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Family gives back to school
SW Carpet donation 9043
The Brotzman family donated carpeting for the activity room, used for band and choir practices, at the Southwestern Middle School. Pictured from front left are: Logan Brotzman; second row: Rachel Brotzman, Tyler Brotzman, Rhianna Brotzman, middle school band teacher David Iserman, choir teacher Theresa Brown; back row: Mike Brotzman, Cathy Brotzman, Jim Brotzman and school maintenance supervisor Ron Beaver. Middle school students presented the family with a card of thanks. - photo by Dena Harris

HAZEL GREEN—Mike Brotzman and his wife, Cathy, the owners of Country Heights Supper Club and Motel in Kieler, donated more than $3,000 worth of carpeting to the Southwestern Elementary/Middle School for the activity room that currently serves as the band and choir practice space.

Two years ago the middle school band and choir grew to a size that they no longer would fit into their regular classrooms. Because of this, they had to move their rehearsals to the activity room.

The activity room is a room that can best be described as a multi-purpose room that is extremely loud acoustically, has a cargo net and ropes hanging from the ceiling and other various things hanging from the walls. It has a basketball hoop and is used to store extra student desks, teacher desks and other extra school furniture that is not currently being used. There are often volleyball stands and mats sitting in the corners. It is a room that is still used for physical education classes which have equipment constantly moving in and out.

Middle school band director David Iserman said when band and choir are going on, there are still physical education classes going on in the main gym. Much of the sound from the gym travels through the doors into the activity room, which can make it very difficult at times to rehearse.

“The Southwestern Middle School band and choir would like to thank Mr. Brotzman and his wife for their tremendous donation to the school,” Iserman said.

He said with another donation that has been given to the band, the school is planning to start the process of having some acoustical sound panels made that could be put on the walls in the gym and activity room to reduce the volume of sound as well as the reverberation. Any help or support with this project would be greatly appreciated.

“These projects are something that are long overdue and will improve the learning environment in the rooms for years to come,” Iserman said. “Again, a huge thank-you to Mr. and Mrs. Brotzman for their very generous donation and for helping to make the learning environment of our school better. We would like to thank Mr. Ron Beaver and the Southwestern maintenance crew for the extra time they took in putting the carpet in.”