First Lady of Helen Keller’s Town Loves DPA

Mrs. Shoemaker said, “I really thought it was fabulous, I really did.”
First Lady of Helen Keller’s Town Loves DPA
Mary Silver
2/7/2009
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/mayorwife1mayorwife1." alt="Pat Shoemaker (The Epoch Times)" title="Pat Shoemaker (The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1830640"/></a>
Pat Shoemaker (The Epoch Times)
HUNTSVILLE, Ala.—Pat Shoemaker is the first lady of Tuscumbia, Alabama. She serves on the board of the Tennessee Valley Arts Center.

The arts organization she leads sponsors a fine arts and crafts show associated with the Helen Keller Festival. It is one of the top five annual arts events in Alabama.

Helen Keller, a renowned author and social reformer who learned to communicate despite being deaf and blind, was born in Tuscumbia. The Miracle Worker, a play about her life, has been performed annually near her birthplace since 1961, and draws visitors from around the region.

‘I can hardly wait to go to my board meeting’


Mrs. Shoemaker and her husband, the Mayor of Tuscumbia, came to see Divine Performing Arts (DPA) give their second annual performance in Huntsville, Alabama on Feb. 6.

She was thrilled by the show, saying the music touched her heart, gesturing with both hands held to her chest: “I really thought it was fabulous, I really did.”

She said, “It was really a very emotional thing for me. I just thought it was just so beautifully executed. I agree with whoever said that you could see the sincerity in their faces. I just thought it was wonderful. I can hardly wait to go to my board meeting and talk about it.”

She agreed it was so obvious that they had worked so hard for the sake of the audience.

She and her husband, Mayor Bill Shoemaker, “were so impressed with the backdrops and how they changed so quickly and so beautifully. This young lady [one of the dancers] was just telling me that there is one costume change that they have only thirty seconds. Can you imagine?”

The digitally-projected backdrops are a trademark of DPA. The colorful scenery of the backdrop also enables the dancers to interact with it.

Mrs. Shoemaker feels passionately about arts funding in schools. She said arts are the first thing to be cut, yet they are so valuable to a child. If some children are not exposed to the arts through school, they never will be exposed to the arts, and that’s so unfortunate. She said that a person may never develop his full potential if he is never exposed to the arts.

The Epoch Times is a proud sponsor of the Divine Performing Arts International Tour.
For more information, please see divineperformingarts.org

Mary Silver writes columns, grows herbs, hikes, and admires the sky. She likes critters, and thinks the best part of being a journalist is learning new stuff all the time. She has a Masters from Emory University, serves on the board of the Georgia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and belongs to the Association of Health Care Journalists.