HANCEVILLE, Ala. – The Senior Outreach Organization will be presenting their version of the Hee Haw Show on Saturday, April 30 at the Hanceville Civic Center at 2:00 p.m. Jamie Brown Looney began directing the Hee Haw show for the seniors in 2018. Jamie volunteers with the seniors at the Donald Green Senior Center and decided to develop a new way to give back. She started by creating the Outreach Organization to bring meals to seniors on the weekend, as well as entertainment. “A lot of the seniors that came there wanted to do more. They wanted to be in the spotlight too,” Brown stated.
To assist with this, she started writing some small plays for the seniors to perform and said, “They loved it and thought it was real cute, so I said ‘well I’ll just see what else I can do.’ So, I started writing the Heehaw show.”
The seniors were quick to volunteer to be in the play and the group rehearsed three times a week for three months to put on their show, with the first show performed at the Donald Green Center in February 2019.
Brown said, “It was standing room only, packed house.”
The group performed shows in 2019 and 2020, but were unable to perform in 2021 due to COVID. “Now it’s 2022 and they have all been geared up and excited to start this journey again. It just gives them something to do, and they get to meet with one another, keep their minds going, and they love it. They love to get out there and show what they can do in front of a crowd. Some of them are 80, getting close to 90 years old, but they still love to sing, act, laugh,” said Brown. The Senior Outreach Organization has welcomed seniors from Gardendale, Birmingham, and Jasper to participate.
Brown is influenced by the Heehaw show and does her show in a similar fashion but applies her own original skits. The group still plays favorite characters like Roy Clarke, George Jones, Grandpa Jones, Porter Wagner, Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn. The cast will perform some well-known songs including, “Gloom, Despair, and Agony,” “Old Rattler” and “Mountain Dew.”
The Senior Outreach Organization meets at the Donald Green Senior Center every Monday at 1:00 p.m.
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