UMST gives final donation

Lisha Van Nieuwenhove

Lesley Joosten, left, and Kathy Normandeau, both of the Uxbridge Music Scholarship Trust, present USS music department head Amy Peck with an $11,000 donation to the department. Photo by John Cavers

The Uxbridge Music Scholarship Trust (UMST) gave its final donation last Friday evening, passing $11,100 to the music department at Uxbridge Secondary School.

During an evening of music that was put on by members of the music department and the school’s bands, Lesley Joosten, a founder of the trust, and UMST chair Kathy Normandeau presented music department head Amy Peck with the cheque. The UMST said the department could use the money as it “sees fit” - to repair instruments, assist a student meeting certain qualifications and/or needs, or put it towards workshops that might benefit an entire class. There was one stipulation: some of the funds are to be used to hang a plaque in the USS Music Department recognizing the UMST founders and the close connection between the UMST and the school.

The donation to USS was the final donation from the UMST because, after 25 years of helping music students in Uxbridge, the UMST board decided that the trust had “served its purpose.” The UMST was founded in 1998 by the late Anthony Holt and Lesley Joosten, with the assistance of Paul Kett, as the Uxbridge Music Scholarship Fund. It grew out of a desire for Holt and Joosten to bring excellence in music to Uxbridge through guest artists and their own donation of time and talent. The funds, raised purely by donation, were awarded to what the board considered “deserving, hardworking, music students” who were planning on a post-secondary music education. The fund evolved into a trust, but its primary purpose to support deserving Uxbridge Secondary School music students to pursue their musical goals did not change.