04/09/2017
Hello everyone! I wanted to take the time today to write to you about the details of Music-Thon and restate what I said in my closing words yesterday after the Jazz Ensemble’s stellar performance.
I sincerely believe that this year’s Music-Thon was one of the most enjoyable events I’ve been a part of in the last 4 years that I’ve been in high school, and I’m so glad to have been able to plan it this year. Of course, I have no way of knowing assuredly how many people came out to the event in comparison to previous years, but I am very confident from what I saw that this year’s event had the highest turnout, as well as the largest variety and number of stellar musicians that I don’t usually see participate. I am not lying to you when I say that we had participants perform from EVERY major genre of music that I am aware of, whether that be electronic, jazz, rap, classical, country, rock, or even a genre I didn’t know about until yesterday that is largely composed of instrumentation done by kazoos over Yeah! By Usher. It was amazing to see a room full of people from 2:30 PM to 1 AM on Friday who were there to see a persistent set of awesome performers, and then to be followed by another beautiful day of great performances by the band room. I honestly did not expect to have enjoyed myself as much as I did, so thank you to everyone who made it an awesome experience to be a part of. I only hope that next year’s president will be just as involved in this project as I have been this year, because it really is a special thing that I feel passionately about. To whomever is elected as band president later this month, I hope that you can continue on with this tradition, and I hope that you will continue with the changes that I made this year to make the event better.
I am very proud of the improvements that have been made this year, but I can’t say any of this could have been possible without the wonderful people that were there to help me during the event, as well as in the weeks preceding the event. I would like to thank Megan Vogl, John Schilling, Andrew Tucker, and Cody Sasse for sacrificing their time and being willing to go the extra mile to make this event happen, as well as many others who have been providing their support throughout the event. I cannot emphasize enough how much I want to encourage you all to remember these individuals and think of their dedication to this band program. It is something truly special when other individuals are willing to be selfless enough to be there for you in any way they can, and that is something special you see very infrequently in life.
In the process of the event, we have been able to raise 1,833 dollars (as of 7 PM on April 8th) for Alex’s Lemonade Stand. If you missed the opportunity to donate and would still like to, you still are able to donate online on the bandstanders website. Again, thank you to everyone who was a part of this event, and I can’t wait to see what’s done next year!
