By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

CALERA – As Magnolialand Entertainment was putting its final touches on a short film documenting local students’ 2014 trip to Honduras, the students’ teacher had an idea to interject a little celebrity talent into the film.

“Once we saw the storyline, we thought Noah would be perfect to do the narration,” said former Calera High School and current Thompson High School engineering teacher Brian Copes. “He agreed to do it, and everything went great.”

On March 1, local resident and U.S. Army veteran Noah Galloway, who starred in the 20^th season of Dancing with the Stars and won the 2014 Men’s Health Ultimate Guy competition, provided narration for the entertainment company’s second documentary on Copes’ students.

The documentary chronicles the June 2014 trip Copes and his CHS students took to Honduras to help create a better life for its residents.

During the trip, Copes, the engineering students, four chaperones and a film crew brought student-designed equipment to the Hondurans ranging from an easily built basic utility vehicle school bus, equipment to construct a hydroelectric power plant and 20 prosthetic legs made out of Toyota motor mounts.

When it is released, the documentary will be a sequel to Magnolialand’s “Children Changing the World” film about the Calera students’ 2013 trip to Honduras.

Magnolialand has been working on the about 22-minute documentary for about one-and-a-half years, and is nearly ready to release it, Copes said.

A Magnolialand producer had provided the original narration for the documentary, and is now working to swap the audio out with Galloway’s voice.

During the recording session, Galloway, who lost portions of his left arm and leg during a December 2005 improvised explosive device attack while serving as a U.S. Army sergeant near Baghdad, Iraq, tried on one of the student-made prosthetic legs and complimented the students’ work.

“They told me it shouldn’t take long. They’ve just got to pull out the original narration audio and replace it with Noah’s,” Copes said.

What’s the plan once the documentary is released?

“I think that’s in the Lord’s hands,” Copes said, noting the film’s runtime would be “perfect” for a 30-minute television spot. “My goal is to go out and promote the kids’ accomplishments, and we’ll see where it goes from there.”