“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing a song for all to hear.”
Spanish teacher, Pamela Dentler knows that to be true and has organized students to become Elf Grams as a fundraiser for Just Plain Dance.
Dentler, an IB teacher, came up with the idea in one of her meetings with other IB teachers.
“ A lot of the IB teachers are on the Just Plain Dance team this year and I said well we should do something like an Elf Gram where I dress somebody up and have them go around and sing, everybody loved the idea,” Dentler said.
Dentler specified there was no inspiration behind the idea and it just came to her.
So far there have been 86 Elf Grams sold, for $1. The Elves will simply have a treat for whoever purchases an Elfgram. For $2, the Elves will sing and dance for them.
Dentler is a big fan of Christmas time and already had a relationship with the Plain Local Arts program which benefits from Just Plain Dance.
“ I have two daughters that were big in the Plain Local Arts, my daughter Madison just graduated last year; she was big in the dance program. My youngest daughter KT is a senior. She’s been in the instrumental music program since 5th grade, so we love Plain Local Arts. We know it’s a very special thing so we’re supporting it.”
Those who wished to be Elves had to audition, using the code of the Elves from the Elf Movie, Dentler also played Christmas songs on her phone and had them dance and sing to the songs however they wanted.
Junior Anthony Torres-Castro is a student of Dentler’s who auditioned because he thought it would be fun after having put up flyers.
During his audition, he sang and danced to Let It Go, and decided to add a unique twist, using sign language throughout the song.
“I was thinking back at my ASL class, and Mr. Hamilton put up a video of a girl singing the song Umbrella by Rihanna. I said (to myself) if there’s a song made by Rihanna there’s a song about Christmas, so I signed my song”.
All of the Elf Grams will be delivered on Dec. 20, so the Elves will split into three groups and take shifts based on their schedule.
All Elves are required to perform the Snowflake Shuffle a song and choreographed dance.
When seeing an elf pass by please remember the code of the Elves: to treat every day like Christmas, that there’s room for everyone on the nice list, and the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing a song for all to hear.
