By MAGGIE MCMCURRAY
Moapa Valley Progress
A Christmas tradition for many local families includes a trip to Moapa Valley High School to hear the annual holiday concert put on by the school’s instrumental music programs, under the direction of Kim Delgadillo. This year’s program started out with the intermediate band, made up primarily of freshmen, playing three songs, including a fun arrangement called “Santa Rocks the House”.
After this the advanced band playing a wide range of songs from the traditional German carol “Stille, Stille, Stille” to the modern “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, complete with a baritone sax solo by Zach Anderson.
The symphony orchestra came next with three selections. In addition to the usual strings, this group included percussion, brass, and woodwinds which added depth and feeling to the performance. There was even a tuba solo by Justin Henderson.
Next on the program was the ever popular jazz band. It’s three selections were studded with solos by many jazz band members, including Tyler Peterson, Josh Leavitt, Darren Hardy, Hanna Mortensen, and Averee Widdison. They ended their performance with an encore performance of perpetual crowd favorite “Feliz Navidad”.
A special presentation was made to Dr. Ann Rice, a huge supporter of Moapa Valley schools. Dr. Rice had an illustrious career as an educator during which she taught all over the United States and in Australia. Since her retirement, she has tried to find ways to continue to support education and make it fun so that children will want to learn.
Rice discovered the Adopt-a-Classroom program and originally adopted a classroom in her area of Mesquite to help them get an incubator. After seeing what a positive difference her support could make, Dr. Rice continued to adopt classroom after classroom, eventually purchasing Chromebooks for the entire school of Perkins Elementary in Moapa. Those Chromebooks were such a hit that she then purchased them for much bigger Bowler Elementary and, most recently, the entire student body of Moapa Valley High School at a cost of over $160,000 for the high school alone.
In recognition of her great contributions to the education of local children, the staff and student body of MVHS read a tribute to Dr. Rice and presented her with a large basket of goodies that included homemade local pomegranate jelly and homemade bread.
Dr. Rice said she desires to make learning fun again for children and the best way seems to be integrating technology into the classroom. “I just want to thank all the kids for taking this technology and doing fabulous things with it,” she said. “I expect to see these students designing the technologies of the future, walking on the moon, and developing things we can only dream of today. I just love them.”
High school principal Hal Mortensen, who worked with Rice for all three local donations, is very grateful for her donations and generosity towards Moapa Valley kids.
“Dr. Rice’s generosity has allowed all students and teachers to have a Chromebook in their hands,” he said. “Here at the high school we have just finished putting our wifi infrastructure in place and just passed out the Chromebooks last week. The teachers are beginning to integrate them into their teaching and lesson plans and the kids can take them home to do projects and other homework. And it is all thanks to Dr. Ann Rice.”