PCHS' yearbook staff earns recognition

By Staff
Melissa Cason
PHIL CAMPBELL – High school yearbook staffs have a big responsibility: They are in charge of preserving memories for a lifetime.
If you think about it, the first thing you pull out to remember is a yearbook.
While no two yearbooks are the same, they all have the same key elements. They all have pictures, captions and a theme.
The yearbook staff at Phil Campbell received an honorable mention for their 2008 yearbook themed "Step into the Storm."
Yearbook Advisor Karen Gilbert said the honorable mention came from Taylor Publishing Company, who publishes the book each year.
"We are very excited about this award because Taylor is a very large publishing company, and we were mentioned with a number of larger schools from across the country," Gilbert said. "Only about 15 percent of their customers are recognized in this way."
Gilbert said there is a lot of work that goes into creating a yearbook, beginning with ad sales.
"We are already selling ads for our 2010 yearbook while we are wrapping up layouts for our 2009 book," Gilbert said.
She said the staff has several pages left to do because the book includes graduation and awards nights in it.
"Our books are delivered in the fall so we have to finish up the last few pages in June," Gilbert said.
She said the staff works together as a team, and each person is responsible for the book as a whole.
"We don't have an editor or anything," Gilbert said. "It's a group effort all the way through."
Gilbert said the staff is excited about the 2009 yearbook, but the theme is top secret.
"We never tell our theme," she said. "It's a secret until the yearbooks arrive."
Gilbert said she wants to thank the students for their hard work, and the advertisers who make each yearbook possible.