Talk about commitment.

The following is an amazing story of commitment to education. It comes from Orchestra Director Crystal Sabik, Alliance City Schools; Alliance, Ohio. We're very proud to share it, and we plan on nominating her for teacher of the year:

In February of 2006, I was invited to Bellefontaine, OH to observe and assist with a workshop that Mark Wood was conducting as part of an Electrify Your Strings event (a former college classmate, Laura Mitchell, is the orchestra director there). While I was familiar with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I didn't know much about Mark as an individual, nor about his EYS program. I was immediately impressed with the way he interacted with the students. As the workshop progressed and I observed the excitement of the students as they performed popular music, some of them using electric instruments, I became convinced that this was something my students could benefit from.

I returned to Alliance the following Monday and told my students about my day in Bellefontaine. Unfortunately, though, we did not have the funds to book an EYS program at that time. Even if we made a massive fund raising effort right away, we would not have been able to book a program for that school year, so this idea was put on the back burner for the time being. When we returned for the 2006-2007 school year, I began tossing around fundraising ideas. A couple of groups that I was familiar with had successfully raised money by creating and selling cookbooks, so I decided on that route. In early 2007, my students submitted recipes, and with the help of our high school's graphic communications department, we printed 350 copies of "Kitchen Concerto" (so named by a high school violist). As an added incentive, I promised the students that if they sold over 300 cookbooks, I would have my head shaved at the high school orchestra's spring concert. By May 24, 2007, we had sold about 325 cookbooks and had earned over $3,000; my very supportive husband shaved my head on the stage after our performance that night (I barely remember the pieces we played!).

On the last day of the school year, I confirmed the dates of Mark's visit with Laura Kaye.

In January 2008, we began preparing the tunes for our EYS event. The kids were working hard and getting excited, but during our preparations, I don't think that they fully understood what the experience would mean to them. Our EYS event took place on March 19 and 20, 2008. It was the most amazing experience of my career and one of the most fun times in my life. Besides being a musically educational experience, my students performed with an energy and passion that I had never seen before. What a gift for a teacher to observe such joy from her students. We must include this variety of popular, folk, and American music that, admittedly, was not a part of our curriculum in the past. My entire outlook on the orchestra program has changed; it is as if new life has been brought to the program. My hope is that this is not a one-time event, but the beginning of a partnership that will continue in the future.

Crystal Sabik, Alliance City Schools; Alliance, Ohio