TOWAMENCIN- When students heard that Tuesday, October 19th would be a full day of school after the PSATs, most were planning to skip the morning and come in late. However, North Penn High School found a solution for the impending lack of attendance by booking the High School Nation Tour to stop and give students who weren’t taking the PSATs a treat to promote the arts rather than have them sit in a classroom for the entire morning.

What excited students wasn’t the fact that they got out of class, but that Drake Bell, childhood star from the hit T.V. shows The Amanda Show and Drake and Josh was the headliner for the show. Students packed into the school yesterday as usual, only this time for a different reason: to see Drake Bell perform live.  

The High School Nation Tour was an idea Bell had in the midst of creating some new music.

“I was thinking it would be really cool to just come, because there’s already a built in audience in the school, and you don’t have to ask your parents for ticket money or rides. I just thought, why don’t we bring the concert to the kids?” explained Bell.

Bell found coordinators Jimmy and Kevin Cantillion that he needed to make the High School Nation Tour possible, which proved to excite him.

“This is great! I don’t even have to do anything, I can just perform,” explained Bell, elaborating on his thought process.

Bell and his supporting acts, The Catching and Glamour, will travel to 25 schools this fall, and 25 schools this spring, all over the course of 5 weeks each season.

The tour is more than an opportunity for students to get out of school. The tour’s purpose is also to raise appreciation for the commonly downgraded performing arts. In many high schools funding for the arts programs is for the supposed lack of importance, but the High School Nation Tour was there to shoot down these common remarks made in schools all across the U.S. The tour even made a magnanimous donation of $10,000 to the North Penn High School Arts Program to help us raise rising stars.

The outdoor event illustrated all the different aspects of performing arts, from doing artwork on a record, to dancing on the dance floor, to playing a real guitar, the tour helped students see the amazing aspects of the arts that should be more appreciated by schools rather than condemned by them. That’s why there were many new artists there to prove that you don’t have to be afraid to chase a dream.

Each artist is after the same thing; they want to entertain people like their headliner, Drake Bell. Bell grew up acting since age 5 and singing since age 12. With the arts active in his life, it was only a matter of time before Bell booked his first big job on The Amanda Show and following that, Drake and Josh.

“I would definitely want to do another show like Drake and Josh,” stated Bell.

Most people thought that Bell was a one hit wonder and struck gold with Drake and Josh, but he is proving that he has many other projects up his sleeve. He just finished shooting a movie, and is now touring around different high schools, and when he returns home, the singer plans to record new songs for his new album.

“It’s great being able to come to each high school because I also get to perform new songs and see how the crowd likes them, although I didn’t really have time today,” the artist said, referring to the crowd’s endless chants to sing the famous theme song “I Found A Way” from Drake and Josh.

Even though waking up early to perform back to back shows each day for five weeks may seem like a con, the pros outweigh them because Bell just loves performing for any audience.

“It’s great, because instead of going to perform at a club where I’m hoping maybe 30 people will show up, I get to perform at high schools with an audience of 1,000 to 4,000 kids where I know people will know me from Drake and Josh, and enjoy my performance,” explained Bell.

Bell loves performing, and is happy to share his gift with high schools all over the nation. Although a stage outside the football stadium might be a change in scene from the typical set of The Premier Movie Theatre where he kissed about 60 girls collectively, the tour does the same thing for him as acting on television did; it makes him happy.