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| 7/30/2010 6:43:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Group aims to convince area that music matters
Parents begins push to raise $30,000 for BASD music programs
Jennifer Eisenbart
STAFF WRITER
When the Burlington Area School District put music programs - among others - on the cutting block last spring, a group of concerned students, parents and citizens decided enough was enough.
From the April budget discussions, the organization "Music Matters" was born. That was the easy part. The group now needs to raise $30,000 to keep the programs as they exist now intact.
At risk of being cut during the spring was a band director position. After an outcry at an information meeting, the School Board agreed to let the concerned citizens try to raise the money needed to close the gap.
That group emerged into the group it is now. At the head of the group are Karen Tolle, Suzanne Lane-Cragg and Barb Molitor. So far, the group has raised $4,000 and has pledges of almost triple that amount.
Widespread fundraising begins in earnest this week, as the group will have a pair of tables out Friday and Saturday as part of the communitywide sidewalk sales throughout the city.
On sale will be "Music Matters" T-shirts and bumper stickers, as well as used music CDs and baked items.
The group will also be selling tickets for the first-ever "Chocolate Walk," which will be held Aug. 21 in downtown Burlington. Participants will have the chance to sample chocolate treats offered by participating businesses.
"It's really a venue to get those tickets out in to the community," said Tolle.
Tolle said Tuesday the group has a great deal of moral support in the community, though with money being tight all over, the fundraising is coming together a little more slowly that initially anticipated.
"Everybody says, 'Thanks for doing it, keep up the good work, keep me in the information loop and I'll help where I can,'" Tolle explained.
The group even has a website now: www.burlingtonmusicmatters.org. The site has information on fundraisers and ways to volunteer, as well as information on curriculum design. The group was challenged by the School Board to try and find a way to reorganize the music program and get more students involved.
Tolle said Tuesday most people don't know just how good the music program is in Burlington - and a large portion of that success is due to the elementary school program.
"If we begin to cut at that lower grade, it will begin to impact at every grade after that, and later the community," Tolle said. "It's all related.
"We take it for granted and we shouldn't," she added. "Every church in the area has a strong music liturgy program, and part of the reason is that youth are comfortable performing."
Tolle also cited the links that have been shown between music literacy and academic progress.
"We don't want to lose that," she said.
Sarah Tolle, Karen's daughter, has also become heavily involved with the "Music Matters" initiative. A student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Sarah said music has been a part of her life almost as far back as she can remember.
"I was involved in all kinds of music from private lessons to classes to musicals," she said. "I met a lot of people. "Music provides an outlet from the daily life of school."
She still plays the piano and sings in her free time at Madison. Whatever happens in the future, music will be a part of her life.
"When you can take a class you can truly enjoy, one that you have chosen for yourself, it makes you want to be at school," Sarah explained. "I just feel music is really important."
For more on the Chocolate Walk, check out the group's website.
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