Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

GPS has celebration for Valentine's Day

The seventh annual fourth grade Valentines Day dance at Gurdon Primary School Monday had a special guest singer.

Aura Loarca, 10, took the microphone to render her version of "Dreaming of You."

Principal Rita Roe said parents and teachers pitched in to make the annual dance effort in the GPS gym a success.

Loarca, if you closed you eyes, might be compared in talent to country great Shania Twain.

She held the attention of her peers without any trouble with crowd control.

"I have been singing most of my life and it is an honor to get to do this today," she said.

After Loarca delivered her love ballad, some rocknroll was heard over the sound system at the gym. For example, such old tunes as: "Who Let the Dogs Out?" and "YMCA" came through loud and clear as students excitedly moved their feet to the beat.

Students danced with each other, formed lines with their teachers and parents and danced with them  and even got down on the floor and danced circles as they twirled around on their shoulders.

The music was loud, upbeat and celebrative.

The children got to be with classmates, hear some popular music and did not have to go to regular classrooms the remainder of the afternoon.

"All of the fourth graders got invited to the dance and each one got a balloon," Principal Roe said. "We started giving a Valentines Day balloon to everyone in our student population years ago  so nobody would feel left out of the celebration of love over economic reasons."