Houston, TX March 27, 2004

4th Annual Family Fine Arts Festival

On Saturday, March 27, 2004 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Jefferson Davis High School, over 1,500 parents, students, teachers, and community members attended the 4th Annual Family Art, Music, Drama, and Dance Festival featuring performances from 25-area elementary, middle, and high schools in the North District. Jefferson Davis High School hosted the free event on the tree-lined campus surrounding the high school, Marshall Middle School, and the Carnegie Public Library.

4th Annual Family Fine Arts Festival Attracts 1,500

“Principals of the participating schools opened the festival by riding a fire truck through the Northside neighborhoods and inviting the community in English and Spanish from bullhorns to participate with the students, teachers, and families in the festival,” says Lisa Hooten, Director of the Fine Arts Program for Project GRAD Houston (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams), an exemplary early college outreach program that prepares K-12 th grade students to enter and succeed in college. “Students especially enjoyed seeing principals in a less than traditional role of hanging from the side of a fire truck.”

Student performances included the Coop Elementary Ballet Folklorico, Garcia Elementary Gator Mixed Choir, Davis Elementary Strings, Davis Feeder/Alley Theatre “Drama Kids,” Garcia Elementary “Mexico Lindo” Folklorico Group, Herrera Elementary Drum Corps, P. Henry Middle School Mariachi Band and the Marshall Middle School Ballet Folklorico to name a few.

“The students produced something beautiful in their artwork and performances and by adding their individual artistic parts to create the whole festival provided a great community event,” says Roy Hughes, Executive Director of Project GRAD Houston (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams).

For more information about the 4 th Annual Family Arts Festival, please contact:

• Lisa Hooten, Director of the Fine Arts Program, Project GRAD Houston,
  at Cell (713) 705-4497, Work (713) 694-4572, ext. 1
• Roy Hughes, Executive Director, Project GRAD Houston,
  at Cell (713) 446-8072, Work (832) 325-0310
• Melissa Carroll, Director of Public Relations, Project GRAD Houston,
  at Cell (713) 253-6952, Work (832) 325-0301

Project GRAD Houston (Graduation Really Achieves Dreams) is a nonprofit early outreach college program serving over 48,000 students in 73 schools in the Houston Independent School District (H.I.S.D.).   Founded by Jim Ketelsen, former CEO of Tenneco, the scholarship program was first awarded to students in Davis High School in 1992 and has evolved into a school reform program with a proven track record of increasing graduation rates and improving student academic performance.

Project GRAD now serves 133,000 students nationally in 217 schools in Akron, Atlanta, Brownsville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Kenai Peninsula, Knoxville, Lorain, Los Angeles, Newark, and Roosevelt, New York. For information on Project GRAD Houston or to make a contribution, please visit www.projectgradhouston.org