wants to be an environmental scientist and help others grow with reptiles just as reptiles have helped him to grow.
“I want to move down South; the animal laws are not as restricted, so I can have a lot of more animals,” Rowe said.
This story was originally published on The Harbinger on November 14, 2024.