THIRTY- FIFTH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

NOVEMBER  2009

 Over a dozen alumnae returned to Guilford to help celebrate the thirty-fifth year of our Guilford A Better Chance program, one of the oldest ABC programs in Connecticut.  Morris Pleasure, with his wife, ABC alumna and lawyer, Lori Harris Pleasure, also returned to Guilford, his hometown, to add to the celebration and to our coffers with a sold out concert at the Guilford High School auditorium.  Morris, often generous to Guilford with his time and talent, is an instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, and producer who has performed worldwide with Ray Charles, Earth, Wind and Fire, Roberta Flack, Natalie Cole, and Janet Jackson among others.  He was the keyboardist for Michael Jackson’s projected “This Is It” tour, performed at his memorial concert in LA, and appears in the film based on the tour.

The ABC graduates began arriving at the ABC house early afternoon on November 21^st to attend an open house hosted by the present ABC students and Resident Director Courtney Barbour, and where Masheri Chappelle sold signed copies of her novel, The Descendant.  The evening concert was preceded by a buffet, at the lovely home of Eva and Michael Brown, for the alumnae and past and present board members of Guilford ABC and the Hole in the Wall thrift shop.  The musicians, presented by Morris’s production company Watersign Media, had arrived a couple of days earlier to work on their program called “Mo & Co, An Evening of Jazz and Funk.” 

There was standing room only at the enthusiastically received concert, where our present ABC students acted as ushers.  Three jazz students of GHS teacher Tom Boates, and GHS graduate and guitarist Mike Frost, joined the band for part of the evening.  One of the highlights of the program was a two piano duet between Morris and the pianist Vana Gierig.   Both of these musicians, plus bassist Rob Massoud and drummer Ben Perowsky, took small fees so that the large majority of the profits could go to the Robert Pleasure Fund of Guilford A Better Chance, named in honor of Morris’s father who was for many years the principal of A.W.Cox Elementary School, and an early supporter of ABC.

Some of the alumnae continued their celebration back at the Guilford Suites, which had generously offered reduced fees for them and free stays for the musicians.  Other sponsors of the fund-raising concert were the Yale New Haven Hospital, Andrew and Eileen Eder, K&G Graphics, Lyrob Graphics, Withers Bergman LLP, Guilford Savings Bank, Jane Marcher Foundation, Super Wash, Shoreline Aviation, Webster Bank, and Guilford Parks and Recreation which supplied the second grand piano.

Thanks is due the advisory board which sought donors for and organized these exciting events:  including Barbara Angle, who found alums, organized the mailings, and kept us all focused; Geoff Bye, who arranged on-line ticket sales; Helen Carlson, who hosted morning meetings with a grand array of provisions; Cynthia Hirni, who coordinated the dinner; and Carol Wright, Morris’s piano teacher from his ages eight to eighteen, who arranged the concert and with board member Christine Dokko did publicity.  Board member Gwen Gunn was the coordinator among board, advisors, and alums; and Winnie Siebert, our president, oversaw all.