The other day, my kids and I were watching a video. But it wasn’t a video about Indiana Jones or some other fictional character. It wasn’t Playstation or Wii. It was my oldest child’s Third-Grade Program tape.

It seems like yesterday that my daughter sang “16 Tons,” “Chattanooga-Choo-Choo” and lots more songs in the Chautauqua gym. I can’t believe it has been six years and that she is now in high school.

Then my second child came through. I vividly recall how sentimental I was when she sang the same songs her sister had sung. I sat with my video camera, watching intently, laughing sometimes, crying sometimes. 

There have been ups and downs over the years as parents have tried hard to find the funding for this beloved program. Every year we shake our heads as the scramble begins and the parents of third-graders jump in to pass the hat.

This year, I am back again, with my youngest deep into Third-Grade Program rehearsals.

But just as the parents started gearing up to raise money (the program only costs $2,000 each year, mostly for the performance accompanist, who works all year on the program), something amazing happened.

Hello, Dreamboats!

The folks who came out with the “Dreamboats Calendar” asked that $1,000 of their proceeds go to the Third-Grade Program this year.  Between that wonderful donation and a small bit of parent support, the program should be fine for another year.

I admit my bias. I am a singer. Much of what I am today is based in singing, and much of what I was when growing up came from it, too.  So I look at the issue with the eyes (and ears) of a singer. Why can’t we just fund the program forever? It’s simple, right? Why don’t we all just admit what a fantastic program it is and find the money?

Because it isn’t simple. Nothing is anymore. So we find cool projects and generous donors and take it one step at a time.

I hope there are parents behind me who are lined up with their pre-schoolers, kindergarteners, and first- and second-graders, ready to take the Third-Grade Program to heart as I have over the years. I hope they are ready to keep raising money to make this amazing thing happen. I love what it did for my two daughters six and three years ago. And, no offense to my girls, but this is what I love even more:

I have a “boy-sy” boy. He is a boy who loves soccer and baseball and running and screaming. He adores the Third-Grade Program. He looks forward to school this year much more than he did each day in first- and second-grade. It’s not the teachers. He loved his old teachers. And he’s always had lots of friends. But this year, he looks forward to rehearsing the Third-Grade Program. I hear him humming “Putting on the Ritz” and watch him practicing little dance steps.  From what he tells me, all of his friends feel that way.

So I look at the program headed my way one last time this spring. I am sure I will be clapping hard, watching those teachers who have danced and sung their way into the hearts of third-graders now for 30 years. I will be smiling at my little boy up there, singing up a storm. I will remember his sisters dancing and singing, girls who are growing up far too quickly for me now. It doesn’t take much concentration to see them up there instead in my mind’s eye.

But I know the clapping will be accompanied by a tear or two. Third-grade feels like more than the program. It feels the age when the kids go from being the “little kids” at Chautauqua — and at life — into the “older kids.” From there, the time just flies more and more.

I can’t believe that time is here. No more Third-Grade Program after this year? When did that happen?

Thanks for the memories, Third-Grade Program.

There are many things I will miss about you after this spring. Pretty much everything actually — except the fundraising.

—Lauri Hennessey has three children and runs a public relations business on Vashon.