Woodrow Wilson Middle School Students Compete

Over this past weekend over 150 students from Woodrow Wilson Middle School Choir, Jazz and Strings programs went to Hershey, Pennsylvania to compete in Music in the Parks.

This program has grown from 300 students in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1980 to over 180,000 students across the country in 2008, Music In The Parks has become an annual tradition for 1 out of every 10 schools in the United States. This positive, competition experience for band, choir, and orchestra students includes admission to an area theme park and a motivating awards ceremony in the park where students are recognized for their accomplishments.

Our local students showed outstanding poise, respect and competitive drive. Their growth from early in the school year to current was quite evident when we arrived on Friday evening for the competition, our students left the City of Middletown at 0700 hours and traveled six hours by bus to Pennsylvania. Upon arrival the students were escorted into local schools where they sat and listened to other schools perform while waiting to perform, from the time of arrival until they hit the stage our students were being judged by local officials for their behavior, respect, etc. . This was a most impressive moment to watch our kids show that they had earned their right to make this trip and represent the City of Middletown, they sat with their attention to the performers and not a peep was heard from one.

Our Choir students ironically performed at Middletown High School while our Jazz and Strings performed at Lower Dauphin High School, these performances were under the direction of Mr. Steve Mathews (Choir), Ms. Katherine Beyer (Jazz), Ms. Pinar Gosterisli (Strings). A huge thank you and congratulations to these teachers for all their time and efforts in making this competition a great success.

On Saturday our students went to Hershey Park for both the award ceremony and a day of enjoyment. Bringing home numerous well deserved trophies the students continued to show there pride in what they had just accomplished. A long and enjoyable day was spent with these kids in the park, the parents of our kids as well as the residents of the City of Middletown should know that we were represented with great pride and enthusiasm from some very responsible kids.

Go Rams !!!!!!!!!