USELESS BAY — A few hours of live tunes and dancing has one South Whidbey Elementary School teacher hearing music again.
Kimmer Morris, the elementary school music teacher, just increased the school’s music budget 12 times. And it’s all thanks to a recent fundraiser at Useless Bay Golf & Country Club, which brought in $1,839 to support kindergarten through fifth-grade students learning music.
“I was pleased the members were extra generous,” Morris said.
“I got to dance all night. It was a really fun time.”
Even country club members who did not attend the “Concert on the Green” called in after hearing the band One-Eyed Jack. That’s a credit to both the members and the club’s social committee, chaired by Dave Johnson and assisted by Paul Schuller. The committee planned the event, paid for the band and publicized the night with fellow members to help revitalize a shrinking music program — its non-employee budget was cut to $250 this year — at the elementary school.
“This way they can get the piano tuned now, buy a couple instruments,” said Bill Davis, the club’s general manager.
The increased budget will pay for more than a tuned piano. Morris said those funds will cover the costs of xylophone maintenance, new xylophones, a music magazine subscription with CDs, a talent show at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts and time to organize a trip for fifth graders to see the Seattle Symphony.
“That’s hours and hours of permission forms,” Morris said.
About 100 people attended the fundraiser. Country club member Gary Roth built and dismantled the stage for the event on the patio near the practice putting green, which was roped off so heels wouldn’t puncture the neatly manicured turf.
“We’re trying to do more things for the community,” Davis said.
If the fundraiser wasn’t a start, then its youth programs certainly were.
The country club has opened its pool the past few summers to the South Whidbey Parks & Recreation District for swimming lessons taught by Kristi Eager. Useless Bay also hosts South Whidbey High School’s golf teams as a practice facility and at least two meets each spring.
Next year, Davis said he would again like to host a music fundraiser. For now, Morris was beaming about the extra music funding.
