A Gift To The Arts

The year was 1964 when 9 year-old Dan Dixon sat mesmerized in front of a black and white television in Ocean City, New Jersey, along with the rest of America, and watched the Beatles on the The Ed Sullivan Show. More than a thousand miles away on the island of St. Croix, the birth of Country Day School would take place just months later. That evening young Dan was inspired to become a musician, without

a clue that one day he would become a very important part of the CDS family as the band teacher.

When Mr. Dixon came to work at Country Day in 2004, the pavilion’s state was very poor. The lighting system was a fire hazard, the ladder to the old sound booth was rickety, the roof leaked, and the overall condition of the building was run down.
In 2007, Rick Starr offered his time to the school to help build a

set for the musical HONK! Mr. Starr received his B.A. from the University of the South in Theater Arts and Speech, specializing in scenery, lighting and set design. Not long after HONK!, he called a meeting with the major stakeholders of the pavilion. He wanted their ideas about how to improve the facility. The group came up with a punch list of renovations to be made and problems to be fixed. Mr. Dixon was so impressed with this group’s dedication and organization that he decided to make a

difference.He donated the money needed to fix the pavilion and Mr. Starr donated well over 300 hours of his time to do the labor.

The improved pavilion boasts fresh paint, a new sound booth, upgraded lighting, eight new electrical outlets, and tweleve wireless microphones. Walls were knocked down backstage and swivel curtains were added to make the stage easier to enter and exit. New, collapsible risers have replaced the old, heavy plywood risers once used.

When asked why he gave so much of his time Mr. Starr said, “The performing arts can teach valuable lessons in artistic expression, self confidence, cooperation and teamwork like no other discipline in the humanities, with the wonderful two-fold bonus of entertaining our community at one level and, more deeply, of invigorating our cultural heritage. Theatre, music, ballet, carnival, modern dance, church pageants, storytellings under baobab trees; all these types of performance art are the cultural landmarks around which we build our identity as a community, and the exposure and acceptance of these diverse forms moves us forward, together, like nothing else can.”
To bring the pavilion up to date with current theatrical standards, there is much to be done. Our wish list includes a professional headset system, an upgraded audio system, a standby generator and transfer switch, storage area for costumes and a separate room for steel pans.

We at Country Day School applaud Mr. Dixon and Mr. Starr for their extreme generosity.