Ukulele Club at RMS
by Grace Ward, BHS junior/BPS101 Communications Dept. intern
Over the summer, a few middle schoolers brought their ukuleles along with them to Encore Music Camp. They played them together in a group, just for fun. Chris Griffith, music lover and RMS orchestra teacher, must have recognized their good spirit when he suggested to them that they should start a club. The kids took some initiative and launched Ukulele Club at Rotolo Middle School. The club now gets together once a week after school in the RMS Orchestra Room.
When I heard about Ukulele Club, I thought, “cool!” and decided to drop in on the club one day. When I walked in, I was welcomed enthusiastically by talkative and confident TJ Borre who was eager to answer my questions. He explained that Ukulele Club is supervised by Mr. Griffith, but the club is actually mostly student led.
TJ, a seventh-grader, is the one who stands at the podium and leads the group, sometimes with a friend, but each of the kids bounce ideas off of each other in a true team collaboration. TJ says the club started out brisk with 22 members. Now, it’s usually a fluctuating number around eight (kids are busy this time of year). He said he plans to expand the club next year.
The dynamic in this room was extremely impressive to me. I was amazed by the collaboration between the kids. They were completely supportive of one another, and full of constructive criticism and advice.
Any RMS student interested in joining Ukulele Club should contact Mr. Griffith.
