BY SHELBY LOOCK | PHOTO BY JULIE DUNBAR
Edgewood College and its Music Department are helping to provide meals to those in need.
Edgewood College has a partnership with the Luke House community meal program that allows students to help provide meals to families or individuals who are food insecure.
According to the Luke House website, “Each group of volunteers for a given monthly lunch or dinner chooses a menu, and each member of the group chooses an item to provide on a consistent basis. Providing the food for the meal is a group effort.”
Edgewood students volunteer with Luke House on the second Sunday of every month to prepare and serve spaghetti.
The Music Department at Edgewood is also taking part in the effort. The Edgewood College Concert Band and Jazz Band performed concerts early this month, helping to raise close to $500 to help the meal program collect items of need. Their wish list included items such as rice, instant mashed potatoes, uncooked pasta & noodles, large cans of veggies and fruit, prepared meals, condiments, and cooking oil spray.
Rather than an admission charge for the band concerts, donations are accepted in the form of a freewill offering. This is part of a 23-year long tradition, first introduced by music professor and former Edgewood College Band director Julie Dunbar. “I realized that Edgewood had a connection to Luke House, and I thought we should connect the music department’s mission to the college’s mission,” she said.
The music department’s mission statement says, “Inspired by the knowledge that music has the power to elevate the human spirit, the Edgewood College Music Department is committed to developing the whole person in pursuit of musical artistry, and to sharing that artistry with the greater population. We are dedicated performers, educators, and student-musicians, rooted in Dominican values, perfecting our craft within a dynamic liberal arts environment. Through the study of music, we seek to engage individuals within a community of scholarship and performance, affirming the College’s mission to educate students for meaningful personal and professional lives.”
Dunbar said the donations have reached nearly $23,000 over the years.
Also in line with the mission statement, the Edgewood guitar ensemble performed at Coventry Village Retirement Community on Thursday, April 27. This is a spring semester tradition for the group, who will be featured in the Edgewood College chamber ensembles concert on Sunday, April 30.
This concert will include the Edgewood chorale and the solo work of two graduating music majors, pianist Johanna Novich and saxophonist Renee Lechner, who will preview some of the repertoire for their upcoming senior recitals.
The remaining concerts are Chamber Ensembles, Sunday, April 30, at 2:30 p.m.; Choir Concert, Friday, May 5 at 7:00 p.m., and Concert Band, Sunday, May 7, at 2:30 p.m. All concerts are held on campus in St. Joseph’s Chapel on campus.
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