School Assembly Performers - An Unexpected Bonus!

Just a quick story about one of our school assembly performers and the power of school assemblies to impact the self esteem of children in a powerful and positive manner.

Dick Buchholz has been with our company for many years. Dick is one of our presenters who bring live animals into schools with Animals and the Environment and Reptiles are Cool. He is extremely qualified and one of the best school assembly performers we have. He is the past President of  the Chicago Herpetological Society and also the Bay Area Amphibian and Reptile Society. Dick has been studying reptiles since he was ... oh... maybe three years old. He has been traveling around presenting educational school assembly programs for 40 years now! He is pretty good at what he does, to say the least.

A  few years ago, when my own kids were much younger, my daughter was still in preschool. During the summer, the school also offered day care for older siblings, so at that time both my daughter and my son were there. We arranged for Dick to come and present one of his assemblies for primary schools, Animals and the Environment, for all the kids. This particular school assembly teaches students about many of the environmental issues facing wild animal populations by introducing them to several different species of interesting animals and reptiles. It is a very positive environment assembly program, but, as you will see, also a powerful motivator in other ways, too. 

The program was going along very nicely until Dick introduced the students to Banana, a 14’ Burmese Albino Python. Banana is always a big hit, but on this  occasion there was a girl in the audience who was deathly afraid of snakes. She was about 12 years old, if I recall correctly. As soon as she saw Banana she began to scream and shake uncontrollably and had to be taken from the room. Well Dick was near the end of the program anyway, so he finished up and then went to see the girl and make sure she was all right. To make a long story short, he worked with her, reassured her, offered her some encouragement, and within  half an hour the girl was photographed not only close to the python, but holding it and beaming with happiness, excitement and with pride that she had overcome her fear. Her self esteem was enhanced that day in a manner you simply cannot buy, and I am sure the experience has stayed with her to this day.

Dick still works with us. Those of you looking for assembly ideas in the Chicago area are fortunate as he is resident there now and available to present school assembly programs for you year round. I have another, rather amusing, story about Dick to tell you, but I will save that for another time. Just remember, though, when you are seeking assembly ideas, sometimes you get much more than you expect. You may schedule a climate change assembly program and find that you have also scheduled a powerful motivational and self esteem assembly program as an added bonus!

Geoff Beauchamp is the Regional Manager of Mobile Ed Productions where "Education Through Entertainment" has been the guiding principal since 1979. Mobile Ed Productions produces and markets quality educational school assembly programs in the fields of science, history, writing, astronomy, natural science, mathematics, character issues and a variety of other curriculum based areas. In addition, Mr. Beauchamp is a professional actor with 30 years of experience in film, television and on stage. He created and still performs occasionally in Mobile Ed's THE LIVING LINCOLN