BHS music department receives donation

Ed Clift (from left), Izzy Bartscher, Caleigh Huber, Beth Clift. Izzy and Caleigh are holding the Megan Clift Memorial Shining Star Awards presented for Theater and Choir in 2017.

The Byron High School Choir and Theatre departments have been given a generous donation of $3000 from the Megan Clift Memorial Fund established at the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois. Megan was a member of the Byron’s choirs and theatrical productions in middle school and high school before she was tragically killed in a car accident her senior year of high school. The donation in honor of Megan, from the Clift family, has been used to support many activities and events that the choir and theatre program participate in. Here are several ways the donation has been used this last school year.

Scholarships have been granted to students who have been selected to be a member of the Honors Performance Series National Honor Choir in New York City. The students audition for the Performance Series and, if they are selected, they will participate in an honor choir with students from the United States and International schools. Their final performance is in Carnegie Hall. There have been three middle school students that have benefitted from this scholarship this year.

The Byron Thespian Troupe has used a large chunk of the fund on a yearly basis to travel to the Illinois High School Theatre Festival. This festival is the largest statewide HS theatre festival in the country and brings together over 4500 students every January for 3 days of workshops and performances. The funds help make the cost of registration and hotel manageable for our students and gives them the opportunity of yearly opportunities in theatre education.