Saying goodbye to Scrooge

thousands upon thousands of people he entertained each year.”

Watching Scrooge emerge from his window to heckle shoppers was indeed an essential part of many of our childhoods — and many of our parents’ childhoods.

“I’ve seen two generations,” Hardman told the Advocate in 2006. “I’ve picked on kids when we began, and now I’m picking on their kids.”

But though he played a convincing misanthrope, those who knew Hardman swear he was anything but.

Santa may be the star of Christmas, but for more than three decades, John Hardman gave him a run for his money. The puppeteer, who lost his battle to cancer on Nov. 4 at the age of 80, was the mastermind behind Scrooge, one of NorthPark Center’s most beloved holiday traditions.

“John was an instrumental part of our holiday experience for almost 40 years,” says Kristen Gibbins, spokeswoman for the center. “He will be sorely missed by his NorthPark family, as well as the

“John dedicated his life to making others laugh,” Gibbins says. “He will always be remembered for his kind spirit, hard working attitude and incredible wit.”

To honor his legacy, Hardman’s family asks that mourners make donations to the Pediatric Center at Texas Oncology. Visit texasoncology.com for details.

—Elizabeth Barbee

PLANO CAMPUS

A spectacular multimedia presentation that includes favorite Christmas songs followed by a breathtaking and powerful presentation that depicts the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ!

Performances

• 7:30 PM

F RIDAY : D EC . 11 • 7:30 PM

S ATURDAY : D EC . 12 • 11:00 AM , 2:30 & 7:30 PM

S UNDAY : D EC . 13 • 2:30 & 7:30 PM

All performances at Plano Campus

Purchase tickets: prestonwoodGOC.org

Performances in gold are sold out.

6801 W. Park Blvd., Plano, TX 75093 Saturdays 5:00 p.m. Sundays 9:15 and 11:00 a.m. En Español 2:00 p.m. NORTH CAMPUS 1001 W. Prosper Trail, Prosper, TX 75078 Sundays 9:15 and 11:00 a.m.

Into the fold

They aren’t even old enough to drive, but Isabelle and Katherine Adams already are successful entrepreneurs. In 2011, the sisters, who are now 12 and 9 years old, respectively, founded Paper For Water, a nonprofit that sells origami ornaments and uses the proceeds to build water wells in developing countries.

“We were just kind of looking through those catalogues with different charities,” Isabelle explains. “We came across the need for water but didn’t know much about it.”

The girls enlisted their parents to help research the issue, because they “were really little at the time — 5 and 8.” When the Adams sisters discovered children in other parts of the world often miss school in order to haul water, they wanted to help.

“We were just planning on doing a [one night] fundraiser,” Isabelle says, clearly surprised business took off the way it did. “We way overshot our first goal of $500. We raised $800. We thought, ‘May- be we can fund an entire well [by raising $10,000]’.… Then we funded two more wells, and then three more, and then it just got bigger and bigger.”

Since its inception, Paper For Water has raised nearly $700,000 and erected more than 90 wells in places like Ethiopia, Liberia, Ghana, Kenya and Mexico. In 2017, the girls plan to travel the world, visiting the sites where their wells stand and interacting with the people their charity has helped.

But for now they spend a lot of time in our neighborhood. The sisters regularly invite their classmates to “folding parties” at their home in East Dallas. At the get-togethers, they provide snacks and teach their friends the art of origami, which they learned from their father. Katherine is in fourth grade, takes Latin and enjoys music, nature studies and art. Isabelle is in sixth grade, also studies Latin, and likes “almost everything except for English and math.” Both sisters enjoy riding horses in their free time, which is becoming increasingly scarce as their fundraising enterprise continues to grow.

“Lately we’ve been getting really, really busy,” Isabelle says. “It was too much for us to handle ourselves. We needed someone to help with the paperwork.”

They recently posted an advertisement on their website for an executive director and had no shortage of applicants.

“You had to do a video interview and then a face-to-face,” Katherine explains. “We watched, like, 20 videos.”

The girls eventually selected Jeff Miracle, a man with oodles of nonprofit experience.

“He worked at the Salvation Army for 19 or 20 years,” Isabelle says. “And then he worked for the American Lung Association.”

The Adams sisters had the final say on who got the job, but they sought advisement from their board of directors, a group composed of their dad’s close friends and people they’ve “met along this journey.”

The girls are full of enthusiasm for Paper For Water and have no plans to abandon the project, but they are nevertheless forward thinking.

“We might have to go to college or something,” Katherine says. “We have a little sister. She might be able to take over for us. Right now she is 5 … She’s kind of interested in origami but after five minutes, she’s like, ‘OK, Mommy, got to go play.’ I don’t know. It might not work out.”

— Elizabeth Barbee