Isbell Chorus says thank you

The Isbell Chorus and I wish to thank all of the very generous organizations and individuals in Santa Paula who have helped our 37 choral members and 7 chaperones to attend the Heritage Music Festival in May.  Our “Condor Chorus” earned a Silver Award and “The Spirit of Anaheim Award”.  Our young men’s chorus “The Other Chorus”, won a Gold Award and are invited to attend the Festival of Gold at Carnegie Hall in the spring of 2014.  7th grader, Deven Leon, earned the “Maestro’s Award” for an outstanding performance in a vocal ensemble.

Raising funds for this trip could have been incredibly hard and daunting but was not due to funds and opportunities to raise money given to the chorus by the Santa Paula Rotarians, Santa Paula Theatre Center Ghostwalk, Dee Dee Helsel, Ilene Gaverman and the Blanchard Community Library, Marilyn Harvey and the Poinsettia Gardens Estates in Saticoy, the 1st United Methodist Mens Club, Heidi Juarez and the Soroptimists International, Mrs. Joyce Rounds and the Ebell Club, Skating Plus, Freska Produce International, LLC and the Collins Family.

A very special thanks goes to Victor and Maria Alamazan of the Garden Market, who constantly open their kitchen and their store to support all the children’s fundraising efforts in this area.

We could not have managed the trip without the support of our SPESD School Board and Superintendent, Dr. Paul Chounet; our Superintendent of Educational Services, Ms. Robin Freeman; the business services of Mrs. Daria Roundy; the in-house support of Principal George Alessi and Vice Principals Darren Hicks and Gina Ramirez; Band Director, Scott Kneff;  Activity Directors, Jessie Prado and Joy Suggs; Awesome Caretaker, Mr. Gilbert Zamora, and parents and friends of the choral members.  A special “Thank You!” to our official chaperones for the trip:  Esther Moreno, Judith Rodriguez, Betsy Chavez, Claudia Tovias and Raquel Harvey; and to our bus driver, Rob Jefferson of the Heritage Bus Lines. 

It is so scary to publicly thank these individuals as I know there must be twice as many individuals out there who are constantly helping us who I must have omitted by mistake.