Then the pandemic occurred. Schools were shut down. The school district canceled all springtime events of any kind, including the final choir concert. The plan for a surprise musical number to honor Mr. Wood died too. Almost.
My daughter kept talking to me about finding a way to honor Mr. Wood. I suggested that she should contact the senior choir officers. But as the weeks passed, it became clear that nothing was happening on that front. One teacher at the high school said that due to the pandemic situation, many seniors, including some of the best students in the school, were struggling to fulfill graduation requirements and complete concurrent enrollment courses. The senior choir officers were probably too swamped to think about much else.
A few weeks ago my daughter asked me if we could put together a video choir for Mr. Wood. We have all seen video choirs during the pandemic. The way it works is for each performer to listen to a choir track through earbuds or headphones, and take video of themselves singing so that only their voice is heard on the video. A little research revealed that I lacked the necessary equipment, software, and expertise. But my daughter was insistent.
After making it a matter of prayer, I was prompted to reach out to professional videographer Jason Hadley of Masterpiece Images. Jason was willing to help. He had the equipment and know-how. Besides, he has kids who have studied under Mr. Wood. Jason even provided a drive share where videos could be dropped.
The next step was to obtain the sheet music, accompaniment track, and choir track for the selected song. Mr. Wood had been teaching students in all of his choirs this year to sing a choir arrangement of the ABBA song Thank You for the Music, so we needed music that matched this arrangement. This proved to be difficult to find.
After praying about it, my wife suggested contacting the school's theater director, Mark Daniels, who knows about digital performance media and related rights. Mark said that the school had coincidentally just purchased the needed materials and performance rights. Mark made arrangements for us to use these materials.
Then we had to recruit current and former students of Mr. Wood to take video of themselves singing and drop their video in the drive share. Our daughter reached out to current students via email and social media. I put out a post on social media, having no idea where it would go or how it would turn out.
Thankfully, my social media post soon made its way to some of Mr. Wood's former students, one of whom turned it into a group which quickly added members. Many people liked the idea, but for several days, the only video on the drive was my daughter's. It can be pretty intimidating singing a solo instead of being physically surrounded by fellow choir members being directed by a conductor.
Little by little, videos started trickling in. Some were family groups, including siblings, parents and children, and extended family, all of whom had taken choir from Mr. Wood. A few days before the deadline I was concerned about the low response. As I prayed one morning, I sensed the Spirit telling me to chill out. This was not my project or even my daughter's project. It was God's project and it was going to work out better than I expected.
At the same time, the social media group took on a life of its own. People started posting memories of their time in choir with Mr. Wood. Mrs. Wood became a member of the group. She later told us that she spent a lot of time crying in the bathroom after reading wonderful comments about her husband. She wanted to keep it a surprise for him.
The final two days before the deadline were filled with responding to questions and issues regarding technical difficulties people were experiencing with uploading their videos. I am a software developer, so I am used to troubleshooting technical issues. We were able to successfully resolve many problems. I was pleased with the number of videos that poured in just before the deadline.
Jason ended up synchronizing 108 voices into the Scott Wood video tribute choir. He said that he was worried about what it would sound like when it all came together but it sounded fantastic. It really sounded like a cohesive choir, despite being spliced together from nearly 100 individual videos. Here is the final product:
At one point during this project, I wondered aloud why my daughter and I should be doing this. We weren't formally in charge of anything. It's just that our daughter felt strongly that Mr. Wood ought to be honored. She didn't want him to end his distinguished career on a whimper during the pandemic. My wife said that it was clear that God wanted the project to happen. She surmised that our daughter and I were the ones God could get to do something about it. Besides, it was good for us. God pulled in lots of other people, who each did their part.
Our plan was to present the video to Scott Wood on the day the cancelled choir concert would have been held. Mark Daniels made arrangements for a very small retirement ceremony in the school auditorium that day. Due to pandemic restrictions, only a dozen people attended, including Mrs. Wood and several family members. My daughter and I were privileged to be among the attendees.
Mr. Wood was completely surprised by the event. He was deeply moved as he watched students spanning 30 years singing for him. The audio of the choir in the auditorium was simply amazing. We captured some of Mr. Wood's reaction in this video:
As the Spirit had foretold, the event was even better than I had expected. God knows how to do his work. Following the event, we added Scott Wood to the social media group. He was able to read and respond to hundreds of heartwarming and beautiful messages. Our daughter is very pleased that Mr. Wood now knows that his career was very consequential in the lives of many.
I am so proud of our daughter. This project wouldn't have happened without her. She didn't have to do this, but she felt that it was the right thing to do. Our daughter loves performing arts, although she is not a star performer. The rest of the school experience is kind of rough for her. This project demonstrates the quality of our daughter's character, which is far more important than any academic achievement.
To Scott Wood I want to say, thank you for your career. Thanks for blessing the lives of our children. May you enjoy many wonderful retirement years.
