A Look Back In Time: Galesburg High School 2015
On October 5, 2015, the MWAH! troupe visited Galesburg High School, located in Knox County, in western Illinois. Participating in the Galesburg performance were Taylor Oechsel, Ashley Stonehouse, Jon Chambers Green, Justin Smusz, Jack Romero, Sophie Michael, Chad Sype, Zori Schiffman, Max Sype, Lindsay Kent, Jillian Gomez, Levi Ballard, and Landon Ballard. Also participating – as she has with our troupe for so many years – was Jennifer Higgins, from Geneseo, Illinois, who spoke about the tragic loss by suicide of her son, Joshua, when he was a middle school student.
The slideshow was produced by Scott Harrington of Elmhurst, Illinois, assisted by Clarissa Colletti.
None of us who knew Jon Chambers Green will ever forget his kindness, enthusiasm, and dedication during his year and a half of performances, post-performance discussion sessions, and so many other troupe-related events. Jon tragically lost his life in a motorcycle crash on April 27, 2021, when a mini van suddenly pulled in front of him on Lake Street, near his home, in Addison, Illinois. Jon is believed to have died at the moment of impact. He was 19.
Taylor Oechsel, an extremely versatile and dedicated member of our MWAH! troupe for about 12 years, also was the troupe’s dance choreographer, and both this Galesburg High School video and the Bondurant-Farrar Middle School video highlight some of her amazing talent, not only in dance, but also in singing, narrating, playing a variety of musical instruments, acting, and back-stage managing.
It should be noted that another long-time troupe member, Landon Ballard, directed a ‘This Is My Brave’ (TIMB) production at the historic Egyptian Theater in DeKalb, Illinois about seven weeks ago – October 13, 2022. TIMB originated in 2014 in Leesburg, Virginia in 2014 as a not-for-profit organization that empowers brave people to share, via story-telling and the performing arts, their personal encounters in dealing with such mental health issues as depression, substance abuse, and bipolar disorder. A basic goal of TIMB is to end the stigma surrounding mental illness and addiction. The DeKalb production was sponsored by a variety of mental-health service organizations in the DeKalb-Rockford area of northern Illinois.
This unique TIMB program currently operates throughout the U.S. as well as in Australia. As most of you know, mental health has been a basic focus of our MWAH! troupe over the past few decades, as noted on our website. Since its founding 39 years ago, the primary mission of our troupe has been that of changing and saving lives – including the lives of our troupe members and their families.
The next presentation by Landon and his wife, Amaria, is scheduled for this next Monday, December 5, 2022, for a school audience in Paw Paw, in north-central Illinois, off I-39. Landon and Amaria are scheduled for about six presentations for both middle school and high school workshop audiences in February 2023 at the Quad Cities Youth Conference at the River Center in Davenport, Iowa. Click here to see highlights of last year’s conference. On November 15, 2022, Landon produced a one-hour webinar for a state-wide audience of educators, including school principals, sponsored by the Illinois Principals Association. Landon’s webinar has been posted on our MWAH! website