Herald & Lantern 9 January '85 . ( ; • v " .•».

Conductor Choice-Gest Loves Cultural County

By JOE ZELNIK ^ One can get tired just I talking to Patricia Choice- < Gest i She teaches "Creative « Children's Theater' ' for the Middle Township Recreation Department, is a Nautilus attendant and works the front desk at Jersey Cape Racquet .Club (where she also take* tennis lesions), is a substitute teacher at Ocean Academy of the county's Special Services School District, and teaches piano. But Pat thinks of herself as a conductor and has "written everybody, asking if they need any assistance. # I'd do it for tree."/

Since no one has taken up on that yet,, she i hopes "to form my own i chamber choir and orchestra, about 30 singers dopig serious master works." Pat and husband Tom Getz are newcomers, natives of the midwest who came here in August after Getz was hierd by the county Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) to manage its sludge composting complex at Crest Haven. ) THEY KNEW NOTHING of the MUA-when they arrived and have been surprised to learn that it's somewhat controversial. "When people hear where he works, they say, 'Boooo!' " laughed Pat. There's a bit of irony •here. Getz, with a BS in Biology and MS in environmental science and water pollution control, moved into a home on East Pacific Avenue where some private wells have been found to be highly polluted by an industrial chemical, trichloroethylene. "I didn't drink the water from day-one," said Pat. "It didn't taste like Indiana water." Her husband did drink it, but now they're on bottled water until a public line can be laid and connected. - WATER ASIDE, the Getzes love the county. It's so cultural. Cultural? "We came here from Jasonville, Indiana," explained Pat: "It was the pits."

Her husband was a mine i for the Depart- t m e n t of N.a tural < Resources; she was an ac- 1 tivities director at a nurs- I ing home, where she "did theater and music and everything." i Here, Pat explained, |i there is the Jersey Cape 11 Performing Arts Guild, for I whose ''Victorian I Melodrama" she was the I musical director. And I there is also Philadelphia, I New York City, the Atlan- I tic Community College, || etc., she explained. | A Thanksgiving Day I baby, and middle of three I children, Pat "moved I every four years of my I life" as her father was I transferred by insurance I companies in Indiana, II- I linois and Michigan. | SHE GOT HER BS in I music education at the I University of Illinois in 1978 I and taught junior high and I high school music and I theater at Wolcott, Ind., "a I small farming communi- I ty," for three years. ' 'Then I decided I wanted I to be a famous conductor," I she said, a goal that sent her to Indiana University at Bloomington and an M.M. (master of music) in conducting in the summer of '84. She and Tom met at a square dance in Nashville. ' Indiana, that is. He had just finished his graduate school; she was still a student. They went out for coffee in his "old Chevy, a real klunker, a '64 or something. ' ' Pat almost sat Mi a ukulele in his front seat. "He started playing it," she said. He sang 'Mr. Beau Jangles' and I fell in love. I said, 'he's for me. I'm taking him.' I swept him right off."

They were engaged four months later, and married on Aug. 13, 1983, "the day after her finals." MUSIC IS A HOBBY with Gest, a "self-taught guitarist, and very good," according to Pat. j Jasonville was their first location ; Court House their second. Gest answered an MUA ad in a professional journal, Pat said. "We never saw the ocean before," she said, "so of course we grabbed at it (the job). We both love water, and his area is water pollution control. He grew up on lakes and I've always loved water, but never been around it." They had four days to J find a place to live. They did. They had three days to drive to Indiana, get a "UHaul," and move here. l They did. I "Ten minutes after we f arrived, we had an invitah tion to dinner (from Janet V and George Seabrook)," said Pat. "We're really happy here." HER ULTIMATE professional goal, she said, "is to a judge choral contests, splo \ and ensemble contests." As for conducting, shell be giving a seminar in Michigan this summer on 1 "expressive conducting." There's a lot more to conducting than waving your arms in the air," said Pat. "Instead of being boring, • it's very spiritually inspired; communicating through your movements, body and spirit to the performers so that there is a special performance in the end." With the 15 children, ages 7-12, in her Creative ^ Children's Theater," she is >

now focusing on pantomime. They'll take a circus act with no props to the Mall in Rio Grande from 1' to 3 p.m. Sunday,

Jan. 13. The children will be dressed as clowns and "audience involvement" will be invited. After that, she plans "a •

production." "I'm writing the music, lyrics, script, everything," she said. I can't afford ^ royalties."

Legion Hits Soviet on Afghanistan CAPE MAY — A resolution condemning the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan was adopted recently by Harry Snyder Post 193 and the county American Legion and forwarded to the American Legion Department of New Jersey. The resolvition demanded the Soviet government comply with the November, 1984, United-Nations directive whereby 119 nations voted for a Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan. This was the fifth time the United Nations called for such a withdrawal of Soviet forces.

(mas) paints Sdi

power-flow painting system $79.

Wagner paint sprayer VI $99.

SINCE 1899 RIO GRANDE & PARK BLVD. WILDWOOD 522-2426 oCeaJer print* ri , , mwi 1/T ;gr\ 5114 NEW EBSEY AVENUE s WILDV OOD CREST v m N

ra-2— == ])_ Higher Education I I At a Lower Cost If vou think rising costs, are putting a four- II year college education 'out of your reach, consider Cumberland County College s II TW°By studying at^umberland for twc&ears, ' then finishing your degree requirementfat a II four-year college or university, you 11 save | thousands of dollars and still receive the1 |l excellent education you seek. n|inoa The average four-year cost of attending a state college is $27, 000 The annua ^ostipf II attending Cumberland is one thousand foliar s. II If you attend Cumberland {pr two yfers, then complete your degree requirements at a four-year state college, you will speno«>out I $15,500 for higher education. Tw°-Pli£-Two | will enable you to save $11,500 in obtaining a |. degree from a state college. .,1 „„M . Savings are even more dramatic if you-use I the Two-Plus-Two method to attain a four-year II degree from a private college or university . • The average cost of attending a private college or university is $40,000. If you attend I II P i i. — thnn criniv 3 1 3 It

Cumberland for two years, then study at a private college or university for two years, you will soend about $22,000. II You can save $18,000 in obtaining a degree from a private college or university by utilizing the Two-Plus-Two method of matIfyou are successful at Cumberland, you 11 Can Cumberland graduates have transferred Princeton ; Temple, Delaware, Georgetown, . Villanova and every college in NewJersey. Our graduates have attained bachelor s degrees at literdlly hundreds of colleges and universities throughout America. j Transfer Programs Liberal Arts • Business Administration • Mathematics and Science • La^Studies* at the college cafeteria Jan. 28 and 29 from 9 I 3 ^ For7 information, call 691-8600, ext. 223. t I 4 ii umberland Iv county college South Orchard Rd. 11 Vineland, N.J. 08360 South Orchard Rd. Vineland, N.J. 08360 I We Care About Your Future JJ