BY BEN DANFORTH
Arkansas homeschoolers from all over the state showed up at Harding University on Saturday, November 8th, at 6:30 p.m. to participate in the Education Alliance’s annual talent show. The show was held in the administrative office at Harding. It was categorized into two divisions: instrumental and entertainment. Besides that, there were subdivisions such as juniors, seven to nine year olds; preteens, ten to twelve year olds; teens, thirteen to fifteen year olds; and older teens, sixteen to eighteen year olds.
Last year there were twenty-four contestants; this year there were eighteen. Students arrived from as far away as Whitehall, Garfield, Russellville, Clotter, Bradford, and Maumelle. The winners are as follows: Zachary Hudspeth, Ashlynn Andreg, Kimberly Bowman, Rebekah Richardson, Claire and Mitchell Freer, Jacob Irwin, Daniel, Grace and Luke Thomason, Olivia Wolfe, and Jeanie Burnett. The Master of Ceremonies was Nick Keith, who has a career in doing school fundraisers. Along with the emcee, there were five judges, two of whom were teachers, and three of whom were students at Harding University.
There was a wide range of acts with performances such as Italian opera, bluegrass, classical piano, violin, tap-dancing, and singing.
This is the second consecutive year the Education Alliance has put on the talent show and they are planning to do it next year. For more information on when and how to sign up, visit www.arkansashomeschool.org.
