Etowah Youth Orchestra director Michael R. Gagliardo

Yesterday the Cherokee County Herald published a report about the Etowah Youth Orchestra and their value to the community. In the aritcle, Director Michael R. Gagliardo discussed how bingo is helping to fund the orchestra programs.

“If you play Bingo in Etowah County, for every Bingo Card you purchase, there is a 10 cent tax on that bingo card,” said Gagliardo. “That 10-cent tax comes back and funds the Etowah Youth Orchestra program at a rate of about $40,000 to $50,000 a year. It’s a pretty amazing thing and when I come out, I always encourage people to come to Etowah County and visit our bingo place because that helps support the youth orchestra program. Visit all the other wonderful things in Etowah County, but come and play bingo and help out the youth orchestra.”

We are also impressed with Gagliardo’s committment to fundraising.

“We’re always trying to do something new, we’re always trying to do something different, but we’re always making this available to our students,” said Gagliardo. “If a student wants to participate in our program, we make sure they can do it. We’ve had students who have wanted to go with us to Carnegie Hall and they’ve come to us and said, ‘there’s no way we can come, we don’t have the money. It costs some $1,300 to go to Carnegie Hall and $2,300 (per person) this past year to go to England. Every student who wanted to do it, went with us, regardless of their financial situation. We worked with them to raise sponsorships, we worked with them at fundraising and our community and state supported our program, we were able to send every student who wanted to make the trip. That is what it is all about. Every one of these students has the opportunity to be a part of this program and we in turn try to provide our students with as many opportunities as we can.”