By SCOTT BAUGHMANLedger Staff Writer

Blacksburg Primary School kindergarten teacher Melissa Moss holds up the shirt her BPS team designed for the 2005 March of Dimes WalkAmerica event in Gaffney. The annual fundraiser to help premature babies will be April 16.

What do Blacksburg Primary School and the March of Dimes have in common? They’re both aiming to be a beacon of hope.

“That’s our slogan this year, a beacon of hope,” said BPS kindergarten teacher Melissa Moss. “Knowing what I do about the March of Dimes, I really thought it would be an interesting idea to combine both into one campaign.”

Moss took her idea and ran with it, creating a new T-shirt design that was sold as a fundraiser for Cherokee County’s WalkAmerica 2005 event. Along with several other submissions, the artistic t-shirt was judged at the Sagebrush Steakhouse on Tuesday as part of a preliminary event to the WalkAmerica event scheduled for April 16, where the winning entry will be announced.

Moss will join with fellow K5 teachers Alisa Phillips and Tammy DeSheilds along with friends and family members as part of the BPS team walking at the event.

The shirt design shows a red and white lighthouse perched on a hill flashing its beacon. Yellow rays of light emanate from its tower as a man on crutches and a tiny baby look on.

“The March of Dimes slogan this year is ‘From Polio to Prematurity’,” Moss said. “We had wanted to put ‘March of Dimes and Blacksburg Primary School; A Beacon of Hope’ but we didn’t quite have enough room to be that wordy.”

A teacher for the past six years, this isn’t the first time Moss has been the captain of a team from a Blacksburg school.

“Several years ago, the lady who did WalkAmerica at Blacksburg Elementary School transferred to Grassy Pond Elementary School,” Moss recalled. “That was Bonnie Smith. I took over for her after she left and I’ve been involved ever since.”

A graduate of The University of South Carolina Upstate and Converse College, Moss is currently studying for a degree in administration.

“Now that I’m working on my next degree, this volunteer experience will really come in handy,” she said.

And while they have helped to raise $1,000 for the event as of last Thursday, Moss said her 25 kindergarten students aren’t too familiar with the March of Dimes.

“We do talk to them about it, and explain that the money they help bring in is going for a good cause,” she said. “But we can’t really get too detailed with them. They just know that sometimes babies come too soon and that this money will help the doctors make the babies get well.”