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Singer goes to school to support at-risk kids

Las Vegas Review-Journal
By Mike Weatherford
October 23, 2013

Shania Twain was very matter of fact, speaking more with a tone of frustration than a “poor me” attitude, when she spoke to youngsters at Tom Williams Elementary School.

“At your age, I went to the dentist with one of my siblings who was younger than me, and his teeth were all rotting because my parents just neglected to recognize that he was having a problem with his teeth,” she said, putting aside her prepared remarks to tell the story.

“All of his teeth had to be pulled out that day at the dentist’s office. My mother was not there with me. I was probably 11 years old, and I stood there and held his hand while all of his teeth got pulled out.

“It was traumatizing for me and my brother,” she added, as if she had to. “All of that was unnecessary.”

This reminder of the country star’s tough childhood in Ontario, Canada, came as an explanation for her Shania Kids Can Foundation. The foundation’s first U.S. venture creates a permanent base in the North Las Vegas elementary school that has more than 1,000 students, about 92 percent of them Hispanic.

The Caesars Palace headliner spoke Monday to 14 students and school district officials inside the classroom that will serve as a “clubhouse” to serve at-risk children.

“We can’t always expect our children’s home lives to give them the support they need. When we recognize that’s not happening, we have to step in and make it happen,” she explained.

A first-year budget of $75,000 will fund a full-time substitute and supplies for the program that will run before, after and during the school day, according to the school’s website. It will identify needs as simple as shampoo or shoes — other personal examples she cited from her childhood — as well as organizing field trips and visits from speakers.

Williams already is a Title 1 school receiving federal funds for free and reduced breakfast and lunch programs. Principal Jennifer French said existing safety net programs lessen the chance of another scenario Twain recounted to students about her youth.

“When I walked into the school this morning the first thing I noticed was cooking. I could smell food,” she said. “I remember that even in my own school years … the cooked food drove me crazy, the smell of it. I was hungry.

“I probably went to bed the night before without dinner, going to school without breakfast and I didn’t have a lunch,” she said. “It was torture to walk into a school and smell food and know that I was going to have to go through that day hungry.”

The singer’s point in telling these stories to the wide-eyed youngsters was that they shouldn’t have to rely on her singing talent or good fortune in show business.

“I wish I could go back and have all this,” she said. “The true, true purpose of the program is, I promised myself when I was a child at this very age, that if I ever had enough money and power and success of my own, I would make sure that no one had to experience what I did in my school.”

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