GreyHawk Films wins award for Northwest 'Color Purple' documentary trailer

The trailer for "Purple Dreams" won a Gold Stevie Award for Video of the Year at the tenth annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business this month in New York City.

Purple Dreams Trailer from GreyHawk Films on Vimeo.

"Purple Dreams," made by GreyHawk Films, is a feature-length documentary that follows cast members from Northwest School of the Arts' "A Color Purple" 2012 musical. More specifically, it follows students who struggled in their personal lives -- with troubles ranging from homelessness to incarcerated parents -- and how they triumphed through performing "The Color Purple."

I wrote about some of these students' stories of strength in June right before they left for the International Thespian Festival in Nebraska, which you can read here.

GreyHawk is now in post-production and plans to complete "Purple Dreams" this spring to submit to national film festivals.

Collinswood 8th-graders to sponsor three international children

After a three-week drive to collect money, the eighth grade class at Collinswood Language Academy in Charlotte raised $1,573, and they're going to use it to help other kids.

They're donating the money to the international nonprofit, GoodWeave. The organization works to give opportunities to needy children and prevent child labor in the rug-making industry.

The money the Collinswood students raised will sponsor three rescued children from India and Nepal, said teacher Katherine Bibb.  For a year, the donation will cover the cost of education, books, school uniforms and residential rehabilitation.

"I am so proud of our students whose activism will directly impact children on the other side of our world," Bibb wrote in an email.

Grand Oak Elementary students collect cans for the hungry

During Grand Oak's Food Flood Friday yesterday, students collected 1,398 cans of food for the hungry.

The cans will go from the Huntersville school to the Second Harvest Food Bank.

Third-graders Zaheer Razack, Caroline Rodriquez and
Ashlyn Mayfield get ready to sort their cans.

Kimora Dillahunt, Sophia Garsik and
Adriana Pillo organize boxes of donations.

Alexa Van Dam adds an item to a collection box.

Myers Park, Country Day, Providence Day win local WorldQuest competition

Three Charlotte schools will advance to a national Academic WorldQuest trivia competition in April.

In Charlotte's fourth annual Academic WorldQuest contest Wednesday, Myers Park High came in first, Charlotte Country Day second, and Providence Day in third.

The international trivia competition, hosted by the World Affairs Council of Charlotte, emphasizes the importance of international events, commerce and culture. Questions ranged from current events to history to international faces in the news.

The teams will travel to Washington, D.C., to compete (30 other councils in the country participate) on April 26.

Twenty other high schools participated Wednesday:

Cannon School
Cato Middle College High
Charlotte Catholic High
Charlotte Christian
Charlotte Latin
CMS - Exchange Students Team
Crossroads Charter Senior High
Davidson Day
East Gaston High
East Mecklenburg High
Highland School of Technology
Independence High
Military and Global Leadership Academy
North Mecklenburg High
Providence High
Rocky River High
Sun Valley High
Union County Early College High
Vance High
Weddington High

Nash Grier dunks on Bobcats center Bismack Biyombo

Vine sensation Nash Grier, a Davidson Day sophomore, recently spent some time making videos during a practice with the Charlotte Bobcats.

Most notably, he enlisted some players to sneak up behind center Bismack Biyombo and hold a miniature basketball hoop.

Here's what happened:

As of Tuesday, rankzoo.com lists Nash as the fourteenth most-followed Vine user in the world, with more than 2 million followers.

Cannon School goes Hogwarts for Halloween, raises cancer research money

For Halloween, the upper school at Cannon divided its students into four houses a la "Harry Potter" -- House Animus, House Impetus, House Humanitas and House Integritas.

(The house names came from the school's core values: courage, passion, kindness and integrity.)

Photo courtesy of Cannon School

The houses competed in their own team-building games on Halloween and also raised money for the American Cancer Society for Cannon's annual event, Cannon Runs for Cancer Research.

Runners went through a 1.5 mile obstacle course Thursday, designed by Cannon's Relay for Life Club. In honor of Halloween, each house had students dress up as zombies along the course who tried to capture flags from runners.