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Arts & Entertainment

Bauer Foundation Receives $20,000 Check

Encore presents winnings from national vocal competition victory.

For Linda Rosen and Encore, a journey that started this summer came to a happy conclusion Tuesday when the Buffalo Grove vocal group handed over that helps families deal with the sudden loss of a loved one.

“The reality of all this has sunk in with this presentation,” Rosen said as she sat, obviously overwhelmed, on the stage of after Encore and DDR, a shopping center management company, presented the check to the .

“We knew there would be a goal, but to actually do this from beginning to end, this journey....,” she said, her voice trailing off in the emotion of the moment.

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The journey began when Encore entered "Sing," a national vocal competition in which the winner selected a charity that would receive $20,000.

The winner would also receive a $5,000 gift card and a personal session with two-time Emmy Award winner Kevin Briody.

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in September at the Deer Park Shopping Center; they put in extra practice time for the competition staring in April, Rosen said.

But the real effort came in harnessing community support for the online voting that put the vocal group over the top.

“Music is all about a journey. It’s a blank canvass to paint. And we were able to paint the music. We were able to use the music to help the community,” Rosen said.

She praised Encore members for their effort.

“They gave selflessly from 5:30 in the morning to taking off from work, spending every Tuesday for the last six months rehearsing,” she said. “Its astounding, these people gave so much.”

For winning the competition, Encore also received an hour with Briody, who attended the presentation Tuesday at Woodlawn Middle School and their rehearsal Tuesday night to listen and talk about their music and his song writing.

The Lauri S. Bauer Foundation is named for a beloved, long-time Woodlawn PTO member from a sudden heart arrhythmia.

Rosen, a music teacher at Woodlawn, taught all three of Bauer’s sons and said the decision to give the $20,000 to that group just made good sense.

“I can’t imagine a more worthwhile charity,” she said. “It was so close to our heart. There were a lot of things suggested, but in the end, this is what we wanted to do.”

Scott Bauer, who leads the foundation, heaped praise on the community and Encore.

“They went above and beyond normal human beings do,” he said.

The $20,000 check will help the center fund the Lauri Bauer/Barr-Harris Grief Center, which staffs therapists to provide support for grieving children, and to further develop its school outreach programs in the community.

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