When you are grocery shopping you can purchase items that have that little square on them that say “Boxtops for Education”. Most probably throw them out but a few of you save them and send them to Hunter. Our very rural public school saves and saves boxtops each year. And this year using 25,000 Boxtops for Education, our local school brought the Missoula Children’s Theatre to our school which held auditions for all elementary age children last Monday. In a matter of days, 60 kids grade kindergarten through sixth memorized hundreds of lines and learned many songs. Hunter was casted as Prince Iceman in The Princess and the Pea. It was a fabulous performance and amazing experience for Hunter and all of the kids. 
Prince Iceman and his side kick Jack Frost
The Missoula Children’s Theatre this year had tour teams work with 65,000 children across all 50 states and visited a total of 16 countries. Quite a project! In general, children in our area are not exposed to many opportunities to participate in the arts compared with kids living in larger cities. There just are less opportunities unless parents take it upon themselves to expose their kids to the arts outside of our little town. By this theatre group visiting, kids who would have never had an opportunity to participate in a production of this level were exposed to “real acting” taught by “real professional actors” (words from Hunter).
Kindergarten and first graders as the “Dust Bunnies”.
There was a huge turn out and community support for the performance this weekend. Including Gpa Fred, Mama Jane, Kirsti and Mike who road tripped down plus Gpa Eldon and Gma Carol who all joined us for the local baseball boosters steak fry ahead of the play. Elissa would sit point at her grandpas saying “more Boppa“. Yes indeed there were two Grandpas together. She calls Gma Carol “Nana” and fondly calls my mom “Mayme“. Hunter named Gma Jane “Mama Jane” many years ago but “Mayme” is quite cute.
Prince Iceman and his side kick Jack Frost
The Missoula Children’s Theatre this year had tour teams work with 65,000 children across all 50 states and visited a total of 16 countries. Quite a project! In general, children in our area are not exposed to many opportunities to participate in the arts compared with kids living in larger cities. There just are less opportunities unless parents take it upon themselves to expose their kids to the arts outside of our little town. By this theatre group visiting, kids who would have never had an opportunity to participate in a production of this level were exposed to “real acting” taught by “real professional actors” (words from Hunter).
Kindergarten and first graders as the “Dust Bunnies”.
There was a huge turn out and community support for the performance this weekend. Including Gpa Fred, Mama Jane, Kirsti and Mike who road tripped down plus Gpa Eldon and Gma Carol who all joined us for the local baseball boosters steak fry ahead of the play. Elissa would sit point at her grandpas saying “more Boppa“. Yes indeed there were two Grandpas together. She calls Gma Carol “Nana” and fondly calls my mom “Mayme“. Hunter named Gma Jane “Mama Jane” many years ago but “Mayme” is quite cute. While our state is one of the few in the nation that has a surplus of money and is not running the red plus a low unemployment rate and a slightly growing population, our county is old in age with declining population and our school is always finding cost savings measures to keep our school running in the black. Support for the Missoula Children’s Theatre to return will depend on how many Boxtops for Education we can save in the next nine months. So start cutting those little squares from your groceries, save them in a plastic baggie and please send them to Hunter every few months. And if you work at a recycling center or know someone who does please let me know. We learned from a local student’s uncle that sends in 8,000 boxtops annually to the school that recycling centers are gold mines…in terms of finding boxtops!
Thank you in advance. If you need our mailing address, please email me. Next year maybe a few more of you can join us for the performance!
As a closing remark…Happy Syttende Mai today! (Norwegian Independence Day) And more importantly to me a Happy 34th wedding anniversary to my parents!
[…] FIVE years ago when I asked for box tops for Hunter? Princess and the Pea was his acting […]