Umang Glee Club seeks community’s support for lunch fundraiser

Koblerville Elementary School’s award-winning Umang Glee Club is asking the community to support their luncheon fundraiser at the Oleai Pavillion on Saturday, Jan. 28, from 11am to 2pm.

Tickets are now available for the luncheon, which costs $5 per set of red rice, bistek, fried chicken, and coco.

Schobwuut Premier Consulting’s Rose T. Ada-Hocog, an active Umang Glee Club parent, said yesterday that this fundraiser seeks to raise money to cover the meals of the 25 students when they compete in the annual Tumon Bay Music Festival in Guam next month.

Umang Glee Club won gold in the choir competition and was hailed the second best musical group after the Saipan Southern High School’s Manta Ray Band during last year’s festival. It will be defending its titles and will compete in other categories. The club will also serve as the opening act for the 2012 festival slated for March 2 to 11.

The group is under the direction of Karen Alla and John Jimeno.

Ada-Hocog said they need $4,000, which translates to about $150 per student, to ensure that they have enough to feed the children and not give them the same experience as last year’s.

“What happened last time was we didn’t have enough money so what we did was we brought with us boxes of soba and cereals to feed the kids,” she told Saipan Tribune. “We’re also fortunate to have food donations from D&Q and a family in Guam assisted us by cooking some food for the kids.”

According to Ada-Hocog, they have already raised the money for the group’s airfare and accommodation, much of it donated by various companies during the holiday season.

“We accept donations but we also want to teach these kids that if they want something, they’ve got to work hard for it. These kids have been working so hard and we want to make sure that they’re rewarded properly,” she said.

Ada-Hocog said they printed 250 tickets for Saturday’s event. This will be the first of several luncheon fundraisers the club plans to do.

Ada-Hocog said the club is also busy with choir practice after school every day.

“They have to learn 15 new songs and, at the same time, they’re going to be singing the song of Olomwaay band She Gave Us Love. We need to put those into musical score sheets so we need all the time to prepare the kids,” said Ada-Hocog, adding that Olomwaay’s Gus Kaipat will assist the club.

Ada-Hocog said that she and several others are taking care of the luncheon fundraiser as they don’t want to further burden the students’ parents.

“We want to make sure that the parents concentrate on getting that travel insurance so the kids can be covered while they’re off-island,” she explained.

Ada-Hocog said the community has been supportive of the Umang Glee Club, which is why they are appealing to them for their continued support.

“The people of the CNMI have been so supportive of them and we want to make them happy and bring home several medals from the festival. We’re asking that they continue to help the kids and make this possible again,” she said.

To buy tickets for the luncheon, to donate or for more information, call 989-1974, 237-3622 or 23.