Platinum award-winning entertainer Jordin Sparks awarded two SLANT 45 teams with an exclusive meet-and-greet before her Tuesday concert

By Steve Pate

June 30, 2010

The three small girls from Fort Worth stood at the foot of the stage at Dallas’ House of Blues Tuesday afternoon as Jordin Sparks and her band towered over them onstage.

The awestruck girls were having trouble deciding which of Sparks’ songs they love most as the band sang and went through a sound check for that night’s performance.

“I like ‘Don’t Let It Go to Your Head’,” said 9-year-old Camille Hall.

“I like ‘Don’t Let It Go to Your Head’ and ‘Walking in the Snow’,” said 8-year-old Ciara Cortez.

“I like ‘Battlefield’,” said 8-year-old Tia Jackson.

“I like ‘Battlefield’ too,” Camille agreed.

Sparks, a former American Idol winner, had hand-picked two teams of North Texas youths for their participation in the SLANT 45 program. And as a reward for their community service, she allowed them to come to the sound check for a free performance.

Although the aforementioned trio is from Fort Worth, their SLANT project is to clean a pond in Arlington not far from Cowboys Stadium.

“My husband works for the City of Arlington,” said Angela Hall, the team Coach. “He and my daughter were driving around one day when Camille saw the condition of the lake. That’s when she decided she wanted to clean it.”

“I love animals and the ducks at the pond,” Camille explained.

The other team selected, from Frisco, is composed of Anthony Rodriguez, 9; Junior Cisnero, 8; Hope Rodriguez, 7; Tessa Cisnero, 6; Angelique Rodriguez, 4; and, T.J. Daniels, 4.

They recently visited a Frisco nursing home, Victoria Gardens, and played Bingo with the residents. Melissa Bush, the Frisco team Coach, pulled together children of her co-workers at Bank of America. They plan to return to the home next month for more Bingo.

“We got some gifts, some scrubbers and back-scratchers, soap, lotion, socks, different things like that,” Melissa said. “Our focus is giving back to the community.”

Which is why Jordin Sparks also got involved in SLANT 45.

“It’s a lot of fun for me when we do sound checks to fix everything,” Sparks said, “but today was special because we’ve got all of these kids here. It’s been really, really fun for me with my charity ‘I’m M.A.D. Are You?’ getting together with SLANT 45. It’s amazing to see the kids volunteering. They’re so young and just to see them make a difference at this age is amazing to see.”

She added, “There are a ton of kids out there who want to help and who want to make the world a better place. With my Super Bowl experience and SLANT 45, we’re hoping we can make a huge impact and see what people say.”