Up & Coming Weekly

4 UCW FEB. 24 - MARCH 2, 2010 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM PUBLISHER Bill Bowman bbowman@upandcomingweekly.com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Janice Burton Joy Kirkpatrick editor@upandcomingweekly.com STAFF WRITER Stephanie Crider stephanie@upandcomingweekly.com MARKETING/SALES Tabitha Kidd tabitha@upandcomingweekly.com Elexis Joseph-Lawson Lexi@upandcomingweekly.com Steve Rogers Steve@upandcomingweekly.com OFFICE MANAGER Suzy Patterson suzy@upandcomingweekly.com –––––––––––––– GRAPHIC DESIGNER Alicia Miller art@upandcomingweekly.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Soni Martin, D.G. Mar tin, Pitt Dick ey, Margaret Dickson, Bob Cogswell, John Hood, Shanessa Fenner, Erinn Crider, Shannen Dill, Karen Poppele, Takeema Hoffman, Renee Gibbs, Heather Griffi ths, Chanel Coleman –––––––––––– Up & Coming Weekly www.upandcomingweekly.com 208 Rowan Street P.O. Box 53461 Fayetteville, NC 28305 PHONE: (910) 484-6200 FAX: (910) 484-9218 Up & Coming Weekly is a "Quality of Life" publication with local features, news and infor- mation on what's happening in and around the Fayetteville/Cumberland County community. Up & Coming Weekly is published weekly on Wednesdays. Up & Coming Weekly welcomes manuscripts, photographs and artwork for publication consideration, but assumes no responsibility for them. We cannot accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or material. Opinions expressed by contributors do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. The publisher reserves the right to edit or reject copy submitted for publication. Up & Coming Weekly is free of charge and distributed at indoor and outdoor locations throughout Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Pope Air Force Base, Hope Mills and Spring Lake. Readers are limited to one copy per per- son. Subscriptions can be purchased for $30 for six months or $60 for 12 months, delivered weekly by first class mail. ©2007 by F&B Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or advertisements without permission is strictly prohibited. STAFF Internet Directory ............................ 12 Calendar ........................................... 14 Concert Connection ........................ 17 TV ..................................................... 19 Movie Review .................................. 20 Movie Schedule ............................... 21 Free Wheelin' Feelin' ....................... 22 News of the Weird ........................... 23 Horoscopes/Advice Goddess ......... 23 Classifieds ........................................ 24 Games .............................................. 26 Dining Guide .................................... 27 INSIDE The Arts Have a Positive Influence on Our Community and Our Children PUBLISHER'S PEN Sunday afternoon I sat through the fi nal performance of Peter Pan at the Cape Fear Regional Theatre. It was my fi fth or sixth viewing of the musical, and I remained as enchanted throughout the performance as I was the fi rst time. While there were professionals carrying three of the lead roles, the rest of the cast was rounded out with community children and high school students. As the Littlest Burton was among the cast, I had the opportunity to see how much work went into put together a production of this scale. I can tell you, it was grinding. Rehearsals started on Jan. 2 and ran all the way through to the show's opening at the end of the month. The average rehearsal was four hours – longer in the days leading up to the opening. Did I mention those rehearsals happened after school? These students, ages 8 and up, carried not only their school work but the grueling schedule of rehearsals as well. Some of the students were also involved in the theatre's upcoming production of Les Miserables. They were doing double duty. As a mother, I was very concerned about the impact of the schedule on my son's school performance. We were, after all, doing homework on the way to the theatre and getting up early in the morning to complete what was left undone. I imagine that was the case with all of the students in the cast. I had the opportunity to talk with Bo Thorp, the theatre's artistic director about the subject. Thorp, who has a passion for children, noted that children involved in the arts tend to do better in school. They learn to balance their creative time with their academic time, and the time spent pursuing the arts actually makes them better students. She noted that one of the students who was pulling double duty on both plays had recently told her he made the A Honor Roll. Her experience with the success of children in the theatre is not an anomaly. A recent Harris Poll shows a positive association of music with lifelong educational attainment and higher income. Nearly nine in ten people (88 percent) with post graduate degrees participated in music education. Further, 83 percent of those with incomes higher than $150,000 or more participated in music. "Research confi rms that music education at an early age greatly increases the likelihood that a child will grow up to seek higher education and ultimately earn a higher salary," said Dr. John Mahlmann, executive director of MENC: The National Association for Music Education. "While music clearly corresponds to higher performing students and adults, student access to music education has dropped about 20 percent in recent years, thanks in large part to the constraints of the No Child Left Behind Act." Other studies show the value of music programs to our future generations: • Students in top quality music programs scored 22 percent higher in English and 20 percent higher in math on standardized tests mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (University of Kansas) • In 2006, SAT takers with coursework in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 43 points higher on the math portion (The College Board, Profi le of College-Bound Seniors National Report for 2006) While schools across the nation are cutting music and arts programs from their daily schedule, in Cumberland County, we are blessed to have institutions like the CFRT, Snyder Music Academy, the Kidsville Kids, the Arts Council and the Fayetteville Museum of Art that work daily to bring arts education to our county's children. From personal experience, I know that incorporating music and the arts helps a child's development. I've seen it with my own eyes. Benchmark Testing was conducted in the Cumberland County Schools during the opening week of Peter Pan. We were in rehearsal until 11 p.m. that week, and I knew my son was tired. I was really worried about his performance on the test. When scores came out this month, I was overwhelmed. My son, who is dyslexic, scored 20 percent higher than the county average in reading and held his own in math. There is a place for music and art in our children's lives. It's up to us as a community to make sure it stays there. 24 24 7 / Forecast available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Sponsored by Thursday February 25 High 47° Low 26° Partly Cloudy High 55° Low 28° Partly Cloudy High 53° Low 31° Sunny High 56º Low 39º Mostly Cloudy Friday February 26 Saturday February 27 Sunday February 28 Monday February 29 Fayetteville Regional Airport www.fl yfay.com Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Fayetteville's Weather Forecast Call 910.354.1679 Call 910.354.1679 Tuesday February 30 High 51º Low 34º Showers High 53° Low 29° Sunny JANICE BURTON, Associate Publisher COMMENTS? 484-6200 ext. 106 or Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. Area "Lost Boys" in CFRT's Peter Pan.

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