Students have placed coffee cans for money collection throughout downtown Los Gatos in an effort to save Jazz Purr, the school's audition-only jazz choir.

Other potential fundraisers include corporate donation requests, grant applications, a Jazz Purr CD and participation in various local events in the push to raise $10,000 for the program that is scheduled to be cut from the high school's curriculum for
2003­04.

According to Diana Pleasant, performing arts department chairwoman and jazz choir instructor, Jazz Purr costs the school approximately $20,000 annually, which pays for part of her salary, sheet music and overhead expenses. The choir additionally brings in an average of $8,000 from fundraisers and performances; that money goes to group trips, such as this year's excursion to New York City.

Now Los Gatos High is faced with a $1.6 million deficit from a local property tax shortfall, and cutting Jazz Purr is one of the ways the school plans to balance its budget.

A group of youth and parents, however, is hoping to raise half of the required funds and then convince the Los Gatos­Saratoga Union High School District to fund the rest.

More than 30 students, parents and interested residents met at a home on March 18 to brainstorm ways to rescue the program. Although there are only eight singers in Jazz Purr, many of the singers present were underclassmen who hope to one day join the jazz choir. Along with current students, a handful of Los Gatos High—and Jazz Purr—alumni attended, as did one couple unrelated to the school or the program.

Under the umbrella of the school's New Millennium Foundation, the group has to date raised almost $2,500. Parent pledges account for close to $2,000; sophomore Roth Rind, who is not a Jazz Purr member, has received more than $300 from coffee cans that he started distributing more than two weeks ago.

Rind hopes to audition for the choir and is the primary student driving force behind the fundraising effort, making presentations to local service organizations and meeting with school officials.

In addition to Rind's plans, other options came out of the meeting. Some students are planning to participate in this Sunday's Mercury News Run/Walk and are looking for pledges. Parent Ron McDowell suggested purchasing a car and then auctioning it off; Chris Mohammed, mother of senior Sahra Alsamarraie, mentioned corporate match grants, which her company does. Another idea was to involve Jazz Purr alumni in raising money at the September All-Alumni Reunion Weekend.

Los Gatos resident Tony Baricevic said he and his wife, Susan, were looking for ways to donate to the community. As a former music educator, Baricevic said the Jazz Purr fundraising hit on his particular interest in arts and education.

Baricevic, a loan officer, said he plans to donate to the jazz choir on behalf of his clients. "If I do 10 loans, that's $2,500," Baricevic said.

"Musicians need someplace to grow. This seems like a very reputable place," Baricevic said. "This is where the emotional kids, the dreamers, can let it all out."

The group also discussed calling district board members individually and then attending a future board meeting en masse to present the Jazz Purr fundraising results.

Mohammed cautioned students, however, to be professional and factual when speaking to the board. "You guys are well-respected in the community; you're known in the community," Mohammed said. "This isn't about pointing fingers. It's about what you need."

Mohammed also said the $10,000 would not be enough to save the program in the long run. Mohammed urged supporters to think about funding Jazz Purr for the next three or four years, in the event that the local economy does not improve.

Although senior Kristen Gonzalez will not be part of the jazz choir in those next few years, she is hoping the program will go on.

Gonzalez said she was headed downhill when she made it onto Jazz Purr, and the experience has changed her life and is the only thing that makes her want to get up for school in the morning. Not only has she made close friends from different social circles, Gonzalez is planning on majoring in theater music at a four-year university in the fall.

In addition, the choir fills a need for the non-athletes and non-active students. "We're not the most popular kids," Gonzalez said.

McDowell said he has seen Jazz Purr develop and mature his son, Jason, a senior. "It's been an amazing transformation, an improvement of self-confidence," McDowell said. "It's allowing him to reach a higher goal and gives him an opportunity to excel."

Where Jason was once shy and introverted, he now is trying new things and directed the school's HIV/AIDS benefit production of Arsenic and Old Lace.

"He loves this. He does well in school because he loves what he does," McDowell said. "Jazz Purr's really been where he's been stretched as a performer."

Jason agrees. "I was basically dragging," he said of his high school career before he joined Jazz Purr. Jason said he now has a sense of leadership and hopes to have a career in musical theater or drama.

He also pointed out that Jazz Purr performed at De Anza College on March 21 in a show that featured the Los Gatos High group as one of the few remaining high school jazz choirs in the area.

Jazz Purr also performs at local service club events and at residences for both the elderly and autistic children.

"We're the only kids in our community that actually go out and make a difference," said Erica Draa.

"It's amazing what satisfaction you get from doing what you do," Draa said. "You can't even imagine what it's actually like unless you're there and you see their happiness."

Draa, a senior, said losing the jazz choir will also decrease enrollment in the concert choir, since many students—including herself and Gonzalez—take concert choir with the hopes of advancing to Jazz Purr in the future.

"The loss of Jazz Purr is the loss of music at our school," Draa said.

To contact the New Millennium Foundation, visit www.lghsnmf.org or call Chairwoman Joanne Rodgers at 408.356.1858.