Liberty Middle Wins $25K Grant in 'Glee' Contest

Students, teachers and staff at have much to be happy about today.

The Forsyth County school is one of 10 schools in the U.S. to win a $25,000 grant from the Glee Give a Note Campaign to support music education.

“I can’t tell you how thrilled and honored we are to have won this money to support Liberty’s band program,” said Principal Connie Stovall. “While this brings an accolade to our school’s music program, I am most excited about our real winners … Liberty’s band students.”

Band director Josh Tyree and others were given the good news during the school's holiday band concert Wednesday night.

“We are so excited that the band has won $25,000 from the Glee Give a Note Campaign!” said Tyree. “This project could not have been accomplished without the help of all of the band families and the community at large," Tyree said. "This project has brought a HUGE outpouring of support for the band program in the area. We are so thankful.”

The Glee Give a Note Campaign was created to bring attention to the importance of music education in schools and also to help provide funding to school music programs in need.

In September the contest kicked off and eligible schools were invited to submit videos about why their school was in need of a music education grant.

The $1 million grant was funded through sales of the Glee DVDs. There were 492 schools across the nation that submitted videos. After a public voting period, which had two million votes submitted, videos were evaluated by teams of music educators with the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).

Criteria included relevance to music education, emotional and inspirational appeal, demonstrated financial need, and public voting. 

The video submitted by Liberty Middle School band received 3,442 votes, according to the Glee Give A Note Web site.

The NAfME, in coordination with the Give a Note Foundation, partnered with Twentieth Century FOX Home Entertainment to bring the campaign to life.

The $1 million dollars is awarded to 73 schools in these increments:

• 3 Schools will win the Grand Prize of $50,000 (for a total of $150,000)
• 10 Schools will win 1^st Prize of $25,000 (for a total of $250,000)
• 60 Schools will win 2^nd Prize of $10,000 (for a total of $60,000)