I agree with that. It’s just sad that she’s not here to hear the appreciation for the new board. She only heard the complaints right after the transition.
Getting a worthy institution to accept the $ for the TubaDiva Memorial Tuba is proving tougher than expected, but I’ve got a plan B. Here’s the situation:
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I’ve been in touch with the principal of Druid Hills H.S., where Jenny learned to play the tuba. He seems quite interested in accepting our gift and has even sent me an estimate for a tuba ($4k). However, he needs to get approval from the school board for gifts over $5k (we collected $8k), and that seems to be a problem. Anyway, I’ve had no response to my emails for the past several weeks, and GoFundMe is sending me notices saying we need to disburse funds by early November or they’ll refund the money. (Don’t worry, I’m setting up an account to hold the money for the time being.)
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Jenny’s mother has suggested we donate the money to the Callanwolde Concert Band, which Jenny played with for many years. Callanwolde is an Atlanta “community band” - here’s their website:
I’ve spoken with the music director, Glenn Moore, and he’s interested. A problem is that Callanwolde band members, as with most bands, own their own instruments, unlike a high school band. Glenn offers the following suggestions:
Memorial Scholarship Fund – an annual scholarship awarded to high school senior studying music at the collegiate level. Current funds received from the community would be used initially start – seed – a Jennifer Paradis Memorial Scholarship to be awarded on an annual basis.
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The band’s board and Conductor/Music Director (me) have discussed starting a scholarship program and the funds from your community could be the “jumpstart” for it to begin.
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This option would require the band to begin an annual campaign to sustain it, which would require a band board decision to further enact it.
Memorial Instrument Fund – provide a Tuba Player an instrument (Tuba) to continue playing, who without the instrument couldn’t continue sharing their musical ability. This option would likely be a one-time event that would either fully or partially fund the purchase of an instrument to a deserving individual. Possible examples are:
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Student – continuing music study in an accredited university music program, or
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An adult active in a community band
We would also be open to other ideas the community might suggest.
Does either of these options seem worthwhile? Yet another alternative is that we could split the gift in half and give $4k to each of two schools; possibly this might speed up the process at Druid Hills. Thoughts?
I think you should split it. Four thousand to Druid Hill for a tuba for a student and the rest to Callanwolde for a Memorial Scholarship Fund.
I agree with the split. It avoids the problem at the HS and also supports of Tuba Diva’s passion for tubas.
You might want to take a poll of the people who have donated, since they donated believing it was all going to fund student tubas.
I sorta like this idea. $8k seems awful low to even jump start an annual scholarship. Or a Druid High/Memorial Instrument split - one to the HS to use over the years by multiple students, one to single deserving person at whatever level.
I agree with the split between two schools. Too many moving parts required for the scholarship fund, so a simple donation for an instrument at two schools ensures multiple generations have access during the life of each instrument.
Split it.
Another vote for “split it.”
And thanks for dealing with all this bureaucracy, @Ed_Zotti. (Also, shame on the Druid Hills school board for not being able to get their act together on accepting the gift, but I’ll try to suppress my judgmental nature given all that they might have on their plate at the moment.)
Yes on the split.
Thanks Ed.
My donation was intended to support the honor for Tubadiva. Do what you want with it, and thanks for the effort regarding all of this!
I didn’t donate much, but my two cents (or thereabouts) is to do what gets the money helping people make music as quickly as possible.
I agree that $4,000 (or even $8,000) makes for a very small scholarship endowment, so I prefer the idea of a second tuba gift. Googling, there appears to be an arts-oriented high school (DeKalb School of the Arts) in the DeKalb County School District. Perhaps fund a tuba there?
Perhaps the money could be split with her college, Berklee College of Music. They have a variety scholarships:
One that looks like it will foster music interest in kids is their “Berklee City Music” program:
OK, the consensus seems to be that we split the gift. I’ll run this past the Druid Hills principal and see if that will accelerate the process.
I agree with splitting it, too.
I don’t think we should be too hard on the school administration. Speaking with my sister, a middle school principal, the amount of shit they’re all going through is astounding.
I’m late to the vote, but splitting the funds sounds like a good plan. (High school bands are going through a lot right now anyway; I heard a report on one school band in Maine whose director was thinking about switching everyone over to percussion instruments so they could practice indoors during the deep winter.)
I trust Ed and the Powers That Be to do whatever they think best and will offer no opinion.
Remarkable hard to give some people money.
Hear, hear. Split it!
I’m embarrassed this has taken so long, but I can now report that I’ve been in touch with the development office at Berklee College of Music in Boston, from which Jenny graduated in 1983. The brass dept. there would be happy to accept our gift for the purchase of a tuba in Jenny’s memory. I said I’d need to check with the donors but expected no objection, since this was in keeping with the original plan to donate the money to an educational institution.
I never got any further response from Jenny’s old high school, and donating to her college alma mater seemed like a better idea than some other high school in Atlanta she had no association with. Donors, let me know what you think.