Elvis, President Donald Trump, former first lady Michelle Obama, NASCAR speedster Dale Earnhardt Jr., soccer superstar Pele, Hollywood superstar Lucille Ball, songstress Selena, Navy Seal Chris Kyle and dozens of other famous folks, both living and deceased, spoke about their lives Thursday in the Elkmont High School gym.

Students in seventh- and eighth-grade English classes portrayed their favorite famous personalities during a “wax museum” event held all around the balcony above the gym floor.

For a month, teachers Beth Bates and Whitney McLaughlin had led the students through the process of studying their favorite personalities, writing relevant facts about them, creating cardboard backgrounds to showcase stories and photographs and, finally, dressing up like their heroes and delivering speeches about their lives.

While each student learned a great deal about his or her own subject, they couldn’t help but also learn about fellow students’ subjects.

From an educational standpoint, the exercise incorporated reading, writing and public speaking.

“We have so many standards we have to teach — English, reading, writing but also speaking and listening,” Bates said. “So, this project was a great way to incorporate all of those standards.”

Bates, whose students for the project are in eighth-grade English, said she borrowed the idea for the “wax museum” from a former Elkmont teacher who now works at Cedar Ridge Elementary School in Decatur.

The students truly “lived the part” of their subjects, Bates said.

During the event, many of them stayed fully in character as they delivered their speeches and answered questions from visitors to the event.