Voices of Hope final draft

"The best feeling in the world," says Laura Appleton, "is helping people with the talent you're blessed with." Laura, a Junior at Eastview High School in Apple Valley is absolutely right. Last week, her choir class put on a day long all school sing-a-thon. Voices of Hope took place last Friday in which the whole school was invited to come and watch their classmates perform, as well as partake in. The event was created to raise money for the Angel Foundation. When asking Laura why she felt so passionate about the sing-a-thon she replied,"Wouldn't it be nice to one day live in a world where you don't have to bear the pain of cancer killing your loved ones?"

The Angel Foundation is an organization that was created to help support families dealing with a loved one who has cancer. Unfortunately, many people know the financial burden that cancer can bring. The Angel Foundation raises money to help cancer families pay bills, cover costs for treatment, and many other aspects in order for families to focus on helping their loved ones battling cancer.

The Eastview choir department came up with the idea of raising money for the Angel Foundation after they found out that one of their fellow classmates was dealing with cancer in their family. Hannah Skalbeck, a senior and avid choir member at Eastview, found out last spring that her mother had pancreatic cancer and was expected to live for six months. After hearing the news, choir director Judy Sagen started brainstorming ideas with her students in order to help kids like Hannah and their families.

"We thought that the best, and most fun way to raise money was to have an all day festival of singing that the whole school could participate in," says Junior Caitlin Ochtera. "What a great way to get the whole school involved, so that more attention was brought to the event hopefully resulting in a great amount of donations." The goal of Voices of Hope was to raise $25,000 to donate to the Angel foundation. This was pursued by ticket sales, concessions, pledges, and donation tables throughout the entire day.

It is not yet known the result of the donations, but by the fulfilling turn-out of the event, onlookers were optimistic of good results. One fellow guest mentioned, "I'm sure the choir department exceeded their goal. So many people were involved, and so many people were passionate about the idea. This has to be one of the biggest events the Eastview community has seen."