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By Robert Rosen
Hometown Weekly Staff
On Friday, April 1, the first annual Pine Hill Talent Show was held for students in grades three, four and five. It was the first talent show at Pine Hill since 1993, and the event was such a success that it is expected to be held every year from now on.
“Students in grades 3-5 are sharing their amazing talents, ranging from singing, piano and violin to karate, gymnastics and dance,” said Pine Hill fifth grade teacher Meri Kimball, adding that approximately 52 students either performed, emceed or were in the stage crew.
As Kimball mentioned, there were many talents showcased, including a piano solo by Caetlyn Embree, who performed a piece by Beethoven; a band performance by Tatum Goldberger, Ava Toney, Aza Whittlesey and Angie Feng; board breaking by Leila Sapponaro; gymnastics by Julia Martin, Sarah Parrish and Alice Quinn; a clarinet duet by Riley Delaney and Emily Worcester; a hip-hop dance performance by Kelli Kamphaus; and karate by Gabe Goldstein, Luca Mariano and Felix Giesen. These were just some of the talents shown off at the show on Friday night.
Pine Hill special education teacher Chris Randa worked with the emcees in the weeks leading up to the talent show and was really excited beforehand after helping the students write and practice skits.
“They are so funny and talented,” said Randa, who was a student at Pine Hill who performed at the last talent show back in 1993. “I’m really proud of the work they’ve done.”
The driving force behind this year’s talent show was Pine Hill music teacher Kelly Hodge, who heard students’ pleas for opportunities to show off their own talent and see their classmates’ talents and decided to launch the talent show.
Hodge runs the weekly All School Meetings on Fridays where she leads singing, skits and news and the meetings used to include a segment where students were able to show off a talent, but unfortunately it took too much time and they had to stop doing it.
Kimball immediately offered her assistance with set design, stage crew and lights, and Randa came on board quickly as well. In addition, school librarian Laurie Ryan volunteered to run the sound for the event.
But it wasn’t just the students who got to show off their talent. The show ended with teachers performing “Shake it Off” by Taylor Swift while the entire audience of parents and students joined in by dancing.
In addition to all the fun everyone had, the event helped out a good cause as $460 was raised for Autism Speaks in celebration of World Autism Awareness Day, which was the following day.
The first annual Pine Hill Talent Show was a success, and Pine Hill students are already excitedly waiting for next year’s talent show so they can show everyone what else they can do.
Robert Rosen is an Editor at Hometown Weekly. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @roberterosen.
