The Mountaineer

Kiwanis help Central students shine on stage

The children rushed around, looking for help adjusting a costume or rehearsing lines at the last minute. 

The excitement was in the air before fourth-graders at Central Elementary took the stage for their first play Oct. 15 with a new stage curtain and sound equipment.

The curtain and sound equipment were possible from a grant from the Kiwanis Club of Waynesville.

Martha Brown, a music and drama teacher at Central Elementary, applied for the grant. The school’s old curtain was torn, faded and in poor condition while the sound equipment required lots of wires running across the stage, posing a hazard to young actors and actresses.

Since Central Elementary is an A+ school, where arts and academics are integrated, Brown felt it was important for students to have new equipment.

“We have great talent here and (the old equipment) weren’t really encouraging the children to live up to their potential,” Brown said. “I just wanted us to have state-of-the-art equipment so we could build up the program.”

The old curtain was not fireproof and since it was old, it was a concern. The new curtain is a sea blue color and fireproof. The new sound equipment is wireless and set up in a way that the audience can hear all the students and no students have to worry about tripping over long microphone wires running across the stage.

Brown said she made a presentation to the Kiwanis Club about the school’s need and learned a few weeks later she would receive $7,350 for the equipment.

“I was so excited that I got the grant at a time when there are cut backs everywhere,” Brown said. “It shows that people do support the arts, and the kids were so excited.”

The new blue curtain fit in with the fourth-graders first play of the school year, “Pirates: The Musical.”

“I love them,” said Nora Dickson, 9. “The old curtains were old and gray and the new ones are nice and blue. I like the blue because we are doing an ocean performance.”

Classmate Isley McClure, 10, also likes the new equipment.

“I like (the curtains) because it makes the kids stand out when the lights shine on them,” he said. “The old ones showed dirt. I also like the black and blue of (of the curtains) because they are (Carolina) Panthers colors.”

Both students like the freedom of movement the new sound equipment gives them.

“It’s nice because the cords got tangled up and you’d have to pull it over stuff,” McClure said. “These are a lot better than when we had wires.”

Gerald Jacobson, president of the Kiwanis Club of Waynesville, said the grant is in line with the club’s mission to change the world.

“We just thought it was a very worthy project,” Jacobson said. “It just seemed to fit our parameters and criteria. We thought it was a very worthy cause and would touch the lives of many children. It’s a good program over there.”

Brown said the performing arts aspect of Central’s curriculum is a great way to boost the self-esteem of students.

“I want the kids to know that what they learn is something they can do the rest of their lives,” she said. “The most rewarding part is to watch a child who might not do well academically and watch that child discover they have a talent in singing, act or in the arts.”