Gift is a shot in the arm during pandemic

It’s not exactly the day the music died, but it’s certainly the year the pandemic silenced high school concerts and stunted the fundraisers that support them.

That is why a contribution of as much as $10,000 from Port Washington State Bank to an effort aimed at completing the evolution of the Port Washington High School auditorium into a performing arts center couldn’t have come at a better time.

“Given the coronavirus debacle, we never really got our fundraiser off the ground,” Sara Pashak, president of the Port Washington High School Music Boosters, said, referring to the group’s sponsor-a-seat fundraiser launched last December. “People just started to get interested, then the pandemic hit.

“The timing of this donation is great because we’re still in a weird place with Covid-19 but we need to find a way to jump-start our fundraiser.”

The group’s goal is to raise at least $70,000 to help purchase an acoustic cloud — a set of sound panels — to be placed above the performing arts center stage similar to the ones found in professional concert halls. 

For donations to the nonprofit booster organization that range from $100 to more than $300, sponsors can have the names of their choice added to the backs of seats. Sponsorship does not reserve seats for donors.

The group has raised about $10,000, Pashak said. The Port State Bank offer has the potential to triple that because it is a matching gift. For every seat purchased, the bank will match the donation up to $10,000. 

“We had a decent start to our fundraiser, but then we had to put everything on pause,” Port High Band Director Chris Clouthier said. “Since then, we’ve gone back and forth with how to get this effort back on the road again, so this gift comes at a really good time.”

The pandemic has complicated all types of fundraisers, but in particular it has stalled the effort to enhance the performing arts center, which has been closed to the public since March.

Spring band and choral concerts were canceled and there will be no holiday performances this year.

In fact, because high school and middle school students are split into two groups with one group attending in-person classes on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other on Thursdays and Fridays under the Port Washington-Saukville School District’s pandemic education plan, entire bands and choirs generally don’t even rehearse together, Clouthier said. 

But things will change, and spring may bring an opportunity to hold outdoor concerts, Pashak said. 

The ultimate goal, however, is to welcome people back to the performing arts center, one that by next school year has been improved with the addition of an acoustic cloud, she said. 

“People are just missing the music,” Pashak said.

In one of the final phases of the $45.6 million high school reconstruction and renovation project completed two years ago, the auditorium was gutted and new seats and a stage, as well as sound, lighting and electrical systems, were installed. Acoustic ceiling and wall panels were added above and around the seats but not over the stage. 

An acoustic cloud would direct sound down toward performers and out into the audience, producing a more authentic performing arts center experience, Clothier said. 

“If you’re on stage, there is a vast emptiness above you,” he said. “This (an acoustic cloud) would reflect the sound back down to the performers and out into the audience.”

The cloud was expected to cost $140,000, although there is hope now that the price has come down during the pandemic. The school district has contingency funds remaining from the high school project and expects to contribute to the project if the Music Boosters can raise its share, Director of Business Services Jim Froemming said. 

The goal is to turn the performing arts center into not just a performance venue for all students in the district but one for the community that attracts professional musicians, similar to the Cedarburg Performing Arts Center, Pashak said. 

“We really, truly want a performing arts center for the community,” Froemming said, noting that the community supported the referendum that made the high school project possible and is financing the improvements. “A PAC would showcase the community’s investment.”

Seats may be selected for sponsorship and donations made online at www.hometowntickets.com, which shows what seats are available at each sponsorship level. Brochures and donation forms are also available in the high school office and information about the fundraiser is available at www.limitededitionacappella.com/sponsor-a-seat or by calling Clouthier at 268-5629 or emailing him at Chris.Clouthier@pwssd.k12.wi.us.