THANK YOU! And Moving Forward

We are so happy to announce that as of February 15th (Mrs. Neuls' birthday), Calgary Kiwanis has informed us that our grand total raised now is $2573 and some change!!! And so, we have met our goal, thanks to YOUR generosity. We will now be able to generate the $100 scholarship for Mrs. Neuls starting this year and forever more in Mrs. Neuls' memory. The interest from this fund will go towards winners in the 7-12 year old age group in the “Two Hand Piano Class” (duet piano) competition. In a previous blog post, we talked about how we (April and Caroline) directly benefited from this scholarship years ago as winners in this category under Mrs. Neuls' instruction; this made this project even more personal for us. We, and all friends and family of Mrs. Neuls, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us successfully establish this fund in Mrs. Neuls' name.

So what now? Even though we have successfully established the fund, the giving does not have to stop here. Further donations to this fund will ensure that the memorial scholarship lives on despite inflation or ups and downs in the market that affect the interest rates of the fund.

If you are still interested in donating in Mrs. Neuls' name, you can:

1. Continue to donate to the established Calgary Kiwanis fund in Mrs. Neuls' name. See our "How To Donate" page for details.

2. Donate to CASSA in Mrs. Neuls' name, another organization Mrs. Neuls loved to contribute towards while she was here with us.

Again, thank you so much for your generosity.

A Tribute for Mrs. Fern Neuls

"Above all, Fern gave most of her life and creative energy to her students. She loved to teach and she loved her students. If you were lucky enough to study with Fern, I know that her love of music is in your soul."

- Linda Kundert-Stoll, longtime colleague and friend of Mrs. Neuls

This was taken from Linda's heartfelt tribute given at Mrs. Neuls' memorial service on February 6, 2012. The entire text can be accessed here (opens in new window/tab). Linda has been super helpful and supportive of our memorial scholarship fund and has kindly allowed us to publish her tribute here on our site.

Help in Reaching Out to Those Who Knew Mrs. Neuls

So now that we've set up the website and all the details have been hammered out in terms of how to donate, our next step is to reach out to Mrs. Neuls' family, friends, colleagues, and former students.

We have approximately 1 year to raise the $2300 CDN so that a scholarship in Mrs. Neuls' name can be established forever at the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival for the duet category (a category that Mrs. Neuls donated to for years and years). While 1 year is not a short amount of time, we would certainly like to reach as many as we can sooner than later so we can beat the deadline well in advance.

April and I are extremely fortunate to have gotten on board the enthusiastic help of two of Mrs. Neuls' good friends in Calgary, Linda and Carol, who have been trying to get in contact with other former students of Mrs. Neuls. Some people have written some heartfelt messages in the guestbooks either at the Calgary Herald Obituaries or at the funeral home obituary page; I wish I could get in touch with them, but have no way to do so. Do you know other former students / friends / colleagues / family of Mrs. Neuls? I hope you will tell them about our donation coordination effort and direct them to this website.

For the technologically inclined, there are some easy sharing buttons at the bottom of each of these updates, as well as at the bottom of each page. Do you use twitter, Facebook, or Google Plus? You can easily post about our site to your social media with just a few clicks and possibly reach out to more people who knew and loved Mrs. Neuls and might wish to donate in her name.

Again, thank you so much for your time.

An Introduction and a Photo

(clicking will enlarge the photo)

My name is Caroline Chen, and I am a former piano student of Mrs. Neuls. I studied piano with her for many years. I loved her dearly, as I know all of you do too.

When April Maa, a fellow student of Mrs. Neuls and close friend, approached me about setting up a website to help spearhead this project in memory of Mrs. Neuls, I immediately jumped in. I am by no means a web guru, so I have just tried to set up an easy way to keep people updated on our progress towards raising $2300 CDN towards keeping her memory alive in the Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival.

The Calgary Kiwanis Music Festival staff have been so helpful. April called and ended up speaking to someone who actually remembers Mrs. Neuls and how she went in every year to donate. Hopefully we have explained everything on the "How to Donate" page thoroughly enough to minimize confusion over how to make sure your donation goes towards the scholarship trust fund we are coordinating in Mrs. Neuls' name.

In closing, I wanted to explain the photos above. In 1985, April and I won 1st place at the Kiwanis Festival for a duet piece. Mrs. Neuls was so proud of us. Many years later, despite Mrs. Neuls' complete TERROR of flying, she flew down for April's wedding. April is on the left in both pictures, and I am on the right. These photos have always been special to us; they are a constant reminder of how much Mrs. Neuls means to us.

We hope you'll stay tuned for updates. Thank you!

Welcome!

Hello to fellow friends, family, students, and colleagues of Mrs. Neuls.

We will be posting updates on our progress towards raising the $2300 CDN here on the blog, so do check back for updates.

We have created an About page, and a How to Donate page. Please let us know if you have any questions.