In October Kirsten Stotts, the Community Elementary art teacher, attended the Kansas Art Educators Association conference in Hutchinson. While there, she visited the Blick Art Supplies vendor booth and signed up for their drawing. They were drawing names to give away free art supplies along with two grants to the National Art Educators Association (NAEA) Conference in Baltimore. She would have been thrilled to receive some markers or something so you can imagine her surprise when she received an e-mail January 5th stating her name was one of two drawn from 5000 national entries to receive the grant to the NAEA conference.

The grant includes airfare, hotel, registration to the conference, plus a travel allowance. She will leave on April 13th and will return late Saturday, April 17th.

Along with four days of workshops, she will be spending one day in Washington DC with a group to view artwork in the National Mall, and in particular, the Capitol Building.

Mr. Stotts wants to give a big thank to Mrs. Bright and the BOE for allowing her to take the time to go. It really will be a once in a lifetime opportunity.

On Feb. 1 st-18th, students at Community Elementary in Coffeyville jumped all over heart disease and stroke by participating in Jump Rope For Heart. There were 111 Heart Hero’s that raised more than $6,497.00 for the American Heart Association to help fight heart disease.

Donations raised during Jump Rope For Heart help fund research to fight heart disease and stroke and also support the American Heart Association’s public and professional education programs. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer in America and stroke is No. 3.

“This year’s event was a huge success,” said Carla Thurman and Beau Eden, Jump Rope For Heart coordinators. “We’re very proud of all the jumpers, they all did an awesome job. And we would like to thank the community for being so involved in such a great fund raiser.”

The top money raiser at CES was Faith Wilson-Pippen with $250.00. “My Grandma Shirley passed away from heart disease and I did the JRFH in her memory. And I also wanted to help children with heart disease get better. I had a lot of fun jumping rope and my favorite part was when we did long jump ropes. I plan on doing this again next year,” stated Faith.
Faith requested giving her prizes back to the American Heart Association instead of receiving them for herself. She did this activity in memory of her Grandma Shirley. What a Super Heart Hero!!!

Jump Rope For Heart is a program that promotes physical fitness and heart health through the fun activity of jumping rope. It is co-sponsored by the American Heart Association and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.