The Van Wert County Courthouse

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

Lack of funding threatens local boy choir

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Without more funding, a unique Van Wert musical group could have to cease operation.

Members of the Van Wert Area Boychoir perform during a past concert. photo provided

The Van Wert Area Boy Choir has provided elementary-age boys with a one-of-a-kind musical experience for the past 15 years. The group was first organized in 2004 by Romaine Whetstone, who was looking for a way to provide a memorial for her mother, who had recently passed away. While first looking at bequeathing the small legacy left by her mother to her church, First United Methodist, Whetstone said she knew that church bequests sometimes sat unused for years.

“I wanted a living memorial to my mother,” Whetstone said, adding that the idea for a boy choir came when she remembered how much pleasure her mother had gotten from attending a concert of the American Boy Choir before her death.

When it was founded, the boy choir formed a board of volunteer directors and organized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit group. Whetstone, who is currently chairman of the board, said the group originally received $6,000 in annual funding from the Van Wert County Foundation, which was enough to cover its annual expenses.

However, Larry Taylor, retired Van Wert junior high choir director who now acts as technical director and music arranger for the boychoir, says the group, which has provided a musical and cultural opportunity for young boys from around the area, is now facing a financial crisis.

With the foundation’s policy of providing full funding to an organization for only the first few years — with the hope it would then establish a funding base of its own — the boy choir has been receiving fewer and fewer funding dollars from that source. Unfortunately, the young age of its members, as well as the relatively few boys involved, makes raising enough funds difficult, Taylor said.

In addition, the fundraising avenues of other groups, such as Boy and Girl scouts, aren’t as feasible for a boy choir whose members are mostly elementary age. Also, many grants available to non-profit groups don’t pay salaries, which is most of the operating costs of the boy choir, other than purchasing music.

The result is the possibility that Van Wert could lose a group that has provided a valuable musical experience to boys from Van Wert and surrounding counties. Taylor said participating boys have the opportunity to sing music that they would not otherwise be exposed to until they were in high school, if then. The group regularly performs classical pieces, as well as contemporary music and spirituals.

Taylor said that, to his knowledge, Van Wert and Cincinnati are the only two Ohio communities that still have operating boy choirs. Unlike the larger Cincinnati organization, which charges $250 to $970 per boy to participate, the Van Wert Area Boy Choir, which recruits boys from eight area school districts, is free to its participants.

Taylor said charging even $250 per boy here would likely cut the group’s numbers drastically, while adding the Cincinnati group can charge a fee because it has corporate sponsorship to defray its operating costs and provide grants to boys from needy families.

Board members Taylor, Whetstone, and Linda Mechling, who met with The Van Wert independent this week, all said it would be very unfortunate to lose one of only two boy choirs in Ohio because of a lack of funding.

“Where do you find a group like this, other than to go to Cincinnati?” Taylor said. “Where do you find the unique opportunity of an original-style boys choir?”

Currently, the Van Wert Area Boy Choir will receive $500 in funding from the foundation, while also raising a few dollars more through donations and fundraising. That won’t be enough, though, to fund the $6,700 it needs to meet its annual operating needs. The group is well led by three talented area musicians: part-time Director Phillip Winfield, accompanist Melissa Clay, and Taylor.

“We are doing our best to continue the choir because of the opportunities it offers the boys,” Whetstone noted. “Without additional funding, we will simply not be able to continue offering this unique program.”

Taylor said local music teachers have expressed their pleasure of having former boy choir members in their singing group because of their musical knowledge and performance experience.

“Our members have also had the opportunity to perform every two years with the Toledo Ballet when they present The Nutcracker at the Niswonger Performing Arts Center,” Taylor noted, adding that the ballet’s director said he looks forward to working with the local group on those occasions.

Those interested in providing funding for the group can call Whetstone at 419.238.1962 or Taylor at 419.513.0554.

POSTED: 08/23/19 at 7:52 am. FILED UNDER: News