Monday, February 20, 2012

Why I Love This Town


Grace worked for weeks on this year's Mock Rock competition at the high school.  Her friend Alison (see the last blog entry) was actually in charge of the whole event.  Mock Rock is basically a lip-synch contest, but the winners are usually large groups that recreate numbers from musicals (this year's winner was in fact a group of 16 that did a song from "Hairspray").  And the two top entries from each high school go on to compete at the county-wide Mock Rock competition in April.  Anyway, Grace and Alison were in charge of the tryouts, when a sweet boy named Cole performed a song by Peter Frampton.  Cole is one of the special ed students at the high school and is always full of joy, making him a favorite of everyone.  I love seeing photos of Cole appear on Facebook during homecoming week, Mr Greyhound competition, etc. How could anyone say no to Cole?  They could not - so into the competition he went!  And what a great job he did - it brought tears to my eyes as the crowd clapped along to the beat, and cheered him loudly as the song ended. He looked like he was having a blast!  Now, this probably would have been fantastic enough by itself, but because the students at our high school are awesome, a special award category was introduced this year.  Jamey and I knew about it because Grace came home this past Thursday covered in splotches of paint, after making all of the awards (see the photos to see her creations!).  The new category is "crowd favorite", voted on by applause and noise, and determined by the emcees.  I wish you all could have seen the delight on Cole's face as he received his award....and I really don't think there was a dry eye in the whole gym, but I am not sure, because I couldn't see anything; it was all blurry.  Fortunately another dad, Ron Wulff of Ron Wulff Photography, was there taking photos, and captured this wonderful moment.  I have added another photo as well, with Grace on the far right presenting the first place award to the "Hairspray" kids (Ron's daughter was in this number, I think). On the left are the "Blues Brothers" who took second.  They will represent our town very well, but as far as I am concerned, our kids already have the best prize of all!

No comments: