Raguet Elementary’s choir will again visit Rotary Club of Nacogdoches, this time on Wednesday, Dec. 13. The program will mark the 69th year the school sends its students to the service club at Christmas.
And the tradition of an NISD choir visiting Rotary goes back even further, 75 years, to 1944. That was when Francis Cariker Rudisill was named a music teacher for NISD – the previous teacher had been called up to military service during World War II – and Rudisill knew how to play piano.
Rudisill later moved to Raguet when the campus opened in 1954, and the school has been making visits to Rotary Club ever since.
The tradition of in-person appearances was interrupted in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But a performance by the school’s choir was streamed to a Rotary Club meeting that year, keeping the streak of recitals alive.
The Raguet choir is led this year by music teacher Amber Fontenot.
Before the Rotary Club program on Dec. 13, the Raguet students will visit NISD’s District Support Center for a show that’s also been taking place for a number of years.