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BALLSTON SPA STUDENTS  BEGIN ANNUAL PENNY HARVEST
BALLSTON SPA — Students in the Ballston Spa Central School District have started the annual district wide penny harvest in each of the six schools. The schools will hold various activities in the coming weeks to gather up pennies which will be collected by the SEFCU mobile branch on December 4, 2018. During the last ten years students have collected and successfully donated $89,747 to local nonprofit organizations through participation in the annual SEFCU Penny Harvest program. The Penny Harvest student leaders in each school are responsible for researching local community issues and the non-profit organizations before deciding how their funds could be used to further support these non-profits. The annual SEFCU Penny Harvest is implemented in grades K-12 and has proven to be successful in educating students in service learning and financial literacy. This program teaches students about the importance of philanthropy and service as well as teaching math, communication, and team building skills. The program is implemented in the fall of each school year and monetary awards will be presented to the local charities in May. Students collected over $9,400 in pennies during the fall 2017 harvest and donated the funds to eight local non-profit organizations. The district is very grateful to SEFCU for sponsoring the program and processing over 940,000 pennies.

The awards for 2019 will be presented at a ceremony on May 21, 2019 at the Ballston Spa High School. For more information,
please visit the individual school websites or contact the BSCSD Office of District Advancement at 518-884-7195.

Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect  Visits Ballston Spa Middle School
BALLSTON SPA — Over 100 Ballston Spa 7th grade Orchestra, Band and Choir students recently attended an interactive presentation with visiting musicians from Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program.  Ensemble Connect is a two-year fellowship program for the finest young professional musicians in the country, designed to develop the artistic values and skills necessary for careers that combine musical excellence with education, community engagement, advocacy, and leadership.  The program reflects the belief that today’s artists require both the ability to perform at the highest level and the capacity to give back to the community, inspiring the next generation of quality musicians and music lovers. The visiting musicians included the students in their presentation and provided minilessons about their musical performance. They also provided all students with free tickets to their concert on October 19, 2018 at Skidmore.
Ensemble Connect musicians are in residence at Skidmore for one week each October and February working with Skidmore students in classes, lessons, and coaching, presenting world premiere performances, and also offering interactive visits to local schools and human service organizations that involve student engaged performance. For additional information, please contact the Ballston Spa Music Department at 518-884-7150.