A 'terrible loss' for the Ronan Students
Editor,
The following letter is to express our disappointment, as parents and community members, with the Ronan School Board. Last weekend the Ronan Show Choir was invited to Columbia Falls to participate in a workshop held by the "Young Americans."
The "Young Americans" is a group of kids (ages 18-25) founded about 44 years ago, with the purpose of doing what they love — to perform and to share this love with other kids across the U.S. and the world. A student can join the group after graduating from high school, where they have to move to California (their base of operation). While they are training they perform at schools that are at risk and to penitentiaries (to bring hope to these children). Then they go on a 10-month tour to other schools around the US. and the world.
The purpose of this workshop was to provide the students who attended with tools that will help them with their performance. The students (from Columbia Falls) at the workshop learned new songs, dances, choreography, but most importantly, they learned how to work together in a respectful, loving and fun way. There were children from all ages, from elementary school to high school. It was amazing to see how in just a day and half, those kids learned all those songs, dances and how they bonded with each other and how they wanted to imitate their teachers (the Young Americans), who provided a great role model for these kids. They put on a wonderful performance!
What does this have to do with Ronan? Like I mentioned before, the Ronan Show Choir students were invited to join the workshop. Mrs. Gillhouse wanted to use this one-of-a-kind opportunity for the Show Choir students to learn new choreography for Cabaret (in my very own opinion, the best show in the Valley).
But the Ronan School Board didn't want them to go because they said it was a waste of time and resources. This made a lot of students and parents upset, because there is no support for the arts from the part of the School Board.
Many people in the community would like to see more of the performing arts and arts in general. We have wonderful, multitalented students in this community. Performing arts bring people together in cooperation. In addition, it creates body awareness, coordination, flexibility, spatial awareness, and boosts self-esteem among other things.
Ronan is a terrific town with beautiful minds that can take this town to new highs provided that we the parents, the school board, and educators give them the right tools to succeed. We are asking the school board to be more supportive of the performing arts and things other than sports. We know that we as a community of parents, educators and trustees want the best for our children, so let's make sure a mistake like this won't happen again.
Elmer and Ileana Diaz
Ronan