Bardstown Elementary School

Photo by FRANK JOHNSON/The Kentucky Standard

Motivational speaker Bernie Abrams stands among Bardstown Elementary students who gathered in the school�s gym Tuesday for a Black History Month presentation by Abrams. Abrams used portraits of famous African-Americans to give encouragement for students to deal with struggles in their own lives.

By FRANK JOHNSON

Motivational speaker Bernie Abrams, talking in the rumbling, slow-building tone of a preacher, offered a positive message to students at Bardstown Elementary School Tuesday by emphasizing the lives of Americans who did not let skin color prevent them from contributing to the progress of humanity as a whole.

“The color of your skin cannot neutralize the power of your mind,” Abrams said.

Abrams spoke to the students, who were seated on the school’s gym floor in front 12 portraits of famous African-American figures, as part of the Bardstown City Schools District Black History Month program.

The portraits sat on easels on the school’s gym stage along with a variety of props and devices, including a life-size medical dummy, symbolizing the life and work of the highlighted individuals.

He began the program by telling the gathering of third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students to believe in themselves and their future.

“Here are 12 reasons you can achieve anything you dream,” he said, gesturing to the portraits arranged behind him.

Throughout the presentation, Abrams sketched a brief biography of each figure and then drew a larger lesson from their life, highlighting specific virtues. For example, after talking about the creation of the first stop light by Garret Augustus Morgan, Abrams asked the students what a red light means.

When the audience responded with a shout of “Stop!”, Abrams nodded and told the kids Morgan’s invention and his life holds other meanings as well. The “stop” represents obedience to parents and teachers, the yellow “slow down” the virtue of being slow to anger and the green “go” a call to be quick to listen, among other things.

Abrams often spoke in third person and relayed the life of each individual to the kids as if Abrams had held a conversation with them himself, use phrases such as “He said, Bernie, tell those kids … .” He also interacted with the students, occasionally bringing up volunteers from the audience.

Overall, he offered students a message of empowerment and encouragement.   

“Be a real McCoy cause there is no one like you,” Abrams said, referring to the portrait of Elijah McCoy, the engineer who coined the phrase due to the reliability of his products.

Bardstown Elementary Principal Robin Kelly said the students had been doing activities and projects all month with the presentation as a kind of culmination of their efforts.

“We are certainly a diverse population,” Kelly said of the student body. “We recognize that and we celebrate that.”

Program provides dental care to the young uninsured

By Frank Johnson

For many elementary students and even full-grown adults, a trip to the dentist can be a frightening experience. For the volunteers, businesses and educators behind Smile Kentucky!, the real scare is how many children are without dental insurance in the state.

Smile Kentucky! is a community partnership of more than 100 licensed dentists and hygienists including all of the clinics, staff and faculty of the University of Louisville School of Dentistry. It aims to provide free dental care to elementary students who are without insurance and, therefore, often without care.

Bardstown School District Family Resource and Youth Services Center director Catharine Webb said first local dentists screened all of the elementary school students to determine their needs. The Nelson County School District also participated in the event and after communicating with parents, the schools then sent a large group of kids to the Feb. 5 clinic at the U of L School of Dentistry. Some of the children were in need of urgent care.

“When we came in they have people who are dressed up as water bottles and teeth. The waiting area is setup for the kids to play games or watch movies. They make it fun for the kids,” Webb said.

Webb said the program helps kids from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds. In addition to the free cleaning, she said Smile Kentucky! also provides students with dental education and raises their awareness of the importance of maintaining clean teeth.

According to a press release, more than 220 children received care Friday through the effort of a legion of dentists, hygienists, dentistry students and volunteers. Since 2003, Smile Kentucky! has provided treatment to more than 2,000 children, free dental screenings to more than 31,000 children and education programs to more than 100,000 students

Look at what we have done - Peanut Butter for Haiti

Intersession will be held Monday (3/30) and Tuesday (3/31) from 8:30-3:00 p.m. and on Wednesday (4/1) 8:30-11:30 a.m. for students needing additional help in math or reading. Forms were sent home to students inviting them to attend intersession.

Enrichment classes will also be held during this time. Please make sure you return your student’s enrichment form and payment.

Spring Break begins at the close of school on Friday, March 27. School will resume on Monday, April 13.

Have a safe and happy vacation and keep reading and learning!