Historical Elementary Music Concert a Huge Success!
Launch the media gallery 1 playerBy: Jessica Hoffman, a sophomore at Leigh High School
This year's K-6 spring concert, held on March 23, was a tribute to the history of Leigh, and featured music from various decades and an original script written by Leigh choir teacher, Mrs. Cindy Settje.
Settje explained a little more of what the concert was about by saying, “I am so excited that we finally got to have this concert. Last year when our theme was ‘Under Construction’, I thought it would be fun to research the changes that Leigh Community Schools went through over the past 100+ years especially since it would be the last concert held in the old gym. Unfortunately, COVID had different ideas, and we never got to have that concert. This year we learned about decades of music, so I tweaked the concert a little from last year and rewrote ‘A Blast From the Past’ including top hits from the different decades, but still including the history of Leigh Community Schools."
She continued, “I am so proud of how the students performed, acted, and enjoyed singing. Everything went so smoothly and was a lot of fun to do. There were so many people who helped out to make it truly a successful 'blast from the past.”
The unique concert had a wonderful community turnout. It also featured junior Audie Tejkl and senior Emily Loseke dressed in late 1800s fashion and narrating the entire program. Junior Natalie Brabec and senior Rylee Olson also helped out by creating a presentation that played on the vision board that went along with what the concert was about.
The show began with over 40 preschool students under the direction of Mrs. Tiffany Cash showing off what they have been working on in their classroom.
Next, the Kindergarteners played the construction workers who have been working on our school. They walked onto stage with their hard hats and construction gear. They then began to sing their songs “Heigh Ho Heigh Ho, It’s Off To Work We Go”; “Skip, Skip To My Lou”; and “Just Whistle While You Work.”
Then we learned how our town began. It started in 1874 in Millersburg. Where is that you may ask? Well, it’s here. Our town was originally named after Mrs. Miller, but then in 1887 it was renamed to Leigh. The first graders then came on stage and sang “Home on the Range” and “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” to commemorate this time in history.
The next big event in Leigh’s history was the bond passing and the building of the school. In 1907 a bond was passed to build an eight-room building that cost $15,750.00. Unfortunately, in 1925, a fire caused some of that building to be damaged, which caused another election. This special election was for a bond to remodel and add an assembly room, gymnasium, and two other classrooms to the existing building.
The second graders then began to sing their songs, “They’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,” “Tea for Two,” and “1929 Happy Days are Here Again.”
After the second graders sang, junior Audie Tejkl and senior Emily Loseke continued to narrate the concert, talking about the school during the years of 1965 and 1966. During this time there were 317 students enrolled at school making those hallways packed full of students. The third and fourth graders then sang the songs “Lollipop,” “Great Ball of Fire,” “Those Were the Days My Friend,” and “I’m a Believer.”
Fast forward a couple decades, and Leigh was in need of a new elementary school, so Leigh finally passed a bond for 2.5 million dollars. This took three times and finally passed in 1997. In 1999 they were able to move into the new elementary school. The fifth and sixth graders then sang songs from the more modern days “Back in 1999,” “I Want it That Way,” “Somewhere Out There,” and “Old Town Road.” They ended the spring concert by asking the spectators to participate in singing the school song, which is “Across the Field.”
Sixth grader Vylet Hollatz enjoyed the concert and said, “It was fun to learn about the history of Leigh, and my favorite part of the concert was singing our school song with the crowd.”
Senior Emily Loseke also helped put on this spring concert by narrating it. She said, “This was a really awesome experience for everyone involved! I thoroughly enjoyed the music and celebrating our town's past and future. I'm thankful I could participate as a senior and with my little brother, since it was his last elementary concert. I would like to give a special shout-out to Mrs. Settje for writing a great program and Loretta Tejkl for helping with the historically accurate costumes as well."