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Former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush and a host of sports celebrities joined together at Cowboys Stadium on Monday to outline a sweeping community service-learning project that they hope will leave North Texas a better place after Super Bowl XLV in Arlington.
SLANT 45, which stands for Service Learning Adventures in North Texas, will kick off early next year and run through the Super Bowl in February 2011. Organizers hope to involve about 20,000 elementary school students from North Texas in projects as basic as painting a mural on a playground wall or planting trees. They estimate that about 45,000 community service hours will be donated. The Bushes are honorary leaders of SLANT 45. George Bush told the crowd of community members and about 500 students at the announcement that SLANT 45 will go beyond the classroom to teach students "to love a neighbor just like you’d like to be loved yourself and realize that when you serve something greater than yourself, you improve your own soul."Former Dallas Cowboy Daryl Johnston is the chairman of the SLANT 45 organizing committee, funded with donations of $500,000 from Bank of America and $500,000 from Dallas philanthropists Ted and Shannon Skokos. Big Thought, a Dallas nonprofit group that seeks to "improve public education through creative learning," will implement the program, helping children work on projects that they envision and execute. Organizers want to focus on third- through sixth-graders.In recent weeks, Bush’s appearance at the event was the subject of controversy involving the Arlington school district. The district planned to send about 600 fifth-graders. However, it faced harsh criticism after Superintendent Jerry McCullough decided that Arlington students would not watch President Barack Obama’s Sept. 8 speech to schoolchildren live. Some saw the administration’s treatment of the two events as an example of hypocrisy.McCullough canceled Arlington’s participation in the SLANT 45 news conference on Sept. 14. Event planners worked last week to get more schools involved to fill Arlington’s spaces. The Dallas school district, which was already sending some students, increased its contingent, and other schools, such as the public charter school Westlake Academy, quickly arranged to attend. A group of home-schooled students from the area was also there.The children — who got free T-shirts and a lunch from Chick-fil-A — were treated to a performance from American Idol winner Jordin Sparks.Before the event, Brooke Nicholson, who attended with her son Reece, a Westlake Academy student, said she was excited he would see former President Bush and football legends such as Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Roger Staubach."I think it will be good for him to get to see some of the athletes talk about giving back to your community," she said.Online: www.bigthought.org, www.slant45.orgTRACI SHURLEY, 817-390-7641
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