Kids Are Heroes Day Activities

Posted by Gabe on October 13, 2009 under Kids Are Heroes Day, Kids are Heroes | 2 Comments to Read

We are rounding the bend to Kids Are Heroes Day which is scheduled for Saturday, October 24th at the Francis Scott Key Mall here in Frederick.  Besides having a great gathering of charitable kids at the event who will inspire your own children to get involved, we will have kid friendly entertainment and activities as well.  There will be a baloon artist, face painting and music from a DJ.  On top of that there will be a number of elementary, middle and high school kids will share their talents on stage with everyone.  Here is a list of the “celebrities” that will appear throughout the day:

10:00 Laken Weaver is a freshman at Catoctin High School.  She has been singing ever since she was three or four years old.  She was a member of the Frederick Children’s for two years when she was in elementary school. She has been a member of the Frederick all county chorus for the past three years and a member of the Maryland All State Junior Chorus for the past two.  She was also a member of the award winning Thurmont Middle School “Spirit” show choir.  In her spare time she enjoys singing just for the fun of it and is a member of the Catoctin High School JV Volleyball team and the Catoctin High School Show Choir.  Laken will start us off with the National Anthem.

10:15 Maggie Kaetzel is an 8th grader at Thurmont Middle School.  Her hobbies include singing, swimming and hanging out with her friends.  Maggie has been a member of the Frederick Children’s Chorus for 3 years and the Thurmont Middle School Chorus for 3 years, as well.  In addition, Maggie is a member of the TMS “Spirit” Show Choir and last year she was selected as a member of Maryland’s prestigious All State Chorus.  Maggie will be singing “Many A New Day” from Oklahoma.

10:30 Savannah Steinly is an 8th grader whose hobbies include singing, dancing, playing soccer and basketball and hanging out with friends.  She has been a member of the Thurmont Middle School Chorus for 2 years and a member of the TMS “Spirit” Show Choir for 3.  Last year she was the narrator in Thurmont Middle School’s musical Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.  She will be auditioning for this year’s All State Chorus in November.  Savannah will be singing “You Raise Me Up”.

10:45 Leah Tester is in the 7th grade and attends Thurmont Middle School.  Leah enjoys dancing, singing, acting and basketball.  She loves to draw and has had her artwork displayed in the Frederick Gallery.  Leah has been in the TMS “Spirit” Show Choir for 2 years and loves the opportunity to perform.   Leah will be singing “Concrete Angel”.

11:00 Taylor Zentz is a 7th grader who also attends Thurmont Middle School.  Taylor is currently a member of TMS’s “Spirit” Show Choir.  She loves to sing and dance and has been doing so since the age of 5.  She also loves basketball and golf.  Taylor is currently taking private voice lessons from Kathleen Taylor.  She will be singing the song “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” from Cinderella.

11:45 Cati Grant is a sixteen-year-old from Scripps Ranch High School in San Diego, California.  She is flying across the country partly to be recognized as one of the kids from our web site.  Her main motivation for traveling all that way is to bond with the other heroes and take advantage of another chance to raise awareness of her platform which is bullying.  She will give a short talk about what kids can do about bullying and why she feels it is so important.

12:15 Evan Frank is a very young boy who within the last year became aware of a problem in other countries: not everyone has clean water to drink.  He has taken it upon himself to do what he can to help solve it by raising funds to drill wells in Africa.  He is working on his second well.  He will speak about his project and why he feels it is important.

12:45 The Oakdale Singing Owls make up a chorus group from Oakdale Elementary School.  They jumped at the chance to be able to participate in this event.  They will sing a song or two from their repertoire.

1:00 Recognition Ceremony
All the heroes from the Kids Are Heroes web site who are in attendance will be recognized on stage by the Francis Scott Key Mall. Here is the list of kids who are scheduled to receive an award: Addison White, Adele Taylor, Anna Lemick, Julia Lemick, Austin Pierce, Calista Pierce, Casey Landahl, Catherine Grant, Emily Zimmerman, Kayleigh Crimmins, Evan Frank, John Sun, Miranda Mossburg, MaryMargaret O’Neill, Mercedes Blouin-Escoto, Nichelle Upton, Winston Duncan and Thurmont Middle School.  Giving out the awards will be several local heroes from various disciplines: Staff Sgt. Robert L. Guerra (US Army), Deputy First Class Kevin D. White (Frederick County Sheriff’s Department), Staff Sergeant Stephanie Satinsky (US Air Force), AD1 (AW) Chris Daupert (US Navy), David Shafer (Guidance Counselor at Middletown Elementary School).

2:15 MaryMargaret O’Neill is not only the founder of Kids Are Heroes, but she loves to sing, dance and act as well. For the past four years she has been a member of the Musical Theater Factory’s summer musical theater camp. She has participated in 5 productions, including this past summer’s production of High School Musical 2 as “Martha Cox”.   MaryMargaret currently participates with the Music Ensemble Theater group in Frederick. She also has enjoyed five years of classical ballet and violin instruction.  She is in the sixth grade at the Mother Seton School.  She will be singing “Let’s Talk about Love”.

2:30 Adele Taylor is coming all the way from New Jersey to be at Kids Are Heroes Day.  She is a hero that promotes literacy wherever she can.  Adele has been dancing since the age of three and was recently crowned Miss Bonnie Blue Outstanding Teen.  She will be performing a tap-dance number for us.

3:00 Brian Kim and Ann Yeh – Violin / Cello

Violinist Brian Kim, a junior at Marriotts Ridge High School, began playing the violin when he was 6 years old. Currently he studies with Matthew Horwitz-Lee at the Peabody Preparatory. Brian has been a featured soloist with the Columbia Orchestra under the direction of Jason Love in 2005 and in 2008. He has also performed as a soloist with the JCC Symphony Orchestra, the Marriotts Ridge High School Symphony Orchestra and Howard County Gifted and Talented Orchestra. As the first place winner of the Young Artists’ String Competition, he has been featured with the Frederick Symphony. He has played in numerous Honors’ Recitals and Vella Silver Recitals at the Peabody Preparatory and has appeared in many outreach concerts as a soloist and as a chamber musician. Currently, Brian is the associate concertmaster of the Peabody Preparatory Youth Orchestra and a member of the Peabody Pre-Conservatory Violin Program.  He has been a member of the Howard County Gifted and Talented Orchestra since the third grade and has served as its concertmaster for many years. He attended Interlochen Arts Camp in 2008 as a recipient of the Emerson Scholarship and has had the honor of serving as the concertmaster of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has also played in the Maryland All-State Junior Orchestra as concertmaster for two years. Besides violin, he enjoys running track, playing jazz saxophone, and spending time with friends.

Shing Ann Yeh is a juniorat Centennial High School. She began studying the cello at the age of eight with Donald Watts and currently works with Robert Newkirk. Last summer, Ann received the merit-based Emerson scholarship to the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. Ann has been a principal cellist of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Maryland All-State Junior Orchestra, and is currently the principal cellist of the Howard County Gifted and Talented Orchestra. She is also actively involved in chamber music a member of the Centennial High School String Quartet and the Bransa Trio. In addition to music, Ann loves to play soccer, bake and spend quality time with her family.

Brian and Ann will perform a duet and they will also each perform individually.  Please also note that they both performed at one of MaryMargaret’s Music for Life events.  They are becoming heroes in their own right. :)

So come down and enjoy a great day at the FSK Mall.  Bring your children to engage with the heroes from our web site.  Before long you son or daughter might very well join them.