Sundown Cinemas 2013
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H e l e n a O l d T o w n A m p h i th e a t e r
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May 31
Brave
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June 7
Paranorman
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June 14
Rise of the Guardians
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June 21
Happy Feet 2
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June 28
Escape from Planet Earth
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July 5
The Lorax
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July 12
Hotel Transylvania
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July 19
Frankenweenie
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July 26
Madagascar
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August 2
The Avengers
Concessions open at 6:30 PM / Movie Starts around 8 PM
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FREE ADMISSION! No outside food or beverages permitted
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Meet New PHS Senior Counselor Laura Cochran PHS recently re-hired Laura Cochran, formerly its biology teacher, as the new senior counselor. A good counselor must be able to relate to their students, and if there’s anyone who knows about being a student, it’s Laura. Laura started her undergraduate courses at Mercer and earned her bachelors degree at the Medical College of Georgia. She met husband, Phil, while a student at Mercer, and they were married in Atlanta. They moved to Huntsville until Phil was transferred to Birmingham with General Foods. Here, she started working on her masters in Allied Health Science at UAB. With that degree, she practiced as a dental hygienist and taught at UAB for 15 years. “I’ve always been interested in the sciences,” Laura says. “I really wanted to be in a helping field.” It was that love for science and a latent desire she’d had since high school to teach that sent her back to school 6 Summer 2013 / www.CityOfHelena.org
yet again. She took classes at the University of Montevallo and earned a second masters, this time in education. With her teaching degree, she was hired at PHS as its biology teacher, where she taught for 16 years. Originally moving to the area because her husband was transferred, they grew to love Helena and Pelham. “The community is friendly; it’s beautiful; it’s a great place to have a family. It’s just a great place.” Her love for working with students and desire to help them achieve even more drove her back to school. While still teaching biology at PHS, she completed her third masters degree program, this time in counseling, from the University of West Alabama. In October 2012, Thompson High School had an opening for a counselor. “I didn’t have any real reason to leave PHS,” Laura said, but counseling is the work she wanted to do, so she changed
schools. She only stayed at Thompson a month, though, before hearing that the senior counselor slot at PHS was open. “When that happened, it’s like, I wanted to be the senior counselor here, so I came back! I missed the kids at Pelham.” Previously, Laura sponsored the Visual Ensemble and Pantherettes Dance Team for 14 years. “My dream job would have been a ballerina,” she laughs. With limited extra time now, she retired from helping with these groups. Laura and Phil, who now works at Integrity Storage Solutions, have been married 33 years. They have two grown children, Clint and Elizabeth, who are 25 and 24 respectively. Clint is currently in surgical physician school, taking classes at
UAB. Elizabeth, a former Miss Alabama, is working in Memphis at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital as a research assistant and hoping to get into med school. Laura is, understandably, very proud of her family. “We’re a bunch of science nerds!” She is proud of her school family as well. “First of all, the schools here are excellent and provide great teaching for the kids. I’m really excited to be part of the counseling team at PHS. I work with three other fantastic counselors and some terrific kids.” Welcome home, Laura!