CHS wins $5,000 grant for music and arts programs

By PATRICIA A. RUSSELL

Valley Breeze Staff Writer

pat@valleybreeze.com

CUMBERLAND - It may have been a last minute entry, but it was a lucky one.

By her own admission, Deb Pelletier entered the name of Cumberland High School into Bob's Discount Furniture's annual Celebrate the Arts contest, almost as an afterthought.

"Oh, shoot!" recalled the Cumberland resident who'd realized she'd almost missed the deadline for submission. "Let me give it a shot," she figured.

It was a good call because two weeks later she got a call from a Bob's Store representative. Pelletier was told her entry had been selected and that Cumberland High School was among the seven schools in seven states where the company operates to win a $5,000 grant.

In an effort to support and maintain dance, music and the arts in schools this year, Bob's Outreach is awarding $35,000 in cultural grants to deserving K-12 schools throughout the Northeast, according to a press release.

The grants are to be used for cultural arts during the 2009-10 school year.

After learning of the windfall, Pelletier notified Lisa Koziol-Kenyon, high school band director, who called Susan Alves, department chairwoman of fine, applied and technical arts department, and asked, "Are you sitting down?"

Alves said part of the grant money would be used to buy a tenor saxophone at a cost of about $1,000 and new drum heads for percussion instruments.

Alves said that in the next several weeks she would look at coordinating an interdisciplinary project that could bring a group of artists and musicians into the school for an assembly.

As part of the contest, each winning school got a special delivery from Bob's TV personality and public relations director Cathy Poulin, who awarded the grant and visited with students and faculty.

"We're thrilled to award these grants, giving the winning schools an opportunity to put $5,000 to work in support of programs of their choosing," explained Poulin.

As a parent of a band student at the high school who plays the clarinet and a former member of the McCourt Middle School Booster's Club, Pelletier said she knows firsthand that resources are limited for school arts programs.

"When I saw an opportunity to bring in some money, I went for it," she said.