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Harmony Project Sooke receives $20,000 grant

Money will be used to expand program
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Harmony Project Sooke strings and drumline with Telus general manager Vancouver Island, Shaye Draper, HPS executive director Lorna Bjorklund, and HPS president Terry Cristall. (Contributed)

Harmony Project Sooke has received a Telus community grant of $20,000.

“This is a huge vote of confidence in our project and will go a long way toward sustaining the HPS programs in the fall,” said Terry Cristall, Harmony Project Sooke president.

Harmony Project Sooke is a registered non-profit society that provides musical instruments and instruction to children and youth in the Sooke area.

Founded in 2016 by the late Norman Nelson, conductor of the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra, HPS offers strings classes (violin, viola, cello) for students in grades two and up, and a drumline class (marching band-style drumming) for students in grades six and up.

The Telus award was announced by HPS executive director Lorna Bjorklund at the Sooke Philharmonic’s Fling! Concert held at the Sooke Community Hall on July 7. Attending for Telus was Shaye Draper, general manager of customer solutions for Vancouver Island.

Each year Telus contributes millions of dollars to hundreds of Canadian registered charities through the Telus community boards. The focus of the boards is to provide grants to grassroots charities that support local youth.

As a member of the community board at Telus, he reviewed the HPS application and visited the HPS classes where he could observe the kids learning and making music.

“We are very pleased to support Harmony Project Sooke. We fund programs that best meet our vision and clearly demonstrate criteria such as enabling youth to succeed, and focus on health and education,” Draper said.

“Th funding from Telus will really help build the strength of the ensemble and orchestra experience for the students.” Bjorklund said.

“It will allow us to sustain current programs, mount a third beginning strings class for students in grades two to four, and to start a second drumline class for beginners.”

Classes meet at Journey Middle School and take place outside of school hours. Registration has begun for all September classes.

For more info and to register, please contact Lorna at sookeharmonyproject@shaw.ca 250-642-6681.

– Submitted by Sheila Whincup



editor@sookenewsmirror.com

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