By Heather Lusk
A Little Bit of Country Kindness is coming to Zionsville on Feb. 20.
Stonegate Elementary school counselor Lisa Cox initiated the acoustic concert to encourage her students to appreciate each other’s differences and to practice kindness.
“I think we need to be intentional about teaching being kind ourselves and teaching our kids to be kind,” said Cox, “not only to people with disabilities, but really look at each other’s differences.”
Cox felt the impact of disability after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease several years ago. A new medication last summer has made her more functional, but she can’t forget the physical challenges she’d faced.
“I was getting a taste for what it feels like to really be disabled,” Cox said.
The Hobbs Sisters, a country music duo, will headline the event at the Zionsville Performing Arts Center. Cox has a special relationship with the act, having taught with the sisters’ mother in Zionsville schools decades ago.
Learning that the girls were starting a country music group, Cox sent song lyrics to the Hobbs Sisters “as a joke.” They asked her to send more.
“She has a real way of putting words together,” Hannah Hobbs said.
The song, “I Know,” is about a special needs child from the mother’s point of view and launched the idea for the concert, according to Lauren Hobbs. “It all just sort of fit together like a nice little package.”
With powerful words and the line ‘I know you’re exactly the way you’re supposed to be,’ “I think it could apply to any relationship, just loving someone exactly the way they are,” Hannah Hobbs said.
Donations for HELD, Helping Elevating and Loving those with Differences, will be accepted at the concert. The organization supports families with special needs children.
“It sums up the whole goal of the HELD organization and this kindness project, and the idea of loving people no matter what,” said Hannah Hobbs, “not for what they are but who they are.”
Reservations are required and may be made through:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-little-bit-of-country-kindness-concert-tickets-20523420102
