Senior projects are commonplace at high schools.
They often involve charity drives. Rarely do they focus on getting the attention of Ellen DeGeneres.
Actually, the goal of a project led by National Honor Society seniors at Lakota East High School is to raise awareness and funds for the Center for Spina Bifida Care at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Will Lakota East High School be featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show? Producers of the show contacted the school on Friday and told them that they support their cause and “are anxiously waiting the release” of its lip dub video that the school is making to raise awareness and funds for the Center for Spina Bifida Care at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Photo provided.
So where does Ellen come in?
Society members decided to go after DeGeneres in February as the person who could bring the most awareness to their cause. Students have been emailing whoever they can, tweeting #WeWantEllen and writing letters – close to 600 – to the “Ellen DeGeneres Show.’’
“Ellen is open to accepting challenges,” said senior Sydney Aten, NHS president. “She is not only a figure who has respect from multiple groups of people, but she can connect with almost everyone. We wanted to find someone who everyone looks up to and admires.”
NHS members knew they needed an original idea to get Ellen’s attention. They decided to do a “lip dub”, where roughly 3,000 students, teachers and community members will participate in a video where they will lip-sync five popular songs from artists, including Black Eyed Peas, One Direction and Smash Mouth.
The performance, scheduled Thursday, will be filmed, then edited and shared online to raise awareness. Anybody can be in the video at the end of the filming, if they get to the high school’s football field by 5:45 p.m. That is when a helicopter will shoot an aerial shot of people dancing to Katy Perry’s song “Firework.”
Producers contacted the school heard Friday. Aten said a producer told her that the “Ellen Show’’ is supportive of the cause and their efforts. They said they they wanted to get the message out and are anxiously waiting for the release of the video.
Once the video is released, it is not known how it would be featured, if at all, on the popular daytime talk show.
Either way, the project has already raised awareness thanks to a student at VanGorden Elementary who caused the Greater Cincinnati community and a Butler County school district to get behind it.
Amelia Murphy, 11, received a standing ovation from students after speaking at a Lakota East High School assembly in February. She suffers from Spina Bifida and has had 62 surgeries, many on her brain and her spine.
“Spina Bifida is basically a condition with your spinal cord and your brain,” Murphy said. “Symptoms vary. Some people can walk and some people can’t. I have had half my surgeries on my head. It can be really tough, but my family has been with me through all of it.”
Amelia Murphy, 11, received a standing ovation from students after speaking at a Lakota East High School assembly in February. Photo provided.
The support of her family, which includes her sisters, Claire, 13, and Emma, 16, doesn’t end at school or at home. She also gets special attention during her visits to Cincinnati Children’s, where her mom, Pam, works as patient advocate in family relations.
Her mother said she found out that Amelia had Spina Bifida when she was 19 weeks pregnant. At that time, she admits she knew nothing about it.
“You have to re-think everything,” her mother said. “You have to re-plan your vacations, what kind of house you are going to live in and constantly think about how far away you are from the hospital.”
Besides Ellen, Murphy’s story and East’s project has received the attention of some local personalities, including University of Cincinnati President Santa Ono.
“I was very impressed that a whole high school community could come together for a project like this,” Ono said. “I met with their principal, with the students and agreed to get UC behind it. We made a video and we are doing everything we can to help them.’’
In addition to Ono, who heard about the cause when he received a tweet from an East student encouraging him to use the hashtag “#WeWantEllen”, the project has gained support of Cincinnati Reds pitcher Bronson Arroyo.
Arroyo appeared in a video posted recently on Reds.com that encourages people to donate to the school’s donation site through Cincinnati Children’s website, giving.cincinnatichildrens.org/netcommunity/eastnhsdub. The video also includes a cameo from Reds closer Aroldis Chapman.
The project has raised more than $3,000 for Spina Bifida Care at Cincinnati Children’s through its donation page and other fundraisers.
“It is great to see high school kids get excited about something that isn’t in their own world,” Pam Murphy said.
“People with Spina Bifida, or people with any disability, are normal people. Amelia likes to dance, has a boyfriend and hates doing math, just like anyone else. It is nice that they can meet her and realize that they are just the same as them – but with a few additional challenges.”
BE IN THE LIP DUB
- What: Lakota East lip dub to raise awareness for Spina Bifida
- When: 5:45 p.m. Thursday
- Where: Lakota East High School football field, 6840 Lakota Lane
- Special note: This portion of the lip dub is open to the entire Greater Cincinnati population. School is trying to break a lip dub record. The school will edit the lip dub and share online to raise awareness and funds for for the Center for Spina Bifida Care at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
ABOUT SPINA BIFIDA
- Spina Bifida is a neural tube defect that occurs in the first month of pregnancy when the spinal column does not close completely.
- Scientists believe that genetic and environmental factors may act together to cause Spina Bifida.
- Studies have shown the risk of Spina Bifida can be reduced significantly by taking 400 micrograms of folic acid daily before pregnancy.
- Each day in the United States, an average of eight babies are born with Spina Bifida or a similar defect of the brain and spine.
- An estimated 166,000 people in the United States currently live with Spina Bifida.
- Hispanic mothers are 11/2 to 2 times more likely to give birth to a child with Spina Bifida than non-Hispanic Caucasians.