'Miracle on Gordon Hill'

Record numbers for Corbin High’s Storybook Christmas

By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

Thursday, the Corbin Civic Center was a vacant, metal building. But by Friday morning, about 220 Corbin High School students had the place transformed.

“When I walked in the door yesterday at 2:45 p.m. it was completely empty, it was just a big space, and then by 8 p.m. last night, it was a fairy tale,” said Jill Lewis, Storybook Christmas coordinator. “Every year this is like my ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’ This is my Miracle on Gordon Hill.”

Friday marked the 15th year of Storybook Christmas — a day-long event in which high school students act out children’s books for local preschool, elementary and intermediate children.

“National Honor Society sponsors this, but we have students involved from many organizations,” Lewis said.

“The National Arts Honor Society does the face painting for students for free... We also have student council and FCCLA providing guides and having a bake sale and craft sale, and plus, just students wanting to get involved.”

Teens performed for children from Corbin schools, as well as students from Hunter Hills Elementary in North Corbin. But, for the first time, some visiting schools, such as Oak Grove, West Knox and Saint Camillus, had to be turned away.

“It’s a good thing but a bad thing,” Lewis said. “Corbin schools have grown so much, that we can fill this up on our own. The sad thing is I did have to turn away some schools this year, and I felt bad because this is the first time I’ve really had to do that.”

Thirty-five high school teams auditioned for Storybook Christmas in October. Of those, 26 were chosen to present their “book talks” to children. Some of them, Lewis said, would perform their piece 50 times by the end of the day Friday.

“We had ‘The New Bear at School’ and it’s about a class of animals and they get a new student who’s a bear,” explained senior Lindsey Neeley, bunny ears on her head, while she had a few minutes respite between performances. “They’re all small animals and they’re afraid of the bear, but when the bear saves them from the bully, the rat, we’re all friends and we live happily ever after... We chose this book because it’s a good example of accepting new people and not judging them just by how they look.”

The kids aren’t just getting a few moral lessons — all visitors to Storybook Christmas are asked to donate new children’s books, which are then distributed to local charities.

“The whole purpose of this project is to promote literacy, and we do that two ways,” Lewis said. “One by encouraging the students who come out here today and see these books acted out, we hope they’ll want to go back now and read the books... The second way is the books that we collect at the door, we then will sort and distribute. All the new books are given to three local charities for Christmas gifts. We give them to the Angel Tree program for the Corbin schools, we give them to the Lion’s Club Christmas baskets, and we give them to the Rotary Club and Times-Tribune’s Empty Stocking Fund.”

Lewis estimated that about 1,800 people came out Friday — which will hopefully translate into close to 1,800 books. Even used books, though not given as Christmas presents, are used by local charities and given to children.

Lewis said there was some talk about possibly moving Storybook Christmas to a bigger location, such as the new Arena at the David L. Williams Expo & Ag Center Complex.

“We’ll see,” Lewis said. “I don’t know if we’re quite ready to make that big of a jump yet, although it would be nice to have a program that big. Obviously, the high school’s growing too. I have more students available to me, we have over 700 now, so I’m sure I could get another 200 who want to get involved. It is something that we’ll look into because for this year I hated having to turn schools away, so if it’s something we can expand, we will.”

As the event grows, so does the number of (happily) screaming children — some singing along to “Old McDonald,” others encouraged to “arrgh” like a pirate — but the seeming chaos to an adults’ ears is simply joy for the children.

“The noise is always a concern, but the kids really don’t care, I think it’s only the adults who worry about the noise,” Lewis said. “When you’re down low, sitting up close, they hear... They see the costumes, they see the book, they see the big kids acting funny and they love it, whether they’ve heard every word or not...”

And yet, by 3:45 p.m. Friday, the fairy tales were over, the sets that took weeks of planning dismantled, and the civic center cleared of children.

“For 24 hours, this is our Christmas miracle,” Lewis said.

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