Letter: Props to those who give back

Because of the activities of one of my children, I have been blessed this week to see three local community members who have really gone above and beyond the call of duty in running some programs that are helping many youth in our community thrive, and  I feel it necessary to give them some public props.  
First on Thursday night at the holiday band concert at Rancho and again Friday afternoon at the Share Your Holidays event. Susan Silviera, the elementary band teacher, just did a fantastic job organizing, teaching and molding a very young, enthusiastic and highly diverse group of young people into a wonderful sounding band. Being the elementary band teacher can often be a thankless and sometimes overlooked job and she does it very well.
Then Friday night at the Oriana Chorale concert at the Presbyterian Church, the new youth choir made their holiday debut. Rachel Romina started with this group in September and has molded them into a first-rate youth choir and they are in the middle of three public performances culminating on Tuesday night at the Mission in San Juan Bautista. On Saturday, I was able to watch the promotion testing for Schleeter’s Academy of Martial Arts. Mr. Pat Schleeter who has been running a program for over 25 years in town, believes in authentic assessment, and over 30 students ranging in age from 3 to 68 participated in belt testing watched by a panel of six black belts. People who were there to support their children and family members applauded many times as the students performed over a thousand techniques. Each of these three people has done a tremendous job with the youth that they have been entrusted with, and I just wanted to let the people of Hollister know about them and their programs.
Randy Logue, Hollister