EDUCATION: Radio Disney sisters perform at Waggoner Elementary

Gilbert teenagers and Radio Disney stars Jonnie and Brookie hyped up students at Kyrene C.I. Waggoner Elementary School Friday afternoon using pink guitars, cool songs and character-building activities.

Jonnie, 15, and Brookie, 13, have been performing since they were 5 and 3 years old respectively. The duo began performing at school assemblies two years ago.

“Someone we knew invited us to their school to perform for them,” Jonnie said.

“We were doing mall performances but then decided to do schools because it is more our target audience,” Brookie added.

The sisters, who attend Highland Junior High and Williams Field High School, perform their character-building assembly, Kids CAN Make a Difference, for thousands of elementary school kids each month. They take pride in offering the only character-building assembly in the U.S. put on for kids by kids.

During the assembly Jonnie and Brookie sang kid-familiar songs, including Hannah Montana’s “Best of Both Worlds,” “Walkin’ on Sunshine” and “What I Like About You,” while playing pink guitars, dancing, interacting with students and teachers and promoting the rules of Character Counts.

“We brought them here because we thought they are young and kids this age listen to each other,” said assistant principal Heidi Williams, who saw the sisters perform in Gilbert earlier this school year. “They’re familiar with the songs and we thought it would be a good message to kids. The six pillars of character are also our school’s rules.”

In addition to the assembly, Jonnie and Brookie ask kids to participate in a food drive to help raise more than 100,000 cans of food.

“We donate the cans to local food banks,” they said. “We mainly go to Arizona and California but are looking at other places.”

For more information, visit www.jonnieandbrookie.com.

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