On a bright morning at Dougherty Valley High School on September 18,  the annual music booster Pancake Breakfast was welcoming families, friends and supporters of the music program. A festivity that had been going on for four years, and widely advertised by the Band, Orchestra, and Choir at Dougherty Valley yielded as many as 800 people, all gathered to listen to music played by students and eat pancakes. It was the first major fundraiser for the music program and took participation from many parent volunteers, students and teachers. 

In the middle of the quad was the main stage, where students of the music programs performed multiple songs, and booths were set up to the sides. The two main booths consisted of help from parent volunteers who served pancakes and coffee to the guests. Another was set up solely for advertising the music programs and Dougherty Valley and selling merchandise, including vintage shirts from past events. An ongoing raffle was happening during the event, where guests got to buy a ticket to win gift cards from multiple stores, video games, a FitBit Versa 2, and Dougherty Valley merchandise.

The stars of the show were the students who performed continuously throughout the event. The first half fully consisted of band and orchestra, starting with lively beats and ending with solos performed by Jazz Band. The rest of the event was performed by Choir, with Concert Choir and Chamber singers starting this segment off with “You Can’t Stop The Beat”. They continued with the Vocal Ensemble performing “Can’t Buy Me Love”, Treble Clef and Chamber Singers with “Taylor the Latte Boy”, and Chamber Singers with “ I Want You Back”. At the finale of the Pancake Breakfast all levels of Choir came together to perform “Life’s a Happy Song”.

The event not only introduced these students to their first performance but also helped them in several aspects of funding for the electives. Diana Walker, the choir director and AP Music Theory teacher at Dougherty Valley High School speaks on how impactful the event is for the rest of the year. 

“All the money is going toward instrument repairs, sheet music, piano tunings, music stands and all sorts of stuff.” 

The Pancake Breakfast was just the first for fundraisers set out for the music programs, as many are planned for the rest of the school year. Walker expresses how the Pancake Breakfast shapes the road for the rest of performances set out for Choir. 

“It was just a really fun environment and it’s a good first performance to kind of give parents and families a taste of what our future performances are going to look like and feel like”