What’s All the Palooza About?

from Our City Plantation: July 2021

A Great Big Mahalo to Broward Teachers

SCHOOL NEWS

What’s All the Palooza About?

By Beverly Perkins

After a difficult year amidst the pandemic, fundraising has been challenging just the same. However, Plantation City Council The determined councilman reached out to every school to connect with as many music educators as he could. The response was overmember Nick Sortal was not discouraged. With much zeal, the esteemed Council member was determined to make the second Plantation Palooza as amazing as the first. Last year, the event raised over $4,000 for Feeding South Florida and, this year Sortal wanted to at least replicate the same success.

“I was trying to recruit a popular principal to perform as part of a wide range of entries, and she referred me to her music teacher. Then I got the idea to focus a concert on just our music teachers,” explained Councilman Sortal. “I want this to be a time when Plantation residents realize that we have talented, caring people when it comes to music.”

Plantation Palooza 2: The Music Educators’ Edition featured band directors and music teachers from Plantation’s schools which included Plantation High School, South Plantation High School, Seminole Middle School, American Heritage, St. Gregory, Central Park Elementary, Tropical Elementary, and a few others. whelming as almost a dozen wanted to participate. From the Beatles to Beauty and the Beast, the area’s music educators shared a wide range of genres of their many musical favorites. “I like to ask people to tell me about ‘that one teacher.’ For me, it was my college band director, Mike Hanes, at Southern Illinois University. He was always there to lend an enthusiastic word and he taught us that if we made a mistake to just keep going,” exclaimed Councilman Sortal. “I think people who know me can see how I display those character traits.” The virtual showcase aired on Sortal’s Facebook page on Memorial Day weekend and all funds benefited Take Stock in Children. For almost three decades, the non-profit program has successfully served the community by providing mentoring and scholarships to at-risk children. “Take Stock in Children is thrilled! We raised $6,250 and coincidentally the Take Stock ‘Student of the Year’ is Roche Earl from South Plantation High School,” added Councilman Sortal.