With the Meridian High School band and cheerleaders leading the way, George Washington Carver Elementary School students kicked off the second half of the school year on Friday with a back-to-school halftime show.

TrueCare, the Mississippi-based health plan company, sponsored the halftime show event for Carver’s students and teachers, passing out more than 530 backpacks filled with school supplies to each of the students.

“Today, we are here just to say thank you to the teachers and staff at Carver Elementary,” said TrueCare President and CEO Richard Roberson.

“We are giving backpacks full of school supplies to the students so they can be ready for the second half of the school year, and we are calling this our halftime show,” he said.

Roberson said TrueCare also sponsored a similar halftime event in Jackson, calling it a fun way to kick off the second semester and give everybody a lift as they resume classes, kind of like coming out of the locker room after half time.

“A lot of folks do stuff in August with back to school, but what we have come to find out over the years is that kids come back for second semester and the supplies that they got at the start of the year have run out,” he said.

During the halftime show, the Meridian High School Wildcats of War Band performed, as well as the high school cheerleaders, helping to pep students up for the event. Carver Principal Amanda Shadwick welcomed students and visitors to the event and recognized dignitaries in attendance.

Shadwick thanked TrueCare for bringing the halftime show to the school.

“They come in during the half point of the school year, which is January, just to provide some encouragement for the teachers and staff and the students to give them a little bit of a push to move forward throughout the school year,” she said.

TrueCare is a nonprofit, provider-sponsored health plan owned by nearly 60 Mississippi hospitals and health systems, including Baptist Anderson Regional Medical Center, Ochsner Rush Health and Alliance Health Center in Meridian. In 2021, TrueCare formed an alliance with CareSource, which administers one of the nation’s largest Medicaid managed care plans. A CareSource representative also was in attendance for the event.

During Friday’s event, Shadwick took time to honor Jimmye and Cedric Houston and their family as the school’s Community Partner of the Month for their many years of support to the school.

“The Houston family is a second generation family and I actually taught the children and now I have some of the grandchildren in my care,” Shadwick said. “They sit on their porch every afternoon at one of our bus stops to make sure in the morning time our kids are safe getting onto the bus and they also protect our kids in the afternoon. To them the gesture may be small, but it is big to us because we don’t have to worry about that big bus load of students and whether they are going to be safe when they make it home.”

Besides sponsoring the halftime show and bookbags for the students, TrueCare also sponsored several motivational treats for Carver’s teachers and staff, including providing five-minute massages, treating them to breakfast and lunch and passing out $50 Amazon gift cards to teachers, Shadwick said. Two Nintendo Switch consoles were given away to two students who have shown leadership ability and 10 to 12 families in the community were blessed and had their needs met.