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School of the Arts Wins $5,000 in Singing Competition

http://youtu.be/i63WxjU8eHk

Representatives from the New York Lottery presented a $5,000 check Wednesday at the School of the Arts. 

John Gabriele’s choir performed the song that won them a 5 thousand dollar prize for their second-place finish in the lottery’s New York Sings Facebook contest.

Gretchen Schantz remembers the day Mr. Gabriele told the choir the good news.

"I'm pretty sure the entire first floor could hear everybody going crazy!" Schantz beamed with pride.

Gabriele says he knew in his heart that his students were good enough to win, but the award confirmed it. 

The school plans to invest the funds in choir uniforms and new instruments.

"We're going to use some of this as seed money to replace a lot of the pianos. The pianos that we have are quite old," said Gabriele. "And the kids deserve quality instruments to practice on, because when we give these kids quality to work with they really produce quality results!"

New York Lottery Acting Director Gardner Gurney says presenting awards for education is the best part of his job.   At the morning ceremony, the students performed the song that won them the honor, “Thank you for being a friend.”

"We need to hear these kids every morning and have a CD of this in our car to get us jacked-up about doing our jobs and making money for education!" said Gurney.

A video of the choir’s performance got nearly 10 thousand votes in the competition.