Skip to main content

Your vote could help Batavia City Schools win $10K for music program

By Howard B. Owens

Batavia City Schools are among five finalists in the state for a $10,000 prize from the NYS Lottery. The contest is built around the idea of students saying thank you for the support of the lottery. Choirs produced a video for the song "Thank you for being a friend." The prize money would go to the school district's music program.

To vote, click here (you'll be asked to log into your Facebook account).

Mark Potwora

I think the singing was the best...Just don't like the idea of using school children to promote gambling by using their singing for a gambling commercial...The state should offer better ways for school to win 10,000 dollars..

Mar 14, 2014, 11:01am Permalink
Bea McManis

Mark, you might be right. However the school kids are hoping for community support. If the state mandated that money to music, the tax payers would be furious. So, this is an alternative that cost nothing but a minute of time.

Mar 14, 2014, 11:23am Permalink
Phyllis Seager

Why do they have to win the $10,000? The lottery *(which is gambling and I think NYS really hit the pits, and now we have casinos) was touted as being there to support our schools. Really? then why do our school taxes go up and up, and the programs available to our children decrease trying to level off the taxes for the sake of the taxpayer. And don't even get me started on State colleges! You have to be independently wealthy, a member of mensa for scholarships, or get as many grants as possible. Most will graduate with no job and thousands upon thousands of dollars in debt.

I voted, but it really hurt. Our children are more important then the gambling. And the gambling is doing nothing but causing more heartache to many many families.

Mar 14, 2014, 11:52am Permalink
Mark Potwora

My point is that state lottery money is for all schools..to have to enter a contest to get an extra 10,000 dollars for your school to promote gambling seems wrong to me..Taking nothing aways from the kids who sang and made this video,which is excellent...You have the state all up in arms to stop the senacas from creating a gambling casino in Rochester,then they go and make a school compete to get the lottery money that they all should be getting in the first place seems wrong..

Mar 14, 2014, 3:33pm Permalink
Mark Potwora

My point is that state lottery money is for all schools..to have to enter a contest to get an extra 10,000 dollars for your school to promote gambling seems wrong to me..Taking nothing aways from the kids who sang and made this video,which is excellent...You have the state all up in arms to stop the senacas from creating a gambling casino in Rochester,then they go and make a school compete to get the lottery money that they all should be getting in the first place seems wrong..

Mar 14, 2014, 3:33pm Permalink
Lori Silvernail

We were behind quite a bit when I voted this morning. Within an hour, we were ahead again. Some of us are going to post the link on Facebook later on in the day in hopes that people might have more time than they do in the morning. Batavia rallied and got that beautiful playground at Robert Morris Elementary, so it's completely doable.

The first time voting takes 30 seconds or less. After that, you're looking at 5 seconds. C'mon people, vote!!

Mar 16, 2014, 1:52pm Permalink
bud prevost

Bea, I "like" the NYS Lottery on Facebook, and I just saw a post stating Batavia was disqualified for some rule infraction. Nothing about what the rule was, just that they were DQ'ed. Thought you might like to know. I'm sure we'll be hearing more.

Mar 17, 2014, 6:13pm Permalink
Lori Silvernail

This was posted on the Batavia High School FB site, and sadly, it's true. If you go to the voting page, Batavia no longer has an entry...

Batavia City School District

Search News by Keyword

Notice Regarding NYS Lottery Video
image
We were informed this afternoon that the BCSD submission was disqualified from the NY Lottery NY Sings Contest due to violating rules.

They stated:
"It was recently brought to our attention, the fact that Batavia City School Districts' video submission into the NY Lottery's NY Sings Contest used a third party template, Animoto, to create their video. This is in violation of the Official Rules and, unfortunately, we will have to disqualify Batavia from the contest.

Specifically, the rules state that: "By entering the Contest and submitting a Video each Representative warrants and represents on behalf of its School the following with respect to its Video: . . . (b) the Video is entrant's
own creation and is 100% original." Further, the Content Restrictions state: "The Video must not contain images or artwork not created by entrant". Use of the Animoto template violates both of these provisions."

This was an honest mistake. BCSD put forth a good faith effort to create a video that showcased our amazing musical talent. We will learn from this and make sure that nothing like this happens again.

Thank you for your support of our district.

Mar 17, 2014, 6:32pm Permalink

Authentically Local