Brett Cooper
St. Andrews Center announce that 10-year-old volunteer, Brett Cooper, has won a Disney Friends for Change Grant for her program Follow UR Star. Miss Cooper developed her program in order to help the children attending the St. Andrews Center Arts Academy to improve their self esteem through exploring drama.
A celebration and program kickoff will take place at the Chattanooga Theatre Centre at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 20 (Global Youth Service Day), where Miss Cooper will showcase the program along with the St. Andrews Center kids for local dignitaries.
Disney's Friends for Change encourages young people to get involved in volunteer efforts. The initiative is about taking steps together with friends and family to make a positive impact on the world and the people and animals that live here. Disney's mission through Friends for Change is to provide young people with the information, tools, encouragement and inspiration to become stewards of change.
As more kids across the globe become involved, through even the smallest of actions, we can begin to make big changes. Through an extremely competitive process, they award grants to young people, like Miss Cooper, who have developed innovative ways of reaching the community and making a difference.
The children who attend the academy are mostly of Guatemalan or Mexican descent. All come from inner-city homes experiencing great economic struggles. They come to the academy in the afternoon hours to learn about the arts; St. Andrews Center also serves as a safe refuge for these children in the midst of troubling neighborhood gang activity. According to Miss Cooper, "I believe that theater arts are a powerful way to improve self esteem...With Follow UR Star, I think kids will be less likely to join gangs."
Miss Cooper who developed Follow UR Star will lead the activities in a peer-to-peer format is an accomplished young actor. She has had extensive training in acting, singing, and dance and has appeared in several theatrical productions and films. Recently, she appeared as Brigitta in The Sound of Music at the Atlanta Lyric Theatre.
According to St. Andrews Center's Arts Academy Director Cynthia Pennington, "We are very fortunate that Brett has chosen to share her talents with us. She has volunteered with the kids who attend the Arts Academy here and was deeply moved to help our kids more by developing Follow UR Star. It is very remarkable to see a 10-year-old with such a loving and giving heart and the ability to put together a program that could improve the lives of our kids for years to come."