PATRICIA J. PERLETT MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIPS

Patricia Perlett was our 1st and most loyal supporter and donor.  She is the mother of Executive Director, Sharon Woodard and Grandmother to Creative Directors, Seth and Tanner Woodard.   Pat was an educator for over 30 years, a volunteer for scouts, a NJ historical museum docent and a donor to many organizations she believed were doing “good work”.  We at Dark Sky benefitted countless times due to her generosity and she was supportive of our efforts from our first months right up until her passing in January of this year.

In her honor, Dark Sky offered three tuition scholarships for the 2017 season to members exemplifying loyalty, commitment to music education and volunteerism. 

The recipients of the first Patricia J Perlett Memorial Scholarships are Tia Berrera, Olivia Zahniser, and Steve Davalos.

This is Tia’s third year in Dark Sky on the marimba line and she will be aging out in 2017.  She was also a member of OCI and Mandarins.  Tia stay busy teaching at Nogales HS, their feeder Telesis Academy, Arcadia HS and Patriot HS while working on a composition degree.  Tia “gets” the whole indoor picture and demonstrates a strong and consistent work ethic to her peers and students.

In her second year with Dark Sky, Olivia is holding down the center marimba position for this season.  She has also been a member the Gold and Crossmen drum corps. Olivia’s love of music shows in her playing and she shares her gifts by teaching and volunteering at Oceanside HS while working on a percussion performance degree.

Steve played in the Dark Sky front ensemble from 2013-15, volunteered in our 2016 booth and has returned for 2017 to play vibes in his age-out year.  Steve has also marched with Gold and Mandarin drum corps and teaches.  Thoughtful and positive, we’re pleased to have Steve back on board and to award him one of our new scholarships. 

Olivia and Tia