High school music department raising funds in Pahrump

Ian Deutch Memorial Park was awash in music, art and a host of vendors as the second annual Music and Art in the Park returned on Saturday, May 13.

The fundraising event was sponsored by the Pahrump Valley High School’s Music Booster Club.

The goal, Booster Club President Deanna Sistrunk said, is to promote music and art within the community, while raising funds to benefit the school’s music department.

Sistrunk noted maintaining musical instruments and band uniforms creates a financial challenge for the school’s music program.

“Everything we raise helps to pay for maintaining our musical instruments and acquiring music instruments,” she said. “We also use it for maintaining our uniforms and to help defray the costs to participate in regional competitions.”

The all-day event featured various musical acts and art exhibits, including performances by the high school band along with additional local musicians and artists.

Sistrunk also said many local businesses were eager to support the event.

“Almost all of the businesses in town donated items for our raffle, as well as the rock band Journey, who donated items for our silent auction,” she said. “We got two concert tickets that we auctioned off. We also had autographed items from the band ‘Imagine Dragons’ for the silent auction.”

Additionally, Sistrunk said the monies raised will help pay for high school band competitions when classes resume for the fall semester.

“We are hoping to raise enough money to go to California for band and choir competitions,” she said. “Last year we took the choir to California and we took third place against much larger California schools. We are hoping that during the upcoming fall school year, to take the band and the choir to see what we can do and represent Pahrump well. This is our second annual event and we plan on continuing it into the future.”

Sistrunk also showered praise for the music department’s brand new director, Michael Wineski.

“We just welcomed our new music director, who has been just amazing and he is doing a really great job since he started his first year here,” she said. “He really added to the music program. We have an ensemble this year as well, aside from our choir, which is the cello and violin. We gained a lot of stuff this year that we didn’t have in previous years. We have close to a hundred students in our music program. Maybe even a little more than that.”

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes