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GHS musicians grab the gold!

The Recorder
(http://www.recorder.com/)
Greenfield, MA

Monday, April 3, 2006

By KAREN P. CHYNOWETH, Recorder Staff

image source:
http://www.nla.gov.au/collect/fanny.gif

The last time Greenfield High won a gold was in 2003, when both its concert band and its choral group won the award.

Calcari said each year between 140 and 150 bands from Massachusetts and Connecticut compete at MICCA, which is held over one weekend in five locations in the state. Greenfield High School is one of the sites for the competition. The only other group to receive a gold medal in the Greenfield venue was Drury High School in North Adams.

Only five to seven groups are usually awarded a gold medal each year. He said it is unlike a sports competition in that the bands and choral groups are judged against themselves, not against each other. In other words, you aren't trying to beat the other bands, you are trying to give a perfect performance and it’s possible in any given year that no band can achieve that.

“You have to play to an extremely proficient level, like a perfect level,” he said.

Calcari said he feels like Greenfield has had a “Cinderella band,” this year.

“We had a lot of kids that were young and a lot of good leadership from older kids, but they just made constant progress through the year. They didn’t peak, they made constant progress through the year and it ultimately resulted in a gold medal,” he said. “We were thrilled.”

Greenfield and the other gold medal winners will be awarded with the opportunity to perform a free concert at the Boston Symphony Hall on April 15. The band will perform the three songs it played at the competition — “The Liberty Bell March” by John Philip Sousa, “Loch Lomond” by Frank Ticheli and “The Overture for Winds” by Charles Carter. The concert is open to the public and Calcari encourages everyone in the community who can to come out and support the band.

The band will also perform on Tuesday, along with other musicians from Greenfield High, on Greenfield Community Television during its fundraising telethon from 6 to 9 p.m. The telethon raises money for the entire music program at Greenfield and helps pay for expenses such as transportation costs to go to competitions or to the Boston Symphony Hall, for example.

How many bytes does it take to feed a growing mind?

Federal Street School

 

A Stitch in time...

Breathtaking Beading
that Makes a Difference

Greenfield High School Students
Raise Money to Support
Hurricane Victims

	During Curricular Activity period, students work with parent Darcy Rosner to design and make beaded jewelry.
Students work with beads they have purchased and beads that have been donated specially for this project. The community has been very supportive.
One local jewelry store even has a display of this incredible work!
The jewelry is sold to support hurricane victims both locally and globally photos: Christopher Lesenski

To date, the group has raised $1,000.

We are proud of their efforts to help those less fortunate.

February 22, 2006:
The Deerfield River Watershed Association (http://www.deerfieldriver.org/) is pleased to announce the award of two mini-grants to local schools. The goal of the Watershed School Mini-Grant Program is to increase environmental awareness and to help protect the watershed's natural resources. Both projects address the catastrophic flood that occurred Columbus Day weekend 2005 in Greenfield.

The Greenfield North Parish Elementary School will receive $300 for the fourth grade's Classification of the Atlantic Salmon in the Deerfield River project. North Parish Technology Specialist Christa Gardner described in the grant proposal that "Students will examine how flooding creates erosion, how it affects the water quality of the river, and how the complex interplay of these variables directly impact the salmon population. They will also learn about the complex needs such as water temperature and diet needs of salmon. [Students] will create paper mache salmon models and a paper model of the Deerfield River environment. They will take digital photographs of their models to use as illustrations in their PowerPoint reports, highlighting the characteristics of the river…"

The Greenfield Middle School will also receive $300 for grades 6 and 7 to study "In 'Plain' Site: Flooding and the Topography of the Green River Watershed." Gabrielle Richard-Harrington, Instructional Technology Teacher at the Middle School, wrote that "Students will learn to read topographic maps and interpret Colrain [river gauging station, http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ma/nwis/uv?01170100] website data to understand why the Green River flooded in the fall of 2005 and why this flooding affected the residents of Greenfield (many of whom include Middle School students)… Sixth and seventh graders will address many Massachusetts state math, science and technology standards as they interpret data, map the Green River Watershed, and come to know more about the relationship between the river and the community of Greenfield."

DRWA president Marie-Françoise Walk said that "our association is very happy to have received good applications to study important and timely topics in the watershed. We have invited the recipients to participate in this year's Riverfest (June 10 in Shelburne Falls) to showcase their environmental creations."

DRWA awards up to $1,000 per year to schools in the watershed (the land area that drains to the Deerfield River) to help them conduct environmental projects or further their own education goals in that field. There is no deadline, and there is $400 left in the fund for 2006, so other schools are encouraged to apply. Guidelines and application forms can be found at http://www.deerfieldriver.org/minigrants.htm.

Note: The Greenfield Recorder also published an article about the projects underway at both North Parish Elementary School and Greenfield Middle School. Click here to read that article.

Photo Source: The Recorder (Greenfield, MA)