Kiwanis Club Donates to Lawrence Disney Trip

When the heard that some music students could not afford to go on a potentially life-changing trip to Disney World, the group, along with other organizations, stepped up with their wallets to help make the Florida visit more affordable.

“Such a trip gives students a memory they will always have,” said Chris Lindsley, president of the Five Towns Kiwanis. “It also gives students … an incentive to continue to excel. It also strengthens our community by having them travel and see the outside world.”

The district is taking 240 students from the marching band, chorus, orchestra and dance team to Disney World on Thursday, according to Assistant Superintendent Gary Schall, who is also Lawrence’s director of music. The district will assist some 40 students who are on reduced lunch, Schall said. The Kiwanis club donation of $800 and other donations helps pay for the trip for some students, reduces the cost of the trip for every student and provides extras such as snacks.

“We are very grateful that both the Kiwanis [clubs] of the Five Towns ... gave significant donations as well as the Sons of Italy and the Levitt Foundation, which supports major arts institutions,” Schall said.

The Lawrence School District has taken students to Disney every other year since 1999.

“It’s a highly selective program, you have to audition to perform down there, not every school district gets an invitation to go down there,” Schall said. “No taxpayer money goes to fund this trip; it’s all privately funded.”

Lindsley stressed that it’s important for the community to recognize local students who want to excel.

“Instead of living in a box of Long Island, they see not only Disney, but it opens their mind, because they get out of their elements,” he said. “These kids are kids who have desire to be leaders of the next generation after us. We want to give them that experience and reward them for their achievements.”

Five Towns Kiwanis member Tom Cohen was touched by a speech Schall gave to the group, in which he said that some Lawrence students have never left the state.

“It would be unfortunate for some kids to be able to go and some to not,” Cohen said. “It’s a life experience and they may not have that experience in the future. In today’s economic environment some families may not be able to afford extras and that’s what my club is there for.”

Schall, who as a professional musician performed in Europe, Romania and Japan, said it is important to connect traveling to music.

“When you perform in an international venue to thousands of people from around the world, and you realize you’re the entertainment for people, it raises the musicianship of the student,” he said. “There’s no higher-level venue that we can provide for our students.”

He added, “Students that I’ve seen from our first trip in 1999 who have long since graduated say the most significant thing in high school was the Disney trip. To hear kids say that a decade later is amazing.”