Imagine bowling pins lined up and the force of the bowling ball crashing. The image is not far from the reality of a growing community choir comprised of up to seventy adults, standing on low wooden platforms and wooden boxes cobbled together with members struggling to see the choir director while not toppling. Add Sakai Intermediate School Choir, music club kids, and North Kitsap High School’s Vocal Point jazz singers, and the picture painted reflects the Amabile Choir prior to the Rotary Club of Bainbridge Island’ s Community Grant Award of $2,900 to purchase new risers.
“There was liability,” prior to the Rotary Community Grant, due to member fall risk, explained current Amabile Choir Board President Melissa Weakly. The Rotary grant was used to purchase lightweight, carpeted risers with safety rails. Weakly noted zero “trips,” have taken place since members began using the new risers. Current Rotary President Fred Hoffer, who sings with Amabile, added that as a physician he formerly needed to help members after falls several times a year. Hoffer also noted that the lightweight risers can be safely positioned by just two people.
Hoffer explained that the new risers also allow choir members to sing “with the people we need to sing with,” by musical sections rather than necessitating dividing the choir due to height considerations in an effort to allow all members to view the choir director. Weakly pointed out, “If you cannot see the director, you miss the cues.” The new risers support “singing in tune, enhancing the quality of the performance,” Weekly said.
A 22-member team of dedicated Rotarians, led by Rosemary Shaw and Chuck Everett, work together each year to review and respond to dozens of Community Grant Applications from nonprofits on Bainbridge and the surrounding Kitsap County area.
Over 2,000 treasured volunteers, and thousands of donors and shoppers, make the Rotary Club Community Grant Awards possible via the funds raised at the annual Rotary Auction & Rummage Sale.
The Amabile Choir performs winter and spring concerts, a total of six musical events each year, held at Bethany Lutheran Church, Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church, and St Cecilia Catholic School’s facilities. The choir continues to grow, and anticipates the need for future support to purchase additional risers, lighting equipment, sound equipment, and microphones.
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By Lauren Groves