Dinosaurs invade Hettie Halstead

By GARY EMMERT
Cove Leader-Press

Popcorn, corn hole, Legos, face painting, cotton candy and a giant inflated dinosaur slide were all inside Hettie Halstead Elementary School’s gymnasium and the students were loving it, during “Dinosaurs Live!” on Wednesday evening.
The brain behind the whole operation was Sandra Ziehlke of Hettie Halstead Elementary, who had been planning this event since November.  
“Our principal Brian Jost received an e-mail and he forwarded it to me,” said Ziehlke, “I took it from there.” 
Along with some help from soldiers assigned to 2nd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, the school’s adopted unit, and Karen Folger of Fairview/Miss Jewell Elementary, the event exceeded expectations.  
“We just wanted it to be successful, but this is beyond what I had expected,” said Ziehlke.  
One would think that setting up and running an operation that kept at least 100 elementary school students entertained would require a large staff.  Dinosaurs Live!, out of Reno, Nevada, is operated and maintained by just two people.  
Headed by Susan Bartels, who has been running the show since January of 2017, the event travels all over the country but prefers to stay south for the winter.  
“January through May, we only do Texas.  Mainly because of the weather and all of the schools.  If we were to hit every school in Texas, it would take us seven years,” said Bartels.  
Bartels answered a few questions while she painted a stegosaurus on the face of a smiling second grader.  
“A private investor asked me if I would be interested in doing this, and we took it out with him the first year.  Now he has taken a less active role and we do everything,” added Bartels.  
The schools that Dinosaurs Live! visit do not pay anything for the event, which is funded by money earned from concession sales of things such as cotton candy and popcorn. 
Bartels will only be doing this for a short time longer as she plans on handing the operations over to her assistant, who is selling popcorn and toy light sabers for now.  
In addition to all of the fun mentioned earlier, there are also informative displays of various dinosaurs spread throughout the gymnasium and the kids can take selfies with them.  
“We want the kids to have fun while learning,” Folger added.
“This was a great opportunity for parents to meet other parents as well,” added Folger.  “When you have the parent involved, the child will be excited,” said Ziehlke.