After countless years of being runner up, the Tri-M music honor society finally placed as the 2016-2017 Tri-M Chapter of the Year Senior Division Winner. The National Chapter of the Year Program is designed to reward chapters that perform service projects and increase awareness of other Tri-M chapters.

Tri-M Chapter 2605 contributes to the Great Neck community with enjoyable music performances. Every year, members put on performances at the Cohen Children’s Hospital and local nursing homes. Additionally, instrumentalists perform at many school events, community events, graduations, and award ceremonies. Students involved in Tri-M participate in the performance of lobby music every Friday morning. Isabel Yang, a Co- President of the club, comments, “These local performances help grow music awareness within our community and attract attention to new members,” the club allows students to “branch out to the bigger community.” The biggest project last year was exchanging a SKYPE call with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) and raising $3,000 for needed funding.

By early May, about one hundred pages filled with essays and pictures of events were bound together and submitted as part of an application for Chapter of the Year. In August, the winners of the Chapter of the Year were announced and the winning Tri-M music honor societies were awarded with music scholarships. Elana Xu, a Co- President of the club remarks, “Although winning the title of Chapter of the Year is very fulfilling, we are motivated to be role models for the other Tri-M Chapters around the country,”.

Following the tradition of hosting an annual Tri-M dinner, Chapter 2605 invited chapters nearby to join for a night of socializing. Students from Oceanside, Levittown, Manhasset, Jericho, Herricks, McArthur, and the Division high school enjoyed music Jeopardy and Kahoot! At this dinner, there were live performances. Principal Daniel Holtzman was the guest speaker at the event.

With the recent ongoing natural disasters, the co-presidents donated the dinner’s proceeds to Texas chapters to provide aid and to fund music programs in the affected schools and communities.