Clark Elementary wins $25,000 BY CARRIE DILLARDcdillard@paducahsun Students at Clark Elementary in Paducah celebrate on Friday afternoon after the announcement that the school had won first place in the Macyâ s All-School Lip Dub Challenge and $25,000. Students at Clark Elementary School thought they were attending a pep rally in the gymnasium Friday afternoon. But Principal Steve Ybarzabal and Lori Hafel, Macys store manager in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, had a big surprise to share, announcing that the Paducah school had won first place in Macys All-School Lip Dub Challenge and $25,000. Shouts, whoops and cheers by excited students began to crescendo, reverberating around the gym. Students rose from their seats, jumping up and down and shaking the floor. This special pep rally today was about school spirit, Ybarzabal said. We are here to celebrate something special. In the fall, Macys announced the contest to all elementary, middle, high schools and colleges across the nation. Schools were asked to submit a one-take, lip dub video, performed to singer/songwriter Tim Myers version of The Beach Boys classic song Be True to Your School. A lip dub is a music video where the participants lip-sync to a song while performing a choreographed routine filmed in a single, continuous take. Clark Elementary music teacher Dale Julian saw the contest information in a Macys commercial and approached Ybarzabal and other school staff about the idea to enter. This wasnt something I could do by myself, Julian said. I had a lot, a lot of help. It was a whole school thing. Sixty-seven staffers participated in the 3 minute, 13 second video. Dave Rowton, father of two Clark students, videoed the one-take performance, walking backwards up and down stairs and through the halls. But Julian credited students most of all. Every student participated, all 539 including Head Start students. You guys are the reasons we won, he told the assembly Friday. Julian said students learned the song, the choreography and took part in practices during the students special classes such as music, art and PE, so as not to take away from academic instruction time. Julian also noted the video highlights what Clark Elementary has to offer students such as archery, academic team, strings and chorus, and an art club. Through the arts, we were acting and being energetic. We were singing along with it and having fun, he said. Even though we are focused on academics, we can let our hair down. We wanted to show the kids they can have a great time at school. PE teacher Cindy Sharp said students and staff rehearsed for about three weeks before the big video day. Ybarzabal said the school filmed the video right before Octobers fall break. Video entries were evaluated based on school spirit and participation, creativity and execution. Macys spokeswoman Melissa Goff said judges chose Clark Elementary over all other entries because their video is adorable. You could tell they put a lot of hard work into it, Goff added. Other school winners included Montgomery High School (Montgomery, Texas), second place, winning $15,000; and Compass Academy (Idaho Falls, Idaho) and Amherst Elementary (Massillon, Ohio), third-place tie, each winning $10,000. To think we competed against other elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities and won, Ybarzabal said. There are no stipulations on how to spend the prize money, Ybarzabal said, though he noted most will be used in the fine arts department. Every kid in the school goes to those classes, he said. Every kid will benefit. To view Clark Elementary Schools Macys All-School Lip Dub video, visit youtube/watch?v=9LP9Y7U_Tlc.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 14:04:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015