Gospel Singing

Guest post by Esteban Vinson

I was watching DirectTV on Sunday and saw something on Sixty Minutes that really sparked my interest. It highlighted a program started by a gospel singer in the Bronx. She recruits children who are interested in gospel music and gives them voice lessons. The teenagers train afterschool and eventually participate and compete in gospel competitions all over the US. They story was actually very inspiring. The program not only gave children more confidence but helped them build bigger, healthy social networks. Many of the children participating were being raised by their grandparents and knew little about their own parents. Some of the children reported having higher grades, higher motivation in school, and goals of furthering their education that they had not had before they started the program. All of the children were talented and just needed someone to foster their abilities. I hold the highest admiration for those who help our children. Sometimes something as small as gaining a little bit of confidence and having good social support can change your whole life for the better.

Seeing Brooke Shields in The Addams Family on Broadway

Guest post written by Annette Black

When my sister and I decided to take a trip to New York City for her birthday, I decided that we would have to go and see at least two Broadway plays. Besides, that's our favorite thing to do while we're there and right now it's so hot that we could use the air conditioning. But when we decided that we wanted to go to a few plays, we wanted to aim for ones that have famous actors in them, at least that we would recognize.

I went online to look up some info on plays that we should go and see a few weeks before and when I was doing that I ran across the website http://hearingaids.miracle-ear.com/hearing_aid_prices.html. After I looked through it a little bit, I decided to get some hearing aids.
Out of the Broadway shows that we saw, I think that my favorite was the Addams Family play because it had Brooke Shields in it. She did such a great job as Morticia. I didn't realize that she could sing well!