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February 8, 2007
D'Lane Maselunas
D'Lane Maselunas of Lake Highlands wrote the following "Voices" guest column for Richardson Neighbors:
I recently had a unique opportunity to participate in a fund-raiser for Richardson ISD’s Lake Highlands Elementary School.
The event itself was not unique, but my participation was because my two daughters attend Merriman Park Elementary – a school that may be viewed as being in “competition” with LHE.
Lake Highlands Elementary celebrated 50 years of providing education, and to commemorate the occasion the PTA held its first-ever fund-raising auction and dinner.
After comparing notes about various details, Page Foster, an LHE auction chair, and a friend, Courtney Carvajal of the Merriman Park team, devised a great partnership: Merriman Park would handle check-in and check-out at the Lake Highlands auction, then the LHE team would help Merriman Park with its auction Feb. 10.
As simple as that sounds, the idea truly is revolutionary in PTA circles.
First, it’s practical. Why should the auction team who worked so hard to create an event miss the fun because they have to work the whole time? The partnership freed the team to participate in the auction and enjoy the party they worked so hard to plan.
Second, and most significant, is spirit of cooperation between schools it engenders.
While I was working the Lake Highlands Elementary auction, I saw a family whose children go to Wallace Elementary. I asked her what she was doing there. She responded (almost indignantly, it seemed) that she was there supporting LHE. Her husband chimed in, “It’s not a contest … if we work together to make all the Lake Highlands schools strong, it helps everyone in the community.” How profound.
I realize now that I need to be more concerned about helping create strong schools in all of the Richardson ISD, not just my home school. Sure, I want Merriman Park to be strong, but it doesn’t have to be at the expense of other schools.
My hope is that this partnership is the first of many and that other schools will follow suit by forming similar partnerships to strengthen all of our elementary schools.
They all have something to gain from such efforts.
D'Lane Maselunas of Lake Highlands is a member of the Merriman Park Elementary School PTA.
Posted by Mark Macesich 
at 5:45 PM (E-mail this entry)
As Pearce High School geared up for its annual musical, one department was hard at work long before the first actor was cast, writes Lynn Shaw, theater director.
The technical theater department started work on Peter Pan last spring when student set designer Taylor Knight and adviser Kelly Cox began looking at ideas and making plans. By opening night the kids looked like pros and the sets moved, the lights hit their marks, the sound worked and the magic began.
Peter Pan concludes its run with shows at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
Each year the technical theater department works to produce sets that rival many professional companies. The challenge may include scouring the neighborhoods on bulk trash pick-up week to find discarded items that could be for props, creating special devices, painting backdrops or even welding together a ship for Captain Hook.
Peter Pan presents a challenge as the set must meet specific requirements due to the added element of flying. There must be clearance for the lines, especially in the nursery scene where Peter makes his first and final appearances.
Who can forget that first breathtaking moment in Peter Pan when the windows fly open and he soars into the room and lands gracefully on the windowsill?
Yet all that magic is carefully choreographed by the specialists at Flying by Foy, who spent several days with the cast the week before the show opened.
Another challenge is the backstage choreography that goes on when large set pieces are moved on and off the stage. These giant scenery shifts must be done quickly and quietly by novice techies and a few advanced students, dodging set pieces and actors while navigating through the dark with only glow tape to guide the way.
Posted by Mark Macesich at 1:48 PM (E-mail this entry)
-Submitted photo by Phil Huber
Parish Episcopal Middle School seventh-graders Lia Santucci, left, and Bailey Roper, right, both of Far North Dallas, join eighth-grader Morgan Slottje in The Diviners.
The Parish Episcopal Middle School Players take their act on the road this weekend as a cast of 14 students, including several from Far North Dallas, was scheduled to perform Friday night at the opening of this weekend’s National Junior Thespian Conference at Clements High School in Sugar Land.
The students were scheduled to present their full-length production of The Diviners, a play about loss, despair, fanaticism, and the power of love and trust in the dust bowl era, reports Jackie Robertson of Parish.
“Our play is a difficult work for middle- or high school-level actors, and the historical and societal context requires a lot of teaching to a cast,” said Michael Irwin, Parish Middle School theater teacher and director of the play.
“While The Diviners is a popular choice for competition,” he said, “it is rare that a middle school cast performs the entire play. (But) the conference likes productions that prove middle school actors can do the seemingly impossible.”
