LIFE LESSON: The students at Romine Elementary School in Little Rock are learning more than reading, writing and arithmetic. Music teacher Holly Tidball recently led a project to have her students and the entire student body of 380 raise money for Heifer International, the Little Rock-based charity that works to alleviate hunger by helping families around the world raise farm animals. Last Thursday, the children -- most of them in poverty themselves and receiving free or reduced-price lunches -- presented a check to Heifer International for $750.
In celebration of Black History Month in February, Tidball planned a music program for the third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders to sing "We are the World," "Heal the World" and "Man in the Mirror," all recorded by the late Michael Jackson. Then she challenged them to spend a month raising money to help others in need.
"I encouraged them to go home and look around the house and check between the sofa cushions for loose change," Tidball tells Paper Trails.
"At school, in addition to their lunches, they can also buy a smoothie for a dollar, and a lot of them gave up their smoothies so they could donate," she says, adding that some of students participate in a program in which local churches send food home in their backpacks for the weekend.
"That's what made it so special when they ended up raising $750.17 -- most of it in coins," Tidball explains.
With the money raised, the students "bought" a water buffalo for $250, a goat for $120, rabbits for $60, two sets of honeybees for $30 each, five ducks and geese at $20 each and eight flocks of chicks for $20 each.
FROM COAST TO COAST: The Coasts, a Little Rock duo featuring Eric Mount and Ike Peters, will get national exposure Tuesday when their song "I Only Want You" is featured on a new episode of NBC's prime-time drama, The Night Shift.
ANOTHER SHOT: Little Rock native Clinton Washington lost his battle round singing "Stay" with India Carney on NBC's The Voice last Monday night when judge Christina Aguilera chose Carney over him, but Washington wasn't silenced. Instead, he was stolen by fellow judge Adam Levine, allowing Washington to continue in the competition.
THOSE WERE THE DAYS ... A recent item here about Benton native Barbara Johnston Hubbard, 87, retired longtime special events director at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces being honored with Pollstar magazine's first Lifetime Achievement Award, triggered memories for Allen C. Dobson, now an attorney in Little Rock. Dobson, a student at the university from the fall of 1975 through December 1979, didn't know Hubbard was a fellow Arkansan until learning so from Paper Trails.
"As a freshman at New Mexico State University, using my student ID, I got to see Fleetwood Mac for $1," he recalls, adding, "Unfortunately, because I had a test the next day, I missed seeing Heart for 50 cents."
Contact Linda S. Haymes at 501-399-3636 or lhaymes@arkansasonline.com
Metro on 03/22/2015