By By Matthew Nascone
As part of the Escambia County Board of Education Expose At-Risk Program, the girls involved are required to be involved in the community. The 2006-07 dance and step team kicked off the new season by "Singing and Stepping into Christmas" at the Atmore Nursing Care Center Friday morning.
"This was a great way for us to spread cheer around the holidays," Expose instructor and Escambia County High School bookkeeper LaShonda Marshall said. "And I always love spreading as much cheer as possible."
The program the girls put on Friday morning was a collage of dancing, singing and reading. Members of Expose read poems, sung solos, performed a step routine and sung Christmas carols as a group.
Marshall said she realizes the benefits of helping other people.
"This is so good for the girls," Marshall said. "Because they learn the joy of helping someone else. And I also push going to college to these girls, and building community service hours looks good on their resumes."
And those residents at the center seemed to enjoy themselves, Marshall said.
"I think it went great today," she said. "And I could see the residents clapping and bobbing their heads with the music. And that is great."
The Expose group had a treat in store for the residents as well.
"I made sure each of the girls brought a pair of socks," Marshall said. "And we gave every resident at least one pair of socks. We wanted them to stay warm and everyone knows if your feet are cold, you are cold. So we wanted to give them socks to keep their feet warm this winter."
Marshall introduced the group to the residents and then Shermeka White read a Christmas prayer, followed by a solo performance of "Silent Night" by Jordan McGill. Emily Gehman followed the performance with a reading of a Christmas poem. The Expose dancers then sung "Deck the Halls, "Away in a Manger" and many other Christmas songs as a group.
Laneka Tolbert read "The Christmas Gift," Jessica Pipkin introduced "O Holy Night" before Trenetra White belted the song out in a solo. After the group performed a step routine, Martesha Crenshaw read "My Christmas Gift to You" and the socks were given out.