Performance by American quartet to boost Merrin School exchange
13 June 2003
Efforts to send a party of Merrin School children to our sister city of
Songpa-Gu in September has become a truly international affair, thanks to
an American barbershop quartet.
‘Delusions of Grandeur’, a visiting comedy quartet has agreed
to give a fundraising performance for the trip at St Christopher’s
Church, 244 Avonhead Rd on Wednesday 18 June at 8pm.
“This comedy quartet is brilliant. They’ve sung at Eurodisney
in Paris, done shows in Europe and over 200 shows in the USA in the last
ten years,” says Dave Adamson, a local barbershopper and Christchurch
City Council international relations co-ordinator.
Delusions of Grandeur
will be giving shows throughout New Zealand in the next two weeks
but the St Christopher’s performance will be the group’s
only public Christchurch show.
Tickets cost $10 and are available from
Merrin School, Ph 358 8369. Door sales may be available on the night.
Twenty
two Merrin School pupils will visit Songpa-Gu in September on
what is believed to be the first primary school exchange to be
arranged between
New Zealand and Korea.
Twenty five Korean children from Se Ryun School,
Songpa-Gu visited Merrin School for a four day visit in February
2003.
“The initiative (for the exchange) came from Merrin School teachers,
after watching many Korean children excel in the classroom. We were very
interested in the society that these children had come from,” says
Mary Jonker, a Merrin School teacher and organiser of the exchange.
Merrin
also has strong links with the local Korean community. “About
15 per cent of the school’s population is Korean and there are few
children at our school who do not have at least one Korean friend,” Mary
says.
Parents from Merrin and Se Ryun have raised their own funds
for the exchange, with students being home-hosted with families
in both locations. The school
needs to raise another $5,000 for the children, six teachers
and 6 accompanying parents to travel from Christchurch to Songpa-Gu.
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