By: Alicia Sands Lurry
Students at Springdale Park Elementary School have plenty to sing about these days.
That’s because SPARK is one of 12 semi-finalists chosen to participate in the Fourth Annual “Music in Our Schools – Music Inspires” Tour with Give a Note Foundation and Radio Disney. Springdale Park is challenging Tar River Elementary School in Franklinton, North Carolina, to be among six schools selected in the southern region of the 2017 tour. The winning schools will receive a grant for their music program, to be matched by CMA Foundation, and a celebration concert with a Radio Disney artist and on-air personality.
The 2017 tour includes 10 tour stops and will begin in mid-February and run through April. Voting is underway until Friday, Dec. 9.
The Atlanta Public Schools community can vote for SPARK at: http://bit.ly/Vote2017MIOS, or go to www.giveanote.org and click on “MIOS Voting” in the top navigation. Voters can select one school in each region per day per IP address until the competition closes at midnight Pacific Time on Dec. 9.
Brianne Turgeon, music teacher and chorus director at Springdale Park, said SPARK was chosen based on its overall music program, as well as chorus, advanced chorus, band, and orchestra for upper grades, among other factors.
“I’m honored and humbled for our music programs to be acknowledged, and it’s a huge honor for us to have made to the semi-finals,” said Turgeon said. “I hope we do well in the voting.”
Turgeon’s students completed a Veterans Day project involving kindergarten, first, and second graders where they created a human “singing” American flag for which they filmed students singing the first two verses of “American and “America the Beautiful.
“Our students were really inspired to thank our veterans and to honor the sacrifices and work of the brave men and women who protect our country,” she said. “When we entered the Give a Note competition, we submitted an edited version of the video which begins with the second verse of ‘America the Beautiful.'”
Here are the lyrics:
O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!
Turgeon said students learned how patriotic songs inspire Americans toward unity and the different heroes they could relate to in American history.
“We discussed members of the armed forces, firefighters and policemen, Civil Rights heroes, and other Americans in history,” she said. “Younger students also learned about how Dr. Martin Luther King used the words to patriotic songs in his speeches to help forward the goals of the Civil Rights movements.”
Be sure to do your part to help Springdale Park wins! Cast your vote today at: http://bit.ly/Vote2017MIOS.
