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Donations matched for new GHS band endowment

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

GREENCASTLE -- Marjorie Secrest, a mother of five, including a set of quadruplets, decided to take action when she learned about the lack of musical offerings available to students attending Greencastle High School. With support from GHS Principal Randy Corn and Superintendent Bob Green, Secrest established the Greencastle High School Band Endowment, administered by the Putnam County Community Foundation.

"We hope the Endowment and our support will inspire new pride and enthusiasm in the Greencastle community for the GHS Band," said Secrest.

The GHS Band Fall Concert will be Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m. in Parker Auditorium. Secrest is organizing a coffee and dessert bar for the concert, and proceeds will benefit the band's new endowment. Every contribution to the endowment will be matched 50 cents on the dollar, up to $4,000, by the Putnam County Community Foundation.

Current band director Robert Hedge is delighted by the new endowment. The GHS Band has participated in the Indiana State School of Music Association (ISSMA) contest for 17 years and received a gold rating in 14 of those years. However, Hedge reports serious needs.

"We need a lot of new percussion equipment as well as a couple of baritones," Hedge said.

Because the school has little funding to purchase new equipment, Hedge reported that parents must purchase or rent instruments for their children, which can be cost prohibitive. The endowment will be used to meet the hardware needs of the Greencastle High School Band program, such as repair and replacement of instruments, and purchase of music, music stands and uniforms.

Contributions to the endowment should be made payable to the Putnam County Community Foundation with "GHS Band Endowment" in the memo, and mailed to 2 South Jackson Street, Greencastle, IN 46135. Anyone may contribute to the endowment to help the GHS Band reach new levels of achievement and involvement. Community Foundation staff are available to help donors make gifts of cash, stock, retirement assets, life insurance, bequests, real estate and other types of gifts to the Endowment.

The Community Foundation administers more than 180 funds for donors, supporting a variety of charitable purposes. To learn more about this new fund, how to make a contribution or how to start a new fund, visit www.pcfoundation.org or contact Eric Wolfe or Elaine Peck at 653-4978.

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  • It would be nice to have a marching band. Other county schools have them, why can't Greencastle?

    -- Posted by Falcon9 on Wed, Oct 7, 2009, at 7:20 AM

  • I would rather they teach them the three R'S and forget all the other stuff, such as basketball, baseball,l soccer, band,. etc. We owe them a better education.

    -- Posted by gadgetguy on Wed, Oct 7, 2009, at 7:34 AM

  • gadgetguy...

    all those extracurricular activities teach kids things that the "three R's" never will. Teamwork, trust, spirit, confidence and self awareness are all traits that are enhanced by extracurricular activities.

    The qualities that I gained as a middle school, high school and college cheerleader has definitely helped me climb the ladder in my own workplace.

    -- Posted by indtonyc on Wed, Oct 7, 2009, at 10:23 AM

  • We need a marching band. Before moving here our kids came from a school of 170 kids K-12 and they had a marching band.

    -- Posted by Brenda1 on Wed, Oct 7, 2009, at 12:09 PM

  • Gadgetguy-

    The arts, music in particular are statistically proven to improve both IQ and scores on Standardized tests such as the ISTEP and the SAT. I site this article by E. Glenn Schellenberg from

    University of Toronto. http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/~w3psygs/JEdPsych2006.pdf. Instead of cutting music we should be requiring all students to participate in some fashion. As a former resident of the county and a current band director myself, I say kudos to the GHS band, band boosters, and administration.

    -- Posted by Webbed1 on Wed, Oct 7, 2009, at 1:33 PM

  • I'll admit I'm not always happy to go to band in the morning, but it's one of my favorite classes. It enriches my knowledge in classical music, and although we may not have a marching band, we do have pep band which plays at every home football and basketball game and marches on the track. We have concert's every year, we also have competition's and festival's we attend. I don't understand why that can't be enough for most people...

    -- Posted by 2ndborn2013 on Thu, Oct 8, 2009, at 3:40 PM

  • I can not express how much I gained from being in middle school band, high school marching band and concert band, (and all of the competitions and travel that went with it) as well as college marching and pep bands. It teaches discipline, teamwork, pride in oneself and school, and the importance of sheer hard work. I only hope my children will have the same highly valuable experience when they are in school.

    -- Posted by Moretothestory on Wed, Nov 4, 2009, at 9:24 PM
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