The Baker University Speech Choir will be heading on tour during the week of spring break. The choir will be giving four presentations on the Civil War in various locations. After each presentation, a Civil War historian will lead a discussion on the topics that were presented.

The Kansas Humanities Council (KHC) provided the speech choir with both a grant and the opportunity to do this tour. Susan Emel, director of BU speech choir, has worked with the KHC previously.

“I thought the time was ripe to mention to them the Speech Choir’s availability for presentations. The KHC sponsors a wide variety of programming that could be compatible with the goals of the Speech Choir,” Emel said via email. “Luckily, they indeed had a project that fit with our abilities and proposed the tour to us.”

The grant provided by the KHC will cover all travel expenses and also an honorarium.

Emel said that one purpose of the event is to provide the BU Speech Choir with “real-audience opportunities outside of the CAS campus.” She also believes this event has many benefits for Baker as a university. It allows for the speech choir to represent Baker in other communities and provides new challenges for students to add to their public speaking experience.

This is a very exciting experience for everyone involved including the social secretary of the speech choir, Madison Mater.

“I’m just really excited for the speech choir tour. It’s a great opportunity for people to find out about us, but also for the students of speech choir to get out and show what we’re made of,” Mater said. “This is big stuff for us, and I think it will be a great new speech choir adventure.”

Emel said the Speech Choir has experienced more excitement and growth in the past few years than she ever thought was possible.

“It seemed prudent to seek out new performance opportunities, especially ways to broaden our mission to give back to Baker by taking the university’s name out into various communities,” Emel said via email. “We are hoping for chances to perform at are high schools and community colleges in the near future.”

SCHEDULE:<strong>SCHEDULE:</strong> SCHEDULE:

7 p.m. Monday March 11, at Leavenworth Public Library<strong>7 p.m. Monday March 11, at Leavenworth Public Library</strong> 7 p.m. Monday March 11, at Leavenworth Public Library

“Guerilla Warfare: Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers” with Diane Mutti-Burke, UMKC

7 p.m. Tuesday March 12, at Fort Scott National Historic Site<strong>7 p.m. Tuesday March 12, at Fort Scott National Historic Site</strong> 7 p.m. Tuesday March 12, at Fort Scott National Historic Site

“Guerilla Warfare: Bushwhackers and Jayhawkers” with Jeremy Neely, Missouri State University.

7 p.m. Wednesday March 13, at Westport Historical Society<strong>7 p.m. Wednesday March 13, at Westport Historical Society</strong> 7 p.m. Wednesday March 13, at Westport Historical Society

“Price’s March of 1864” with Diane Mutti-Burke, UMKC

7 p.m. Thursday March 14, at Shawnee County Historical Society<strong>7 p.m. Thursday March 14, at Shawnee County Historical Society</strong> 7 p.m. Thursday March 14, at Shawnee County Historical Society

“John Doy’s Escape” with Kelly Erby, Washburn University