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Wimauma Students Salute The President

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

Reddick Elementary School students wave to a Courtney Turpyn, a college photography student, as she snaps photos from the bucket of a Hillsborough County Fire and Rescue ladder truck during AMERI-kazoo, a celebration of President Obama's inauguration.

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By LOIS KINDLE

lkindle@tampatrib.com

Published: February 4, 2009

Updated:

WIMAUMA - President Barack Obama had been commander in chief for four days on Jan. 23, so he may have thought his inaugural ceremonies were over. But the students at Reddick Elementary School had other plans, and they came out in force to show it.

Wearing new Reddick Rays T-shirts supplied by the Riverview Masons, more than 600 children and teachers gathered at the school playground to honor the president. They also were there to thank the Masons and Riverview VFW Post 8108, which had purchased American flags for each Reddick classroom.

The highlight of the 35-minute program was a musical tribute to Obama as the children harmoniously buzzed the melody of "Hail to the Chief" on tiny plastic kazoos while saluting a life-sized cutout of the president and marching in unison.

Organizer Ellen Kleinschmidt, the school's music teacher, said the event just fell into place.

"I was thinking about the upcoming inaugural several weeks ago, and I knew National Kazoo Week would be happening the same week," she said. "I even found an arrangement of 'Hail to the Chief' for kazoos. It was perfect."

Some teachers integrated lessons about the new president and the inaugural into their classrooms. For example, Stacey Giles' second-graders researched Obama online, completed a Venn diagram with overlapping circles comparing him and his wife, and then made an American flag with key events from his life. They also watched the president and vice president take the oath of office on Inauguration Day.

Second-graders in Karen Koslow and Sandra Varn's class watched an online video on the history of the inauguration and studied the ceremony with photographs and text. Then they took a virtual tour of the White House and wrote letters to the president telling him what they hope he will accomplish.

Called AMERI-kazoo, the event included a procession of flags around the assemblage and a group recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. Students and staff also sang "The Star-Spangled Banner," read letters written to the president by three student representatives and performed a drill routine.

"Congratulations on being our new president!" Hermalinda Barrios said as she read her letter. "I hope you help the poor because they need food and money and clothes to live. They live in the street, and I really feel bad for them.

"And could you change the gas price? I hope you feel proud. I love you."

"I hope you change the prices in the stores, because when we want to buy food, it is a high price," wrote Conzar Sepulveda. "And please give the homeless people a shelter and some food. My brother is 10 years old, and I am 7... ."

Students and teachers waved to Courtney Turpyn, 22, a photography student at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Tampa, as she soared overhead, snapping pictures from the bucket of a Hillsborough County Fire Rescue ladder truck.

In his best radio and TV voice, Sun City Center resident Ed Brown - a retired broadcast journalist - read Obama's recently published letter, "What I Want for You - and Every Child in America."

The children also sang the "Thank You Song" to the event sponsors.

"I think it was fabulous," said Jodi Spangler of Ruskin, whose son, Tristan, is a student in Hillary Koontz's kindergarten class. "I thought the children did very well. It takes talent to blow a kazoo and march at the same time," she said.

As the event ended, a recessional led the students, with their kazoos, back to class.

Lois Kindle can be reached at (813) 865-1553. To view a photo gallery of Reddick's tribute to Obama, go to SouthShore.TBO.com and search for Reddick Elementary AMERI-kazoo.

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