’Suds Challenge’ supports trip to Music in the Parks Festival

The “Freshmen and Sophomore Suds Challenge” was held Saturday in the 7-Eleven convenience store parking lot off Hartford Avenue in Johnston.

For much of the sun-covered day, members of Johnston High School’s freshmen and sophomore classes enjoyed some old-fashioned fun and performed a number of duties during a special car wash fundraiser coordinated by the Johnston School Music Association (JSMA).

Students like Kelsey Scott, Sophia DeCosta, and Liz Cruz, for example, wore wide smiles and stood on Hartford Avenue holding colorful handmade signs that advertised the car wash in hopes that motorists would pull in.

Students like Jack Frenier and Jordan Oliveira also took their turns promoting the car wash across the street near the entrance to Johnston War Memorial Park.

A host of other students, meanwhile, used big sponges and several hoses to clean off vehicles.

But the event was much more than kids getting wet while washing cars and small trucks. It was another important JSMA fundraiser, meant to help cover the cost for the Johnston High band and chorus to travel to Williamsburg, Va., in April to participate in the prestigious Music in the Parks Festival.

“Everyone is excited and working hard so we can make the trip to Williamsburg,” band director Ronald Lamoureux said. “The kids have been fundraising since the first day of school, and that will continue through March.”

The Music in the Parks Festival, which will begin on April 19 and continue through April 23, is a competition featuring musical groups like jazz and marching bands as well as choirs and choruses from various levels of school that will make the trip to Williamsburg from all over the country.

While there will be a variety of activities for participants during the festival, Lamoureux said. A major goal will be winning the treasured Esprit de Corps Award, which the Johnston units have won twice in past years.

“All the groups at the festival are in competition for this one award,” Lamoureux said. “Choruses, bands, marching bands, jazz bands … high schools, middle schools, and community groups want to take that coveted award home.”

The band director, who shares music department duties with chorus director Oliver Reed and new faculty member Mathew Gingras, said “the award goes to the group that best conducts themselves. The winner must be a group that competes with unmatched passion and discipline, courtesy for others, and a high level of spirit.”

He added: “It’s not just an ideal that we ask the kids to aspire for during competition, but a way we are encouraging them to live their daily lives.”

JSMA president Pamela Oliveira, meanwhile, announced that members of the junior class who are in the band and chorus will hold another car wash at the 7-Eleven on Saturday, Oct. 22 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. All proceeds will help fund the trip to Williamsburg.