Set in rural southern Indiana in 1932, the story involves a lapsed minister from Kentucky who drifts into the small town of Zion looking for work. There, he befriends a mentally challenged 14-year-old boy who has not bathed in a dozen years due to his fear of water as a result of a near-drowning in which his mother died rescuing him.
Oddly enough, the boy can divine water using a stick, and his function in the community is to tell everyone when it is going to rain.
In addition to their performance, Parish students will have the opportunity to interact with about 400 other middle school theater students, their teachers and professional theater experts throughout the two-day event. This year’s conference will include two other middle school performances, as well as workshops in acting, creative dramatics, playwriting and technical theater.
Jackie Robertson is associate director of communications at Parish Episcopal School.
Posted by Mark Macesich at 1:41 PM (E-mail this entry)
Here's one last reminder we thought worthwhile from correspondent Tony Reynolds with the Richardson school district's PTA Council:
Books, books and more books will be on sale at the 25th annual Richardson ISD Council of PTAs Used Book Fair starting Thursday, the third year the event will be held at the Valley View Center food court.
The event is scheduled to run Thursday, Feb. 8, through Sunday, Feb. 11. Sale hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Much of the money goes directly to fund the Council’s scholarship program through the JJ Pearce Memorial Scholarship fund, which is open to graduating students of all four RISD high schools.
Valley View Center is at Preston Road and LBJ Freeway.
-Photo submitted by Tony Reynolds
Richardson High School senior football players Scott Meyers, left, Cameron Harmon and Jed Igbinoba deliver books to the fair.
Posted by Mark Macesich at 1:30 PM (E-mail this entry)
The West Garland-Richardson Little League tryouts for ages 5 through 18 will be held two Saturdays, Feb. 10 and 17, at Norman Groves Park, 1510 Bobbie Lane.
Cost is $75. Those interested can register at www.wgrll.org; by mail at P.O. Box 452647, Garland, TX 75042; or at the tryouts.
For information on tryout times for specific age groups, call 972-276-9752 or visit the Web site.
Posted by Angela Chambers at 1:17 PM (E-mail this entry)
Repertory Company Theatre will present The Dating Game from Friday, Feb. 9, through Sunday, Feb. 18, at Promenade Theatre, 650 N. Coit Road, No. 2320. Tickets, which include a champagne toast, are $20 adults and $18 seniors. For tickets, call 972-690-5029. For more information, visit www.rcttheatre.com.
Submitted photo
Posted by Mark Macesich at 12:45 PM (E-mail this entry)
Here's an advance look at excerpts from the Editor's Note for the Feb. 10 edition of Richardson Neighbors:
We’re declaring a blog war.
And you, dear readers, are being drafted to serve.
For a couple months we have been blogging our ever livin’ hearts out online at Richardson Neighbors. Well, much as we can while still putting out the print edition. And it’s gotten us only to sixth place in page views among the eight Neighbors blogs.
That’s behind the White Rock (Lake), Frisco, Park Cities, Irving and Allen editions. All of which trail our Richardson, Lake Highlands and Far North Dallas edition considerably in reader submissions, so we know you’re reading the section and involved.
Now, knowing our readers as well as we do (we think), we know that sixth place just won’t wash. So we’re going to war with our sights set on No. 1.
What we’re doing on the Richardson Neighbors blog:
– We have begun adding photos to the blog, which should make viewing more colorful. Speaking of which, the first two were photos of Richardson’s “Athena Monster” roller derby star and a photo from CATS stage production at Richardson High School.
– We’re inviting readers to send us breezy items about special plans for the coming week or weekend – Angela and I each provided examples last weekend – and we’ll post the most fun or interesting under the your name. Just tell us your submission is for the blog.
– We also expect to blog more full-fledged, reader-written stories and submitted photos planned for upcoming print editions as we receive them, adding dimension of timliness.
– And for those who don’t subscribe to a print edition, we may even run featured or “best of” stories online so they can see what they’re missing each week.
Mark Macesich is the editor of Richardson Neighbors. Contact him at 469-330-5670 or mmacesich@dallasnews.com, and visit the blog at http://richardsonblog.dallasnews.com/.
