An overflow crowd packed the New Earth Granary in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia as students, teachers and supporters of the school levy, scheduled for the ballot on May 13, were out in force.
It was a night of song and politics, as speakers spoke in favor of education, schools and teachers and urged the crowd to get out and vote and to get others to vote for the levy.
Musicians young and old wrote songs about the levy, including Vince Lawhorne with energized “Rock the Levy” (played to Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”)
“This thing, called the levy, we just need to handle it,” Lawhorne sang. “This thing, called the levy, we must get around to it.”
Berkeley Springs high school teacher Kathy Seager and the New Earth Granary house band sang “I was counting on the levy passin, I’m a student and I don’t have a teacher, my education’s a little further in the hole.”
Angela Petry, Dr. Matt Hahn, and high school math teacher Pete Gordon sang a levy song to the tune Johnny Cash’s Jackson with the refrain — “We’re gonna vote for the levy, we’re gonna keep schools strong, voting for education, helping our kids along, go vote for the levy, don’t mess around, a vote for the levy, is a vote for our town.”
The Weber Brothers made a surprise appearance, singing their spiritual — “Things are Lookin’ Up for You.”
And there, on 522, right before Southern Belle, looking up to the billboard, on the backside of the anti-levy billboard, was a new sign that read — “Vote Yes for the Levy, Schools and Lower Taxes, Morgan County Deserves Both.”
Looking up for you.