Email: cherylmailbox-grwc@yahoo.com
Tenor, Board Treasurer
In May of 1996 I attended a concert by the Grand Rapids Women's Chorus (their first spring concert) and joined them their next season. I found a family, a most accepting caring and enjoyable musical family. These women knew how to live life, enjoy life, and how to help each other grow individually and as an organization through the combining of their time and talents. It's a powerful culture, a wonderful mix of women.
I agreed to be the first chair of the newly formed board of directors as the chorus became an official 501c3 non-profit organization. I gladly moved into the position of treasurer for the chorus as the organization took on a new level of growth and development under the chairmanship of Gabrielle Calkins. I developed a new skill learning how to keep the books from the "retiring" treasurer Martha VanderEyk who devoted her time to directing the chorus' very talented small ensemble.
The only musical training I've had was the opportunity to learn to read music (sort of) in my middle school years, some self-taught guitar playing in college, and a limited amount of singing in some church choirs, but I still fit in this group of women. It's the music - the sound that resonates when we learn it and sing it, the rush when we perform it. But it's way more than the music. I've stuck with this group because they've stuck with me. We are a living, growing, changing, learning, powerful group of women, supporting each other both musically and in life. We are a family.
Oh...what's my day job you ask? Not at all related to anything I do with the chorus. I'm a veterinarian at