Mona Shield Payne / Special to the Home News

Playing the role of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Gregory Oltman, 7, tells the story of the life of the 18th president during the 16th annual Famous American Day at Lake Mead Christian Academy Friday.

By Frances Vanderploeg

Thu, Nov 20, 2008 (midnight)

Three- and four-foot tall versions of Robert E. Lee, Betsy Ross and Annie Oakley roamed the halls of Lake Mead Christian Academy Friday along with several other famous Americans, dead and alive.

The smaller people were students at the school in kindergarten through fifth grade, celebrating the annual Famous Americans Day, an event held for 16 years.

"It was brought to the school so the boys and girls would have a fun way to experience famous Americans," Diane Margroff, elementary director, said.

Famous Americans Day was started by teacher Martha Mitchell, who still teaches first grade at the school. Her students have six weeks to choose someone from an expanding list of famous Americans, research the person, make an appropriate costume and memorize facts from their life. Each person then will give a presentation to their class, and most continue to wear the costume throughout the day.

"It's amazing what they can remember, or what they can learn," Mitchell said.

Her first graders come back with a wealth of information, she said. Later in the day she will quiz them about the other students, and she is always impressed with the answers they provide, she said.

Elise Fox, 6, as Annie Oakley, explained that she taught women how to trap and shoot animals. Annie Oakley was a sharp shooter born in the latter part of the 19th century who eventually starred in films displaying her talents.

"I wanted them to see that they could really shoot," she said.

Elise's classmate, Anna Zapata, 5, said she's already started thinking about next year. If she has a choice, she'd like to be Sacajawea, whom one of her classmates chose this year.

"I like that she was an Indian, and she was honored to go all around the world," Anna said.

Margroff said they are working to add more people to the list of famous Americans to choose from because the same ones can start to get boring after a while.

Kayla Freund, 8, can attest to that.

For kindergarten through second grades, she was the same person each time, she said. The first two years was a coincidence, and the third year was because she thought it would be easy, but it wasn't worth it in the end, she said.

"It got really boring," she said. "One important thing for this is to have fun."

Classmate Brayden Anderson, 9, said having fun is the first rule, and after that it's easy to get inspired by the character students take on and all of their accomplishments.

"It helps you not to give up and go for your dreams," said Brayden, who was dressed as Jessie Owens.

Many of the students said they are already planning and looking forward to next year's Famous Americans Day.

Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or frances.vanderploeg@hbcpub.com.