By Raina Lucero
Thursday May 4th felt more like July 4th as the family, friends, and community members of Eads Elementary were entertained by the annual spring concert led by Mrs. Monica Uhland and performed by the students of Eads Elementary School grades K-5.
Before the elementary students took the stage, the crowd was first delighted by Eagles Nest Preschool singing four very cute and spring appropriate songs. The 4–5-year-old preschool has 16 students and the 3–4-year-old preschool has 14 students making a large group onstage. Preschool teacher Tina Kraft and her assistant Leisha Walsh directed the preschoolers as they sang, danced, and made the crowd smile and giggle at their wonderful performance.
Moving next into the Elementary performance, Uhland, who has been at the helm of the music department at Eads Schools for 13-years brought back “We Sing Red, White, & Blue” for another performance by a new group of students, “I wrote this program and had the kids first perform it in 2016, I revamped it a bit for this spring concert, added a few different songs, different characters, etc.”
Each year Uhland works with children in grades K-5 to perform Christmas and Spring concerts. Other staff at the school help get the students ready and keep the chaos at a minimum while preparing to go on stage and during the performance. This is often times not an easy feat when dozens of students across 6 age groups gather in one area.
In today’s world, it could be thought of as taboo to wear our country’s pride on our shoulders, however Thursday evening the Elementary kids, wearing all red, white, and blue sang songs of Freedom, Liberty, and Justice without condemnation, reminding each one of us in attendance or those who watched online, what freedom looks like and feels like from the eyes of innocent children.
Mrs. Uhland said, “I feel like it’s important that my students learn and sing some of our country’s traditional patriotic songs and understand the importance of having pride in our country.”
The performance opened just as one would expect, Miranda Kepler and Brystal Bletzacker asked the crowd to stand as “The Star-Spangled Banner” was sung by the large group of students. Garrett Hainer and Tayghen Young introduced the next song, “Thankful for the USA.”
The older grades left the stage leaving Kindergarten through 2nd grade to sing a precious rendition of “This Land is Your Land,” introduced first by Milo Britten and Jett Deines. Saige Sagner and Kynlee Dunlap took to center stage next to speak about the Pledge of Allegiance, which was followed by the students on stage singing, “Allegiance Rap.”
Before the older kids came back on-stage Mason Sierra and Harry Lynch Introduced the next song, “Yankee Doodle.”
When the 3rd through 5th graders returned to stage and the younger students left, the crowd was entertained by Betsy Ross (Presley McLoud) and the presentation of the 13-star flag (Jaxon Bohlander), and 50-star flag (Jax Cordova) as the group sang “Grand Old Flag.”
The song “Constitution” was sung while founding fathers, George Washington (Chael Cordova), James Madison (Madyx Hough), Robert Morris (Canyon Brown), and Ben Franklin (Liam Eder) met to write parts of the United States Constitution.
The Statue of Liberty, portrayed by Piper Uhland, stood tall when McKinzie Jones introduced her before the song “Lady Liberty” was sung. The group of older students then sang “One Nation” as farmer (Quinn Britten), Builder (Will Barnett), Teacher (Neila Klassen), Doctor/Nurse/Fireman/Policeman played by Calen Hoffman, Dekota Lowe, Ellie Scott, Hadlee Dunlap, Braxtyn Ferris, and Zoey Trosper took to the stage.
To conclude the patriotic show the stage was filled again by each of the kindergarten through 5th grade students, Miles Frey and Luke Barnett first recognized the Veterans in the crowd by asking them to stand and leading in an ovation. They then introduced Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”, which included soloist parts by Jett Deines, Noah Gregory, Canyon Brown, Isaiah Rouse, McKinzie Jones, Brystal Bletzacker, Jason Klassen, Presley McLoud and Jax Cordova.
The crowd of parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, siblings and community members had plenty to say about the performance saying it was more than outstanding because they realize just how much civics the students have learned while they were enjoying the art of music and dance.
