Drama students serve as fund-raiser

Visitors to Golden Corral restaurant on Monday might encounter servers a bit more dramatic than they're used to.

Harlem High School drama students have organized a fund-raiser at the Augusta buffet restaurant at 227 Bobby Jones Expressway to help their fellow thespians at John S. Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School go to Scotland.

Students from Harlem High and Davidson Fine Arts will act as servers in a marked section of Golden Corral. Any tips received by the students will help pay for Davidson's trip to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

Many members of Harlem High's drama program attended the renown theater festival in August and they understand all too well the arduous task of raising the funds needed to make the trip.

"The reason we're doing it is to give them a helping hand and make a goodwill gesture, so they can be able to experience the same thing we had," Harlem High drama teacher Roy Lewis said. "Our kids had such a positive experience that they wanted to help some others."

Harlem's theater students held several fund-raisers, including one at Golden Corral, to raise the $125,000 needed to make the trip.

Davidson hopes to send 30 drama students to Edinburgh for the festival and needs $126,000 for the trip. Through various fund-raisers - flea market sale, craft sale, casserole sale and special performance - students have raised about half of the needed funds, Elizabeth Walpert, Davidson Fine Arts drama teacher, said.

Walpert said she is very appreciative of Harlem High's assistance.

"Roy has been very helpful on giving us suggestions on some of the things that they did and they know how hard it was for them to come up with this money," she said. "They really worked hard and struggled and they thought it would be great to help us out."

Five Harlem students have volunteered to wait tables at Golden Corral and 25 to 30 students from Davidson will be on hand as well.

"It's been something that's been very, very successful for us in the past," Lewis said. "We did so many things last year and they've done some raffles and other things. We shared some of our ideas with them and one of them was this. We also offered to help them with it."

In fact, two Harlem High seniors who attended and performed at the Fringe Festival, Venessa Root and Megan Fox, organized the event, Lewis said.

"A lot of people have asked, 'Why are you doing this? Would they do the same thing for you?'" Lewis said. "It's not a question of whether or not they would do the same for us. We're just extending our hand. It doesn't hurt to be nice."

The theater students will be serving customers at Golden Corral from 5 to 8:30 p.m.