For the first time, event will be held at the Downtown Amphitheater
Published in the April 29 – May 12, 2015 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Robert Airoldi
Photo by Marty Cheek
Karen Crane teaches young singers how to perform a patriotic song at the April 18 Morgan Hill Values Youth Fair.
Karen Crane’s patriotism was formed while student teaching at Vandenberg Air Force Base in the 1970s. “I saw men and women being deployed and the sacrifices made by their children and the single parent left behind,” Crane, 67, said.
Her love of teaching patriotic songs was formed a few years later while teaching first grade at Hellyer Elementary School in San Jose after she asked her students to sing “God Bless America.”
“They had no clue what it was or what it meant,” she said. So she tried “This Land is Your Land,” and got more blank stares. “Sitting at that piano in the classroom I was dumbstruck that no one knew those songs. We had men and women going to Vietnam and our children didn’t know basic patriotic songs.”
So Crane began her patriotic journey that continues to this day and shows no signs of slowing down.
Raised in Felton, Crane graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a political science degree, then earned her teaching credential. She and her husband Steve, a now-retired rocket scientist at UTC, bought a house in southwest Morgan Hill in 1980.
After teaching at Hellyer for 12 years, she took some time off after she had a son and daughter. Shortly after, she began playing the piano at Paradise Valley Elementary School during school plays. That led to a music teaching position at Barrett Elementary, El Toro Elementary, P.A. Walsh STEAM Academy, and Los Paseos Elementary schools. She still works four days a week, teaching all grades for 30 minutes each.
In 1989, she started the popular Patriotic Sing program that takes place July 3 every year before the Street Dance. This year will be her 27th.
The sing evolved when two local residents approached her about doing something musically patriotic for the holiday.
“We got our heads together and came up with the idea to rekindle the Patriotic Sing. At the turn of the century it was a local tradition for kids to gather and sing patriotic sings.” she said. “I thought that’s a really cool idea.”
It all started from that first-grade classroom at Hellyer. “Now, the Patriotic Sing has evolved into something a bit different, which I’m proud of.”
That evolution includes a move from the Britton Middle School gym where it has been held for the past two decades to the Downtown Amphitheater. Crane, the head of the Patriotic Sing committee, and other Independence Day Celebrations volunteers, hope the new venue will attract more than the usual 600 or so who turn out at the Britton gym the evening of July 3.
One thing she won’t be able to include is the annual slide show presentation of pictures of Armed Forces personnel. However, this year she is partnering with Operation Freedom Paws, which will send veterans with their dogs to the sing to talk about the program.
“I’m really excited about that,” she said. “I hated to give up the PowerPoint, but I think this is a nice alternative.”
Crane is proud of the event and how it has grown. She now has second generation singers, kids who were in the show bringing their kids to sing. There are also a few former singers who joined the military and come out to watch.
“I get a tremendous amount of pride that those kids have learned all these songs and I get memories of all these children,” she said.
Crane also brings a small group of children to the Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day celebrations at the downtown war memorial. They also perform during a break at the Patriotic Sing and during the Fireworks on the Green on the evening of July 4 at the Outdoor Sports Center.
“We have an active Fourth of July,” said Crane, who added that she has no plans to retire from the volunteer position with IDC. “I’m so lucky. I’ll do this until I can’t anymore.”
