Taylor Swift Donates $50,000 to Tanglewood Elementary

By Mia Freneaux; Photo is a still from the video.
    Tanglewood Elementary School Technology Instructor Brittany Smith makes it fun to learn about technology with her students.  She generally creates videos of them singing and dancing.  But she has never had as much fun as when Assistant Superintendent Sandy Davis asked her to create a video to thank Taylor Swift. 
    In case folks are unaware, Grammy award winning pop singer Taylor Swift donated $1,000,000 to local schools recently.  $50,000 of that went to Tanglewood Elementary.  Brittany put on her thinking cap and decided that Swift's song "Shake it Off" would be the perfect theme for a school community trying to recover from the 2016 Flood.  She then created signs for the kids to hold, and filmed three of her classes dancing and running around with the signs.  "All I told them was that the signs spelled four words," Brittany said, "I didn't tell them what, they had to figure it out..  When they did, they couldn't believe that Taylor cared enough about them to give them money.  They were so excited!"
    The signs spelled "Central Schools (Heart) Taylor Swift".  Brittany decided that she needed to add a little "pizazz", so in acknowledgement that teachers were also working through a difficult situation, she got several volunteers to stay after school and show in a fun way the very different surroundings they were working in.  "This is what our classrooms look like now, just partitions, but we are still able to teach and love on our kids and have fun too!" Brittany shared with pride.
    To her astonishment, the video was picked up by local news stations that night, then People Magazine ran an article on it, then Access Hollywood.  At this point, the video has been viewed 91,000 times!  Brittany said, "At age 6 or 7, it is important that the kids have a role model like Taylor Swift modelling generosity for them.  They're not just hearing about it, they're experiencing it." 
    Brittany sent the video to Taylor's publicist.  "Hopefully, she's enjoyed the video and it put a smile on her face too!" The $50,000 will be put toward a new library and media center for Tanglewood Elementary.