On Monday, the three of us climbed in the tired old Ford Tempo and drove up to Seattle for the convention registration. We weren’t so lucky with traffic this time and were about 15 minutes late. I was a little flustered, hoping it wasn’t a negative “first impression” of us. (Checkout our archives for background info.)
We once again rode the elevator up through the elegant downtown Macy’s building to the 7th floor. This is where JRP (John Robert Powers Academy) has their spacious suite of offices and classrooms. The walls are lined with gigantic black & white portraits of icons like Jackie Kennedy, Kathryn Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Diana Ross, all who were at one time students of the John Robert Powers training.
Quietly, we found some spots at a round table. We were late and the presentation had begun. We were each given a white binder with tabbed sections. There were sections with forms to fill out, a section with the itinerary of our 10-week mandatory training and the schedule of events at the convention, and there was the all-important section called “Fundraising”.
Robert spoke first regarding the process of training and gave an over-view of the convention. He is an articulate, pleasant man very neatly dressed in a conservative suit and tie. He is the director of both the Seattle and the Sacramento, California JRP programs. He introduced us to Annavon, our Seattle director who would be with us “every step of the way” to the convention.
Annavon is tall, elegant, very articulate and enthusiastic. She seems very professional and has been guiding performers through the iPOP convention process for years. She gave a creative presentation on fundraising idea, sharing what students have done in past years. She mentioned that currently, a parent organizes groups of volunteers to sell concessions at Qwest field during sporting events every year. Those who volunteer split the profits and it goes to the kids’ JRP account. The intriguing thing is, if we get our friends to volunteer all their share of the profits will also go to our kids. I made sure I was on that sign-up sheet.
The meeting ended. It was time to pay the deposit. In our notebooks was a precise, itemized cost for all the training, travel and convention fees. It was clearly explained that the deposit was non-refundable. If for some reason we weren’t able to raise all the needed money for the trip the money would be applied to the next iPOP convention trip which would happen in 6 months.
I thought of past times when several of our kids were invited to travel with a school class to Washington, DC. We never let them participate mostly due to the cost and the required fundraisers. I thought of the fundraising in the past for our kids to go to drum major camp and band competitions. I reflected on the moment I turned down a trip to Germany in college with my German class because of the cost. Then I thought of the determination of our other daughter who figured out how to gather funds for a study abroad trip around the world. I also recalled a young and gifted harpist in our community, Emily Endicott. She was ready in her training to move up to a professional harp, an instrument with a price tag of several thousand dollars. She chose to invite our community to help her raise the funds, and she gave harp performances until finally she raised all the money she needed for her new instrument.
The nice thing about our small town is that when the community is motivated they do amazing things with helping others. Many people know our family; we’ve been here a long time and participated in many community programs. It seems like people would be excited for Maria and James and want to help with this.
I looked at Maria and James. Decision time was here, and it rested heavily on Maria because she had volunteered to pay the deposit money with her own funds for both she and James. Maria said, “I am doing this because I know it is the right step for me. I am still willing to help James.”
And so, the money was paid, the commitment made and we will move forward with optimism.
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