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W E D N E S D A Y W E E K L Y
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In this Issue
Upcoming Events
June 7-8
Child care days (registration required)
June 11-15
Pre-camp child care
(registration required)
June 18
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Here's to Another Great Year
Message from
Head of School Lisa Lalama
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for more from Lisa.
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Every year when the last day of school arrives, it still feels like it was just yesterday that we were welcoming everyone back and children were skipping into school through the bubbles. Thank you to all the students and families that helped make the 2017-18 school year so successful.
We were lucky to celebrate our eight amazing graduates this morning. Thank you to all those who joined us in wishing them well. Unlike in past years, we can look forward to seeing some of their familiar faces in the WMS halls again this fall as our middle school becomes a reality. Please s
tay tuned next week for a special graduation edition of our newsletter, when we'll recap today's graduation ceremony and share more about our graduates.
We will see many of your children this summer at Camp Montessori, but others won't return again until September. We hope you all have a wonderful summer. It's been a fantastic 2017-18 school year at WMS.
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News & Notes
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Year-End Reminders
A few reminders as we wrap-up the 2017-18 school year:
Key fobs: If you're not returning for the 2018-19 school year (or coming to camp), please return your key fob to the front desk at the end of the day today.
Summer communications: Over the summer, we'll send the Wednesday Weekly to returning WMS families and camp parents every two weeks. Be sure to like us on
Facebook, and follow us on
Instagram and
Twitter for more WMS summer fun! We will also share Information on Edmodo periodically.
Have a wonderful summer!
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Thanks Co-op Families!
Thank you to all the families who offered their support this year through the Co-op Program. Parent interest, involvement and support have always guided our school, and we could not put on the many wonderful events our children and families enjoy without your time and talents.
Returning families, please stay tuned later this summer for co-op news about the 2018-19 school year.
We appreciate all you do!
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Blue Rocks Tickets
The Blue Rocks tickets (two per child) from the Rocky's Reading Challenge were delivered to all Primary and Elementary classrooms. There are extra tickets at the front desk if anyone needs them. If you would like to exchange these tickets for another date (they were valid for June 5), bring the June 5 tickets to the Blue Rocks ticket window and exchange them on the following dates:
- July 16
- August 21
- September 2
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PRIED Stages Broadway-Inspired, Student-Produced Musical "Never Forgotten"
Last week, the students at PRIED Middle School, which will become part of WMS this fall, staged
"Never Forgotten," a musical the students imagined, wrote, scored, designed, choreographed and produced themselves, under the direction of PRIED's music teacher, Heather Wadler.
Loosely based on the Broadway musical "Anastasia," which the PRIED students saw earlier this year, "Never Forgotten" is set in present-day New York City. The lead character, Tessa (played by eighth-grader Ava Walsh), is the granddaughter of a Broadway star. After a series of mishaps and a bump on the head that leads to amnesia, Tessa lands in an orphanage. Hazy memories of singing with her grandmother ignite Tessa's determination to find her "lost" family member. The production culminates when Tessa and her grandmother are reunited and together sing the show's lead song, "Life Is Passing Like A Dream," composed by seventh-grader Addie Laster and sixth-grader Arynn Shweiki.
Producing "Never Forgotten" was a year-long project for PRIED's theater program. Last fall, the students each proposed storylines and spent several sessions discussing the many aspects of producing a musical. After agreeing on the general storyline, they worked in teams to write, compose, design and prepare the show.
"The kids managed this from the bottom up, in a hands-on way that required them to figure things out along the way," Heather said. "Of course, this involved music composition and theater, but also math and English because the production required creative writing skills, budgeting, marketing, costuming and so much more. It was a holistic experience and the students were fully immersed."
As WMS prepares to add its middle school program this fall, this kind of immersive, hands-on theater and music programming, under Heather's guidance, will be part of the arts curriculum. A certified K-12 teacher, Heather specializes in general music, choir and voice, and has an extensive background in the performing arts, specifically musical theater. She served as WMS's music teacher for two years before leaving to attend graduate school. She will return as WMS's middle school music teacher in September.
