Musical fundraiser in Fremd teacher's memory

Music students at Fremd High School lost a beloved teacher in December, when Robert Green succumbed to brain cancer.

However, they haven't forgotten him, and last week, they worked to carry on his memory.

Green, the son of WGN radio political commentator and Roosevelt University's School of Policy Studies Director Paul Green, was passionate about music. He worked to instill that passion in students.

Now, Green's choral students, as well as band and orchestra members - all part of the Modern Music Masters Honor Society, which Green used to lead - are carrying his passion forward through a unique fundraiser they held last week.

They banded together, so to speak, to raise money for a pair of organizations that provide musical instruments to the troops. They included Operation Happy Note, which sends instruments to deployed servicemen and women, as well as Operation Music Aid, which donates instruments to military hospitals to help wounded soldiers recover.

"Anyone who's ever played an instrument knows what a morale booster it can be," said senior Daniel Brottman of Hoffman Estates, who plays French horn and also sings with Fremd's a cappella group, The Four Norsemen.

He and the other quartet members, Robert Romanowski, Matt Koehlinger and Jim Schiffer, all of Palatine, performed Friday outside the cafeteria, drawing attention to their fundraiser and displays.

"I had a really good response in all my classes," Schiffer said, describing the pitch to classmates to donate their spare change. "Everyone was really supportive, especially when they heard it was for the troops."

A trio of girls playing patriotic music on their flutes followed, including: Mary Halco of Hoffman Estates, and Anne O'Farrell and Jamie Amundsen, both of Rolling Meadows.

Under Green's leadership, music honor society members had volunteered at all of their concerts, and had gone out to some of their feeder schools in Palatine, Hoffman Estates and Rolling Meadows, to recruit new students into Fremd's music program.

However, this was their first attempt at fundraising for something outside their building and beyond their own music world.

Students reasoned that supporting Operation Music Aid and Operation Happy Note built on Green's passion for music, by making it accessible to soldiers far away from home, and for those in military hospitals receiving extended care.

"I think when people think of instruments, they think of a school band," Amundsen said. "They don't think about all the rehabilitative aspects of them."

Sophomore oboe player, Janet Sanoica of Rolling Meadows, agreed, adding she hoped their musical performances Friday would draw students and staff toward their display boards where they could see the visuals of both organizations.

"Once they see the pictures," Sanoica said, "they understand."

To date, Operation Happy Note has shipped more than 2,700 instruments overseas, including: guitars, mandolins, banjos, violins, harmonicas, and accessories. Operation Music Aid also has donated more than 1,000 instruments to soldiers and military hospitals.

Proceeds raised by the students - through their collections, T-shirt sales, and live performances on Friday - will be split evenly and donated to both organizations. Students hope it will be enough to make more instruments available.

"There's just something about playing an instrument," said senior Robert Romanowski of Palatine, "that lets you kick back, relax and feel a sense of peace."

To find out more about these organizations, visit: www.OperationMusicAid.org, or www.OperationHappyNote.com.