THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 30, 1994 TAG: 9406290132
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940630 LENGTH: SUFFOLK
The 10-year-old Nansemond Parkway Elementary School fifth-grader is a quiet youngster who excels at whatever she tackles. Her list of awards for artwork, writing and gymnastics is lengthy.
{REST} The latter keeps her busiest.
``I want to be a gymnast,'' said Beth, an advanced student at Ocean Tumblers in Chesapeake. ``I want to be in the Olympics in 2000 in Australia.''
She is getting off to a flying start as part of Level 5, a high skill level.
Her Ocean Tumblers Level 5 team won the 1994 state championship in Arlington in May.
On top of that she came out on the very top as a member of the Virginia All-Star Team comprised of the state's leading scorers.
``My favorite thing is tumbling,'' said Beth, referring to floor exercises.
Another athletic activity, the 75-yard dash, also finds Beth with an impressive record. She was a first-place field day winner in her school in '93, a second place winner this year.
As for art, Beth placed first in student level competition in the ``Form and Flowers'' show at the Wakefield Foundation, particularly impressive since she was up against some 12th-graders.
And there were second-place awards in a local 1993-94 PTA Cultural Arts Contest both for art and photography - that is yet another interest.
Still more. Beth's art work represented her school in citywide competition sponsored by the Virginia School Board Association.
In citywide competition for youthful writers the youngster, daughter of Barry and Debbie Hobbs, won first place - best in Suffolk - in the annual Young Authors Competition for her grade.
Beth is an honor roll student, is in the gifted program and talented art program.
Some of the fruits of her success, her medals, share wall space in the family's Cutty Sark Lane home with some of her drawings and those of her mom, who also had an entry in the Wakefield competition. She was not as successful as her daughter.
``Beth is also a very good critic,'' said Debbie, who has a bachelor's degree in art education from Virginia Tech. ``She tells me my color may be off, or that I made an animal's neck too long.
``She started drawing as soon as she could hold a crayon in her hands,'' Debbie said.
``My first drawing, I think, was stick people of my family,'' said Beth, whose painting of a scarlet macaw was published in WildBird magazine last year.
Birds and animals are two of her favorite things. Two parakeets have the run of the house. Buttercup, the guinea pig, stays caged.
``My favorite animal is the horse,'' said Beth, who often creates pictures of them.
``I like to see what I can do, how it turns out. And I like to mix different colors and see what I come up with,'' said Beth, who also makes acrylic flowers, movable sculptures and embroidery flower bracelets.
Her room is covered with pictures of animals, plus a gymnast or two, and is filled with music boxes, Nancy Drew and Babysitter Club books, parakeet eggs, stickers, stamps, magazine pictures, unicorns and correspondence from six pen pals.
Beth will be back at the drawing board this summer, but will spend most of July and August, five days a week, 4 1/2 hours a day, at Ocean Tumblers where she was chosen to participate in a special program, Practice Group for Potential International Competitors.
Four out of 130 children were picked for the program, which will enable them to learn skills above their levels.
``During the year,'' Debbie said, ``Beth usually practices four hours, then comes home and jumps on the trampoline.''
by CNB