Annie Blood, a sophomore at Crescenta Valley High School, recently completed her Girl Scout Gold Award of organizing 2,000 pieces of music in the CVHS music library.
Her initial task was moving 2,000 folders of music to the choir room. From there, 50 music and community members spent over 500 hours alphabetizing and sorting the music as well as checking that there was sheet music for every instrument.
Blood said her goal was to make it easier to find and store music for later use.
“The bulk of my project was completed over the summer when I mobilized 50 volunteers over the course of six days,” she stated. “[After removing the 2,000 folders] we spent about eight hours a day for six days sorting thousands of pieces of orchestra music.”
Every folder had to be meticulously checked against a master list to verify that every instrument had sheet music. Any missing sheet music had to be logged and each folder alphabetically placed back in the cabinets.
“I then spent almost every school morning for seven weeks, starting at 6:45 a.m., scanning music and correcting the music library computer database,” she stated.
Additionally, volunteers put together four boxes of music to be donated to the Verdugo Hills High School music department.
She provided snacks, drinks and lunch for the volunteers for six days. To raise funds to pay for the food, she babysat and did yard work for 12 hours.
In addition to working with the sheet music, Blood repaired cabinet shelves, purchased locks and handles for six cabinets, and made laminated labels for each cabinet. She raised the money for the purchases through donations. The final task was to scan the music that needed to be digital.
Blood said that there are many people who will benefit from the completion of this project, primarily the CVHS music department and the community.
“The 300-member CVHS music department is a very important part of the La Crescenta/Glendale community,” Blood stated. “They perform at numerous community events, including the Special Olympics, elementary school Founders’ days, community prayer breakfast, etc. Additionally, Verdugo Hills High School benefitted because they received four boxes of sheet music.”