A tradition deeply rooted in the culture of William W. Estes Elementary continues on for the sixteenth year now.
Each year the fourth grade students participate in a blacklight show performance, and each year is a different theme as well as a new routine. The theme this year was ‘When I Grow Up’. Students had the opportunity to perform multiple times for their school as well as other schools, the community, and their families.
“This year we decided on this theme for many reasons,” said Art teacher Mathew Lane. “This group dealt with Covid right in the middle of elementary time. A huge question for all of us during that time was what will the future be like. For the staff it’s also a transition time for us as well. Coach Beall's son is finishing up his time at Estes and moving on to intermediate school, and my oldest daughter is finishing highschool.”
Throughout the years the school has grown, and changed the way the black show is done. Mr. Lane says they are continually looking for ways to raise the bar for both the students and the audience. Elaborate costumes fill the stage as the kids dance and sing to a variety of songs.
“The show was inspired sixteen years ago by a very short black light jump rope routine that our coach at the time Mike Miller saw at a workshop,” he said. “After we all saw the potential the first year, it exploded into its own being with our combined efforts.”
Kindergartners look forward to the time when they will be in fourth grade, and get to do the show. Near the end of each school year it becomes one of the final events many kids will have before moving on Charles T. Koontz Intermediate for fifth grade. The show creates lifelong memories that students carry with them throughout their lives.
“At Estes it is a right of passage,” Mr. Lane explained. “Everyone of our 155-170 fourth graders each year participates. Any time I see a former student somewhere (the grocery or hiking or at a TCR football game) and we get a chance to catch up, the first thing they bring up is which blacklight show they were in.”
