Although the COVID-19 crisis keeps up, the national award-winning Johnston High School Music Department hasn’t skipped a beat as far as raising money for several important in-house programs.
The JHS music department, people like Director Ronald Lamoureux and Chorus Director Matthew Gingras will tell you, “although it’s not business as usual, we’ve been very busy since the return to school raising revenue for a multitude of scholarships.”
Most recently, for example, the Music Department maintained a “terrific tradition” and participated in the Savers Fun Drive.
Parents from the Johnston School Music Association – a well-organized support group led by president Carl Morin, vice president Bethany Littlefield, treasurer David Banno and secretary Anna Morin – have been collecting house-used clothes for the drive since last year and just last week received word that this year’s program resulted in a net profit of over $1,000.
“I can’t thank the JSMA parents enough for helping us with this initiative,” Gingras emphasized. “Carl and Anna Morin housed all these clothes for the better part of last year. Dave Banno even rented a truck for us to help with the delivery to the Savers’ store. It would have been impossible to do this without them.”
So, as Lamoureux added with a smile on his face: “In the end, our JSMA was able to drop off just over 4,000 pounds of clothes to Savers.”
Yet another important Music Department program, as the two tireless directors wanted it known, is the annual Rachel E. Carson Memorial Scholarship fundraising. The scholarship is named in the memory of a beloved JHS senior who passed away unexpectedly in 2018.
“We just had the kickoff event for the Rachel E. Carson Scholarship,” Gingras announced Monday. “After Rachel’s heartbreaking passing, we formed a scholarship program in her name and held what continues to be the highly-successful Crazy Hat Day here at school.”
Gingras explained students, staff and the JHS faculty exuberantly participated in the Crazy Hat Day, which continues to be nothing less than a worthwhile and fun-filled event for everyone in the school.
Moreover, because of the ongoing pandemic, many students chose to donate virtually and participate in Crazy Hat Day online. Gingras said the fundraising will culminate with a luncheon sponsored by the JSMA and explained that the music department will award two $500 scholarships.
February will also be busy as far as raising money is concerned, as the JHS Music Department holds what could be an extremely lucrative Calendar Raffle throughout the month of February. Prizes total more than $3,000, with drawings every day.
People who are interested in donating or participating in the raffle should please contact Gingras (mgingras@johnstonschools.org) or Lamoureux (rlamoureux@johnstonschools.org).
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