Lustre News
The Lustre Grade School held its spring concert on May 9 at 1 p.m. The program began with a piece by the teachers, joined consecutively by the classes scattered around the auditorium.
It was energetic! The bands and choirs were under the excellent leadership of Dan Marasco. The young but good fifth/sixth grade band played Sousa Spectacular, March of the Royal Guard with solos on clarinet by Hannah Pancratz and alto sax by Justin Schiller.
Marasco explained the piece was too easy for the seventh/eighth graders, so he had the younger band try it, with good success. They also played Galactic Episode, which was beautiful, and Oh When the Saints. This band was noted for watching their director carefully which made for good dynamics.
The 17-piece seventh/ eighth grade band played Sousa on Parade and Fiesta Mexicali, both pieces by O’Reilly/Williams. They finished with Down to the River by Michael Sweeney.
The program’s music theme was American Spirituals. The fifth/sixth grade choir sang Deep River and Promised Land by Natalie Sleeth. Both were excellent. The seventh/eighth grade choir sang Hush! Somebody’s Callin’ My Name, arranged by B.W. Dennard. It was a very poignant piece, done so well.
The fifth through eighth grade choir sang Siyahamba, arranged by Dan Marasco, and Go Down Moses, dedicated to Bryan Ewing. The students surprised everyone by moving quickly from the choir to their instruments to finish Go Down Moses as a band piece with Marasco on the bass guitar and staring KJ Brown on the drums.
The kindergarten through second grade class performed How do we know spring is here? and answered with a bird walk, a ladybug walk, a butterfly walk and a frog walk. The seventh/eighth grade class presented a skit called America has NO talent. The fifth/sixth grade class infused the program with optimism in a song called We are the World with lyrics “We are the children, we are the ones to make a better day, so let’s start giving.”
When the third/fourth grade class finished their dance and song, head teacher John Dubois drew the attention of the auditorium to the fact that three of the families involved in the school had had a very challenging summer and two were students in grades three/four. He said, “The fact that Gavin Pancratz was walking around and singing [after his accident] and that McKenna Bell is dancing and singing with the class [after facing cancer] is a testament to their faith and your faith as a community. It will be the most cherished memory I take from this year, as well as Shelley Keller’s return to her post.”
The program closed with a finale directed by Prince Agisbit called Circle of Life from the Lion King, with the entire school in full costumes. The community was treated to a gracious extravaganza in the concert.
The LCHS track team took first place at the divisional tournament on Thursday, May 16, with 97 points.
Amending last week’s report on Mr. Unrau’s address to the induction of NHS members, the following LCHS alumni were selected to the first National Honor Society in 1966: Arlynn Toavs, Evonne (Unger) Brown, Kathy Unrau, Jurene Unrau, Janet Toews, Ken Olfert and Jean (Schmidt) Toews.
CHS will hold its 2024 graduation on Sunday, May 19, at 3 p.m.
