THE PUBLIC MIND: COMMUNITY THANKED FOR SUPPORTING TRIP

To the Editor:

This is an open thank you letter to the people of Cape Girardeau who contributed to the Band, Choir and Orchestra of Central High School that helped in some way to finance our trip to Washington, D.C. I believe that I may speak for Mrs. Williams and Mr. Nall in expressing our gratitude for contributions to their efforts as well as ours.

My intention here is to thank all of you publicly for your contributions and support for the arts in general. As a community of individuals we often look mostly at what is wrong with us as a society. Yes, we do have faults and short-comings and we must work on correcting them, but take a few moments to reflect on what is right with Cape.

We have a healthy business community, industry, a retail center that attracts many from the surrounding area, fine educational institutions staffed by people who care, medical facilities among the finest in the nation plus services that you know about that would extend this brief list considerably.

The best thing about our community are the people and our youth. The vast majority do not get into trouble. They go to school, graduate, earn additional degrees, attain marketable skills and become positive contributors to our society.

We took approximately 150 of these young people to Washington, D.C., where they performed, sharing their talents with the people in that area. The students also had an opportunity to visit many sites of historic and cultural significance.

These youngsters, your sons and daughters, represented Cape Girardeau in a very positive way. Their behavior was great even when some rather trying situations occurred. The trip was not without flaw, but the students were great troopers.

I am sure that some of you reading this would have contributed to our efforts had you been contacted. Many of you who did contribute expressed the desire to remain anonymous. We are respecting those wishes, but want the public to know that there were many of you and that your contributions are greatly received. Many businesses and civic organizations made contributions.

Melvin N. Gilhaus

Orchestra Director

Cape Central High School