Like Glee, Pitch Perfect, and the Sing Off, Perry Pipes is emerging as an up-and-coming A Cappella organization. However, this club got its start differently than one would expect. Senior club president and founder Justice Williams comments, “we [officers] want to raise awareness for the special needs kids, which is one of the main reasons I started the club.”

“I’m a 13-year Girl Scout, and I needed an idea for my Gold Award project.” Williams continued, “[Last year, someone] asked if anyone had donations for [an event] for the special needs [students], and nobody donated anything.” This was the call to action that Williams needed. “I decided then that I wanted to do something for them.”

At the end of the year, an A Cappella concert will be held, with all the proceeds going to the special needs students. The emphasis on charity is a unique identity for a fine arts club, but Williams has other plans for the club as well.

“The goals of the club are to expose the other sides of A Cappella other than the kinds that are normally seen on TV, which are all peaches and cream,” she stated.

The 107 members of the club will be broken into groups and, at various points throughout the first semester, will perform “riff offs” so the officers can evaluate the members on their strengths and weaknesses and get them “comfortable with doing this kind of stuff,” according to secretary Ke’arah Matsen.

“I want to see A Cappella club become a place where students can express themselves creatively, come up with their own arrangements, and improve as singers,” stated choir teacher and club sponsor Jameson Staley.

Williams and Staley agree that they want to keep the club on a smaller scale. “We don’t want to compete with other schools for right now,” says Williams. “But maybe if the club keeps going after we graduate they’ll be able to do that.”

Staley is looking forward to seeing where the club goes. He says, “for the first year it is probably going to be more local… but eventually depending on what happens with it [we] might be able to do some things in the community.”

Staley plans to have a very active club with all the students who signed up. Perry should also “expect some surprises and songs that [they’ve] never heard,” according to Williams.