School hosts performers
EVANS CITY — Two performers brought their wit, creativity and talent to the Evans City elementary and middle school Friday afternoon as part of an anti-bullying campaign.
Called “The Josh and Gab Show,” Pittsburgh-based performers Gab Bonesso and Josh Verbanets told important stories and taught crucial lessons through music during an assembly at the school.
It was the third out of four stops the pair made at Seneca Valley schools on Friday, while they have more than 60 other engagements booked at schools around the region this fall.
The pair mixed original songs and lyrics with a stiff anti-bullying message in a show that’s already reached more than 10,000 students and educators in the area, according to the group.
They also used comedy and skits to hammer home the point, a point that hits very close to home for a pair of musicians who not long ago endured bullying of their own.
In a way, getting to share the anti-bullying message to such a young crowd is a healing exercise for the duo.
“It’s definitely cathartic,” Bonesso said. “I’m still beating my bullies even today.”
The performance was mixed with laughs and screams, shouts and claps. As can be expected when you put more than a hundred students grades K-4 in a gymnasium, the noise nearly shook the walls.
But it wasn’t just the young students who got in to the program.
Lisa Davinsizer is a PTO liaison at the school and had a big smile on her face before the show. Having seen the duo previously perform online, the mother of three Seneca Valley students praised the district for being proactive when it comes to bullying on campus.
She also said “The Josh and Gab Show” is the perfect way to transmit an important message to such a young group of children.
“It’s really a unique way to bring fun and information to kids at the same time,” she said. “Because it’s music and because they’re having fun, they probably don’t even realize they’re being taught along the way.”
Lauri Pendred is the principal at Evans City Elementary and said assemblies like the one Friday really do go a long way in helping to curb the bullying problem. After all, it helps reinforce messages sent by teachers and parents that sometimes might go unheeded.
“We always teach our kids to be safe, kind and respectful,” she said. “If we can train kids in those principles, we’d never have a bullying issue.”
The assembly marked the beginning of the school’s bully-free kickoff event, but it wasn’t the end.
Afterward, every student in the school gathered outside by the flagpole and recited anti-bullying rules before hoisting a bully-free flag at the pole.
