Hoping to cover costs of future activities, on February 14, Souderton Area High School’s choirs put on a Valentine’s Day Cabaret where people could dine and see students perform.
Before coming to the high school, choir teacher Ryan Carlin had put on Valentine’s Day cabarets.
According to Carlin, the cabarets have been a way to branch off from regular fundraisers and show off student performers.
“I have hosted [Valentine’s Day Cabarets] in schools I’ve worked at previously, and compared to our usual fundraisers, it’s very unique,” Carlin said. “It’s also a way to have choir students perform on their own since there are not as many opportunities to do that in the actual choir.”
Additionally, Carlin said the fundraiser will benefit many activities for the choir.
“Because of how many choir students there are, it’s hard to get out and do many things. By having fundraisers like the cabaret, we can use the money we raise to cover costs of t-shirts we may need and maybe cover registration fees if we go out to events,” Carlin said.
For Carlin, the Cabaret went smoothly, and he enjoyed the community coming out to watch and help.
“We had many student and adult volunteers at the cabaret, and they were really great at helping the night go smoothly,” Carlin said. “It was really awesome seeing choir families and people in the community come out to support the choir.”
The cabaret featured around 30 student performances, including sophomore Jane Bennett, who performed three songs throughout the night.
“I performed three different songs in total. One was me playing the guitar while my friends sang. It was a really cool idea and I enjoyed the night,” Bennett said.
Bennett also said she liked seeing the different songs being performed by choir students. “The performances were all amazing, and it was cool to hear the different songs people sang,” Bennett said. “I loved seeing everyone’s stage presence when they were singing, too.”
In addition to performing, students were able to volunteer, which freshman Emma Landgrebe did.
According to Landgrebe, the event was fun.
“There’s a bunch of students putting on a show for people, and it is very entertaining and enjoyable,” Landgrebe said.
Additionally, Landgrebe said volunteering was a good way to help without having to perform. “I know a lot of people still wanted to help without performing, which is why we made food and we are helping serve it,” Landgrebe said. “Some food was also donated, which was nice.”
To put on the event, a lot of help was needed throughout the night.
According to sophomore Devon Naylor, many people came to help set up.
“There were a lot of people coming out to get food ready, set up the stage and just make everything look good,” Naylor said. “There was a lot of work put into the fundraiser, but it was fun.”