Community Corner

WHS Chorus Trip Gets $1,000 Grant From Shrewsbury Business

Tuesday, MyWhiteBoards.com and OptiMA Inc. Vice President-Owner Doug Klimavich presented his companies' first Music Staff Education Grant.

About 100 Westborough High School students planning to sing in Maryland in April have received help from an audience member.

Tuesday, MyWhiteBoards.com and OptiMA Inc.  Vice President-Owner Doug Klimavich presented his companies' first Music Staff Education Grant, worth $1,000, to Coordinator of Fine Arts David Jost and Director of Choral Music Alyson Greer Espinosa, toward reducing the students' cost to go. The trip costs $598 per student, Greer Espinosa said.

Klimavich said his son David sings in choir.

"The budgets keep getting cut everywhere, and one of the first programs that always gets cut is music, and the arts," said Klimavich, whose businesses are based in Shrewsbury.

"I just think it's really important. I see what these kids have gotten out of it, what my own child's gotten out of it, and how much it's helped him develop as a person. I think it's something we should be funding, and not de-funding."

Jost said Klimavich "heard that we were doing fundraising for the chorus trip" and "approached me and said, 'Would it be appropriate for my company to make a donation towards the trip in the form of a grant?'"

"And I said, 'That's fantastic.' We've got a moderate number of students who have difficulty paying to go; families in need, or, maybe, financial stresses," Jost said.

"Outright grants are very, very helpful to meet the end so truly we don't leave any kids behind. We want every kid to go."

Toward reducing the trip's cost, students  are selling citrus fruit, and "each kid raises their own profit through that," Jost said.

A magazine drive will be held in February, he said.

Greer Espinosa said the $598 is "before aggressive fundraising."

"If we do incredibly well with the mattress sale, I'm hoping that will bring down the total cost," she said.

The Westborough High School Choirs will hold a Mattress Fundraising Sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 24 in the Westborough High School cafeteria.

All mattress sizes and top quality brands are being sold with delivery options. All proceeds will go to help fund the WHS Choirs Festival Tour to Annapolis and Baltimore, Maryland in April of 2014. For more information, contact Jack Isaacs at jisaacscfs@gmail.com .

Jost said the school committee must first approve the mattress sale Wednesday night.


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