Ola High School Choir Director Mindy Forehand said she was “shocked” when a local Hollywood humanitarian helped her students raise enough money to perform in New York City.

The choir received a $12,000 donation from the Chris Tucker Foundation on April 13. The actor and comedian donated the funds to cover the balance needed to send them to perform at Carnegie Hall on June 20.

“I didn’t even really believe it, to be honest,” said Forehand. “I thought, ‘There’s no way that’s actually a real thing.’”

The donation is the latest chapter in a story that began in December of 2019, when the choir was selected to perform at Carnegie Hall. What followed, said Forehand, was a combination of anxiety and fundraising in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cost to send 75 singers to New York City is more than $200,000. The total covers plane flights, hotel rooms, venues, a rental fee for Carnegie Hall, transportation and flights to New York City.

Also included are performance fees for the New England Symphonic Ensemble, and a contracted professional soloist who will accompany the choir, said Forehand.

After raising the majority of funds she needed, Forehand decided to make another push.

“I had it in my brain that I was going to try to contact the news stations, to try to get us back on the news,” she said.
Soon afterward, Forehand said, she received a response from WSBTV, and arranged for them to meet with Ola High School Principal Nick Ellis and Assistant Principal Jessica Torres.

“My principals told me to set up a GoFundMe account,” said Forehand. “We did that and immediately started getting donations in the first few hours.”

The next morning, said Forehand, she received a message from the Stockbridge-based Chris Tucker Foundation, indicating that the actor wanted to pay the remaining balance.

“Based on what I knew the GoFundMe had already made, I told them $12,000,” said Forehand. “They said he wanted to deliver it in person.”

School officials, said Forehand, allowed the Carnegie participants to be in the choir room so that Tucker could surprise them with his donation.

“They were really shocked,” said Forehand.

Not all of the choir’s 140 singers will go to Carnegie Hall, due to a vaccine mandate at the venue and the financial burden of the trip itself. Participants in the performance, said Forehand, include 51 current students at Ola High School, 20 alumni, and four parents.

The choir will perform “Dreamweaver” by Ola Gjeilo, and the world premiere of “Nos Non Solum,” with music by Alexis Renee Ward.

“The premiere will be conducted by former Ola Choir student Drew Bradley, now a high school choir teacher himself,” said Forehand. “This is one of my opportunities to let my kids shine.”

Ola Choir student Eve Michael will also present a poem for the occasion, said Forehand.

Mindy’s husband, Chip, supervises the county’s performing arts centers in McDonough and Stockbridge. He commended his wife for allowing Bradley to conduct the choir.

“In this profession, conductors do not give up podium time, ever,” said Chip Forehand. “I told her that’s noble, but I can definitely support the reason behind it. He will have doors open up for him just because he did this.”

Mindy Forehand expressed her gratitude for the support the choir has received, including local residents, businesses, and others who have backed the choir over the last two years.

“You can tell that some people understand the gravity of what we are trying to accomplish and the validity of this opportunity,” said Forehand. “There is literally nothing bigger in this country, for performing arts, than performing at Carnegie Hall.

Forehand, for the last two years, reached the quarterfinals for the Grammy Music Educator Award, presented by the Ford Motor Company and the Grammy Museum. Currently, there are 131,000 public and private schools in the country and approximately 250 quarter-finalists for the award.

“I was nominated by students because the kids just know that I would go to the end of the earth for them, and there are not a lot of people who would do that,” she said.

For more information, visit ohscarnegie.org.