Ridgeview High's chorus sings in the White House

Here is some happy news. My favorite teacher in school was my chorus teacher at Lakeside Middle School during 6th-8th grade. I just came upon a story at Jacksonville.com that she is now at Ridgeview High School and that her choir performed at the White House this year for Christmas, what an honor! For the article, see below.

Here is a video from Channel 12 News before the trip.




Ridgeview High's chorus sings in the White House

By MARY MARAGHY, Clay County Line

Ridgeview High School chorus teacher Louise Woolard said it was quite thrilling when a receptionist said, "The White House is expecting you."

Woolard and 27 choir students performed Christmas songs in the White House foyer on Monday.

Woolard sent an audition tape to the White House in the spring and got an invitation Nov. 1 to join a select group of holiday entertainers.

"It was an incredible experience, an incredible honor and the students lived up to it. They were absolutely wonderful," Woolard said. "I'd do it again in a heart beat."

"It was so cool with all the cameras flashing," said chorus member Becca Fuhrman. "We felt like celebrities."

"It was surreal that we were in the White House and people were taking pictures of us," said another member, Brittany Trahan. "It was definitely the most amazing experience of my life. To close out our senior year with such a big bang is very, very exciting."

Trahan and other sleep-deprived chorus members were bubbling Wednesday about their action-packed two-night stay in Washington.

The students drew followers when they started rehearsing in the subway.

They slept only four hours a night at the Hotel Washington, built in 1868.

Some ice skated for the first time in their lives at the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden. They visited the Smithsonian Institution and saw the Hope Diamond. They were impressed with the Holocaust Museum, which is set up to look like a concentration camp and gives visitors the feeling of being shipped to the gas chambers.

"D.C. has the biggest squirrels," said Charlie McNeill. "They're on steroids."

The Christmas decorations were over-the-top, students said. Each state had a decorated Christmas tree on display. Louisiana's tree - which won best tree - had glass ornaments with paper houses in each and thank you notes to the other states that helped them during the hurricanes.

"It was so pretty at night," said Patti Trahan, Rebecca's mother. "I had a ball. The kids had a blast. They sang gorgeously."

Only 21 students were allowed in the White House. Fortunately, Trahan said, the alternate singers left out were able to visit the Washington Monument where they saw President George Bush's motorcade drive by.

The trip cost about $20,000. Students paid about $200 each, the Clay County school system kicked in about $6,000 in discretionary funds, and fundraising covered the rest.