"Working on a project like 'Never Forgotten' keeps the students motivated and engaged for the entire school year," she said. "They study music, but they also learn self-confidence, poise and time management. Seeing their work come to life, and seeing how brave they are in front of the room, is so rewarding."
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| A scene from "Never Forgotten," PRIED's 2018 musical, featuring one of the original songs the students composed |
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Tomorrow's Leaders
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Jeremy Hebbel (WMS '95) Chases the Music Bug
Music has always made more sense to Jeremy Hebbel (WMS '95) than anything else he's pursued in his 34 years, but the path to his role as co-founder and co-owner of
Gable Music Ventures - a Wilmington-based music event planning and promotion company - wasn't perfectly straight.
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| Jeremy as a sixth-grader in 1995 |
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Jeremy grew up surrounded by music, and there was often live music in his childhood home.
Yet it didn't occur to him that music could grow into a viable career until well after he had dabbled in a series of odd jobs. "I did every job under the sun as I was bouncing around trying to figure it out," he said.
After delivering pizzas, selling digital cameras, CUTCO knives and cell phones, and working as a loan officer, bank teller and landscaper, Jeremy settled on selling musical instruments for Accent Music. "I knew I needed to be around musicians and musical instruments," he said.
Then, one day while working at Accent, Jeremy met his future business partner, Gayle Dillman. She came in for a guitar for her teenage daughter, and a conversation sparked between the two that led to Jeremy helping her daughter with songwriting and finding performing opportunities.
"There were no options for a 15-year-old girl to play her original music, so [Gayle] said, 'Let's rent a place and put on a show,'" Jeremy said.
They rented the
Center for the Creative Arts in Yorklyn
for Gayle's daughter and a few other young musicians to showcase their talents, and more than 100 people showed up. A few months later, Gable Music Ventures was born.
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Jeremy at the 2016 Ladybug festival |
While Jeremy always dabbled in music - teaching himself to play guitar, writing songs and playing in various bands - it was always on his own time. Even as a young WMS student, music was not his primary focus.
Jeremy attended WMS for just three years - from fourth through sixth grades - at his mother's prompting. "Those were my golden days," he said. "It's the only private schooling I had. I had ADHD - I was never a good classroom learner. My mom took the opportunity to see how I would blossom in smaller classroom setting."
He credits former WMS teacher Helen Gadsby with introducing him to acting and theater, which helped provide him with a social and creative outlet through high school. Helen cast him in a Shakespearean play at WMS, and he continued acting through his high school years at Concord High School.
After high school Jeremy enrolled at the Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD) as an illustration major. But the moment drawing became work, it was no longer therapeutic or enjoyable. He knew before he even made it into his second semester at DCAD that a career in illustration was not for him. He graduated with an associate degree in fine arts and decided not to pursue art any further. A greater desire to be involved with music also continued to dog him.
"Even at DCAD, I was forming a band," Jeremy said. "I always had a dream that I would be a successful musician."
F
ast-forward to 2011, and Jeremy was beginning to realize that dream, but on a different side of the stage. Gable Music Ventures started out booking musicians in rented venues, with mixed success early on. When word got out that the Firefly music festival would be setting up in Delaware in 2012, Jeremy and his business partner, Gayle, decided to take a chance and set up a piggyback event - the
Ladybug Festival
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Jeremy and Gayle set up the inaugural Ladybug Festival - an all-female music showcase - in six weeks, and 300 people attended the first year. Seven years later, the Ladybug Festival is the largest all-female music festival in the country. This July, Ladybug's 75 acts are expected to attract 10,000 people
"All in all, it's pretty amazing that [Ladybug] is about to turn 7 years old," Jeremy said. "[Gable] was definitely my calling. I could tell within a few weeks it was something I was supposed to do."
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 The Wednesday Weekly shares WMS news and events that are relevant to the families in our community.
Please send submissions to
[email protected]
by 4:30 p.m. on the Friday prior
to the issue in which you wish to include your information. Content may be edited for length
and style and may be held for a future issue due to space constraints.
For more information, contact Noel Dietrich, Director of Advancement & Communications.
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