June 2023 | Volume 16 | Issue 8
THE 280 CORRIDOR’S COMMUNITY NEWS SOURCE 280LIVING.COM | STARNESMEDIA.COM
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En pointe Spain Park student chosen for summer intensive at Royal Ballet School in London By GRACE THORNTON
H
ow hard is it for a 15-year-old from Hoover to make it into the summer intensive training program of the Royal Ballet School in London? “Impossible,” said Pam Sayle, owner of the Alabama Dance Academy in Hoover. That is — unless you’re Meghan Gutowski. Gutowski, a 15-year-old freshman at Spain Park High School, will be among the select students headed to the prestigious ballet school in July for the one-month experience. Numbers for this summer were not available, but last year, 2,458 students from all over the world applied, and only 659
were accepted, a school official said. “It’s an exciting opportunity,” Gutowski said. Her love of dance began at an early age. “When I was 3, I would always dance around the house,” Gutowski said. Her mom had never been into dance, and until that point, their family had mostly been involved with her brother’s sports. But one day, she told her mother she wanted to dance. “She found the closest studio and put me in a ballet class,” Gutowski said. But it wasn’t love at first position or first plié. She didn’t like it — at all.
See GUTOWSKI | page A28
Meghan Gutowski, 15, a sophomore at Spain Park High School, runs through a ballet routine at the Alabama Academy of Dance on April 6. Gutowski is attending the Royal Ballet School in London this summer. Photo by Erin Nelson.
United Way of Central Alabama celebrates 100 years of serving metro area By GRACE THORNTON The United Way of Central Alabama has been special to Kimberly Jackson for around 15 years now. She’s seen it change people’s lives firsthand. “It really resonates for me in my service on several nonprofit boards
that are United Way agencies; I get to see how important United Way’s support is to those agencies and how impactful it is,” she said. Jackson is the president of the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Birmingham, and she said for the past seven years, she’s seen how funds from United Way
INSIDE
Montiqua Pettway, left, and Kimberly Jackson during the annual A Night of Big Stars gala. Photo courtesy of Kimberly Jackson.
have made a difference in the lives of Birmingham-area children and teens. BBBS is one of more than 200 programs, services and initiatives in six central Alabama counties that are meeting community needs.
See UWCA | page A30
Sponsors .............. A4 City ........................ A6
Business .............. A12 Community .........A18
Schoolhouse ...... A23 Sports.................... B4
Get Away for a Day................. B8
Events................... B10 Opinion................. B14 facebook.com/280living
Colby’s Act
New Heights
Colby Spangler and his mom, Kim, are rethinking guardianship for Alabamians with disabilities.
Oak Mountain High School wins its first state mountain biking championship.
See page A18
See page B1