Posted by Mark Macesich at 12:36 PM (E-mail this entry)
The third annual Pearce High School Excellence in Education Fund Hoopin’ for Excellence three-on-three basketball tournament will be held Saturday, Feb. 10, at PHS, 1600 N. Coit Road.
The event is open to boys and girls’ teams in grades fourth through twelfth. Teams may go online to the Pearce Fund Web site, www.pearcefund.org, for a registration form. Cost is $60 per four-member team. Participants will receive a Hoopin’ for Excellence T-shirt.
For more information or about volunteering, contact Nancee Wenning at 1976nancee.w@sbcglobal.net or Kim Caston at Kcaston@aol.com.
Posted by Angela Chambers at 11:56 AM (E-mail this entry)
The Paul Taylor Dance Company will perform 8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, at the Charles W. Eisemann Center, 2351 Performance Drive.
Tickets range from $20 to $55 and are available at www.eisemanncenter.com or by calling 972-744-4650.
A master class for advanced dance students only will be held 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 9, in the Countrywide Theatre at the Eisemann. Admission is $15 and reservations must be made to the Eisemann Center ticket office. Observers will be welcome at the master class for a $5 fee payable at the door.
An educational rehearsal will be held for a limited number of participants 3:15 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, with free admission for those with evening performance tickets. There will be a $10 fee to see the rehearsal if not attending the evening performance.
Posted by Angela Chambers at 9:56 AM (E-mail this entry)
Look for the following report in the Feb. 10 edition of Richardson Neighbors from correspondent Bob Vernon:
His name is Leonard, and he’s soft, fuzzy and has a target on his back.
And though the toy gorilla is stuffed and only 6 inches tall, he weighs 800 pounds. For 12 years he has been on the backs of the J.J. Pearce Lady Mustangs basketball team.
But, as of Feb. 2, Leonard is homeless.
-Submitted photo by Gene Nunn
Pearce senior Brittany Hatch drives for a lay-up.
That’s because the Lady Mustangs put together a determined and fast-paced four quarters to defeat Highland Park 54-47 and end a 12-year playoff drought for Pearce.
That’s right, the J.J. Pearce Lady Mustangs are headed to the playoffs — which start Monday, Feb. 12 — for the first time since losing in the bi-district round in 1994.
“Mercy, I was in high school back then,” said Pearce coach LaGwenna Mingilton, who bought Leonard to remind her team of the burden they carried. “Nights like tonight, I feel like I’m still in high school. I just wanted to lace up my shoes and get out there.”
But she couldn’t, so she sent her players instead. Players she thought 12 months ago were at least another year away from playoff contention. They fooled her, though.
“They had a really strong summer, so they condensed two years into one,” said Mingilton, who is in only her second year at Pearce.
Feb. 2 at the Pearce gym, this team did what so many of their predecessors could not. They did it by taking the opening tip and racing the ball up and down the floor. They did it by playing pressure defense all over the court.
If they had not been playing against Highland Park, they might have run away from their opponents. But the Lady Scots, also 9-3 coming into the game, were in the same predicament, with the loser all but eliminated from playoff contention.
HP, known for its prodigious outside shooting, scrapped with everything it had in an effort to gain the upper hand. Pearce matched the Lady Scots basket for basket for three quarters, knotting the score at 14-14, 24-24 and 34-34.
But early in the fourth quarter, the Lady Mustangs gained the edge by converting two baskets and a couple of free throws to move in front 42-36. They never trailed again as senior guard Brittany Hatch scored 9 of her game-high 16 points in the final period to lead her team to the promise land.
Besides Hatch’s 16 points, junior Katie Hanes scored 12, followed by seven each for Zora Washburn and fellow senior Laura Fredericks.
“They wanted it, and it showed,” Mingilton said. “The intensity showed a lot.”
So, with one game left to go at Terrell last Tuesday, the Lady Mustangs knew they were going to see post-season action for the first time since before this crop of players was old enough to attend kindergarten – either in sole possession of second place and a No. 2 playoff seed or tied with Forney with a coin flip determining the second seed.
But no matter where the post-season journey takes them, the Lady Mustangs are sure Leonard is one gorilla that won’t be missed.
Bob Vernon handles public address announcing for Pearce girls basketball and writes for the Web site www.pearcemustangsonline.com.
Posted by Mark Macesich at 3:59 AM (E-mail this entry)
