Mixing music with service

PACE — Pace High School’s chapter of the Tri-M Music Honor Society — the international society designed to recognize students for their academic and musical achievements, and reward them for their accomplishments and service activities — recently donated resources and their musical talents to the Florida Baptist Children’s Home campus in Pensacola.

A large part of the mission of Tri-M is to participate in philanthropic efforts within the community and surrounding areas. For their latest efforts, the society collected and donated nearly 800 diapers to the FBCH.

"We were really just looking for an opportunity to help out the community, because Tri-M is a service organization," Jules Bates, the president of Pace’s Tri-M, said. "We’re mostly a music group, so we’re made up of band and choir. We wanted to also do something else… so we thought that donating diapers would be a good way to do that."

The FBCH in Pensacola comprises the Swilley Residence, a 5,500-square-foot cottage with an attached social work office. The campus was founded in April 2001 and houses up to eight school-age through high school children. The location offers services such as campus ministries, adoption services, foster care, transition to independent living, maternity care, counseling and referrals.

On Dec. 8, students from the Tri-M society visited the FBCH to perform a concert for the Christmas open house.

"We’re kind of mixing both the service organization and our music group," Bates said.

It was Bates’ idea to choose the FBCH, because she said she was looking for opportunities within the community that weren’t engaged by other service organizations at the school, such as Beta Club or the National Honor Society.

Bates has been the president of Tri-M since May 2017, and is actively looking for new service opportunities. She said she would like to start visiting the local middle schools and recruit students for Pace High’s choir, like they already do for band students.

Pace High’s chapter of Tri-M was started in the fall of 2010, for a way to recognize the best and brightest students in the Pace High School Musical Arts Program, according to the society’s website. Interested students must meet several academic, service and musical requirements before they can submit an application.　

"We have 63 members, and it’s been growing every year," Bates said. "This year has been the biggest year, so that’s been really helpful."

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Mixing music with service