Support Kake Students' Musical Adventure

I'm Dorothy, and I'm the high school choir director at Kake City Schools. We are a small school in rural Alaska, and our music program is work in progress. In the 80s and 90s, Kake had a formidable music program, and even a community band. in 2023, I was hired at the school to be the K-12 music teacher, but the position was funded by a grant which is over now. Currently I can only teach High School Music as an elective. Kake is a small village located on Kupreanof Island in Southeast Alaska. In order for our students to compete and share with other schools, we have to fly or take a ferry to other communities. In order to travel, we have to fundraise to allow the students to participate in these creative endeavors. We have already been fundraising in town with other fundraisers, but as we are so remote, I also wanted to share a fundraising page to see if any of my friends and family outside of my community would like to donate to our travel funds!

There are around 40 kids in the high school here, and of that 40, 16 of them are in choir. Two years ago, I started with only TWO kids! In class, we are learning multiple songs, and we plan to to use these travel funds raised to travel to Juneau in early April to go to a three day solo and ensemble competition called Regional Music Fest. I have six students who are performing solos, a 12 member women's chorus, and all the students in choir will participate in a combined choir with 4 other communities in southeast, where they practice five songs on their own, then come together and rehearse a few times and perform them on the last day! All of the funds used will go towards paying for our ferry tickets, and meals for the students while we travel!

It is an incredible opportunity for my students to experience three full days of concerts, performances, and music workshops delivered by highly qualified music teachers. Most students in Kake don't have a lot of opportunity to see live music and participate in large scale concerts, and it is a magical thing as their teacher to see them learn new things about music and about themselves. I hope you can donate any amount to help us go on our trip!

(If you would like to see an excerpt of last year's music fest, check out the youtube video at the top! The Kake students perform at 2h35 min with the southeast region combined choir!)