Oakdale Rotary's Wine Extravaganza

For a few minutes, the happy chaos of packing up band instruments halted.  Music director Ross McGinnis had managed to assemble a crush of his young charges around him.  “This is Saturday night and you could have been doing other things…thank you for being here” McGinnis began. “How did it feel to be playing as you walked through the crowds?”  About 80 percent of the upper grade students enrolled in music programs in Oakdale Unified School District showed up on the evening of September 15 to perform at the Oakdale Rotary Wine Extravaganza held for their benefit.  An ensemble of the high school’s string orchestra and jazz octet kept the crowd of about 400 wine aficionados, parents, school district staff and members of the Oakdale Rotary and the Oakdale Golf & Country Club moving through the tables of catered foods and sipping all the wine they could possibly want to sample.

Courtesy Ed Issacs | Dreamstime Copyright

It is easy to see how the earnest Mr. McGinnis, with his movie-star good looks and the enthusiasm of a boy with his first paper route, could catapult enrollment in the district music program from about 80 students just a few years ago to a burgeoning 200 plus.  Frank Clark, co-chairman of this year’s Wine Extravaganza and Oakdale Rotary member, said the change in the music performances has been “…like night and day.”  This is McGinnis’s 3rd year with the district, and he puts in long non-stop days.  Zero Period (a moment of silent gratitude that this is not a universal corporate practice) is his time with the high school jazz band and First Period is drum line.  Mid-day (Second Period through Fifth Period) finds McGinnis scuttling between the junior high and music classes in all the elementary schools.  Sixth Period is a return to the high school with Concert Band, followed by after school practice with the steelband. 

David Snyder, president of the district’s music booster club and a booster member for 13 years, has never been more excited about the music program he helps to, well, boost.  Snyder was quick to note that the Oakdale district school board has continued to be supportive of the music program, while “other districts have not been so fortunate, and music programs have been cut.”  “Booster club used to be the icing [on the cake],” Snyder explained.  But with the growth in the program, the booster club now funds instruments, uniforms for band and choir, and equipment that will provide a competitive edge—like mirrors in the music room for checking out the choreographed and synchronized movements of performers during rehearsals. 

This marked the third year of that Oakdale Rotary has sponsored a Wine Extravaganza.  Long-time Rotary member Frank Clark said a $5000 donation from the Wine Extravaganza events has been given to a community organization each year—this year the donation goes directly to the music programs of Oakdale Unified School District.  Clearly, the funds from the Rotary Club, coupled with money from booster club activities, are important to maintaining a viable music program in Oakdale Unified School District.  But more than funding and a rising star music director are bringing about this change.  Stalwart volunteers Dave Poteet, who founded the Modesto Youth Symphony in the district, and Annette Hutton are consistently at the school by 6:30 a.m. in the morning to direct the orchestra.  They help to provide the mentoring and attention that fosters sustained interest and discipline in young musicians.  

The deep contributions of a community—whether in-kind or in cash—are what put the wheels on the fundraising ideas that benevolent organizations envision.   Rick Schultz, the general manager of the Oakdale Golf & Country Club, can attest to the magnitude of behind-the-scenes effort that undergirds events like the Oakdale Rotary Wine Extravaganza.  Regardless of how willingly the club engages in these shared endeavors, the load can be substantial.  As a distributor of local and regional wines, the country club has the ear of many vintners from the region.  At Mr. Schultz’s request, nearly 20 vintners stepped up and set up tasting tables at the event.  Wine sales occurring in association with the fundraiser run about $30,000.  Attendees at this year’s Rotary Wine Extravaganza also bid on a generous array of live auction items that ranged from several one-of-a-kind dining-wining-touring events to a six-night stay for four people at the Ka’anapali Beach Club in Hawaii.  A featured item was a handmade metal sculpture of a violin donated by the nanogenarian Oakdale artist, Walter Ransdell. 

The Oakdale High School marching band—punctuated by the bright banners fastened to twirling batons—closed the event in grand down-home-America style.  Even as the last oom-pah sounded from the tuba and the large assembly devolved, people seemed reluctant to leave the good company of friends and neighbors.  Most of the members and guests still held wine glasses as they stood about in clutches or sat at tables sprinkled over the grassy petticoats of the golf course. Gradually, the toe-tapping, wine-sipping crowds eased away under the valley’s night sky to their waiting cars.  To hasten their departure, an owl burst from a nearby oak tree, screeching as loudly as the rim shots and cymbal crashes that had announced the drum line. It flew over the heads of stragglers, apparently impatient to reclaim the country club quiet it needed to get its own dinner.