Jennifer Geertz Memorial Scholarship Awarded for 2025

The Memorial Committee of First Church Sandwich is pleased to announce the selection of William Lodge as the recipient of the Jennifer Geertz Memorial Scholarship for 2025.

William will be attending UMass Amherst this Fall majoring in Music Education.

William describes himself as a “sports kid” growing up. Entering High School, he was asked by a friend to join the show choir “Sandwich Soul”. As he was a very “athletics focused kid” he never thought about joining a group. He auditioned for the program and got accepted.  As William writes “this unexpected opportunity was the start of what would determine the rest of his future.” As his experience in Soul grew, he came to love the content of music and performing.

At the end of his freshman year, he decided he wanted to audition for the following years Knight’s Theatre Company musical production of Les Miserable. He describes that whole Summer as a “deep dive” into the depths of Les Miserable”. He studied and prepared for the audition. Having selected one of two parts he wanted ahead of time, he showed up in a Marius costume. The directors were awed.  His new path was launched.

William’s performance resume at Sandwich Middle High School is too extensive to describe in a quick blog post; his friends describe him as “driven” because he did it all!

He not only did extensive worked developing his musical talents during this timeframe but improved his academic grades as well.

We wish William much success in his future educational and performance endeavors!

Photo courtesy of Kevin Lasit via The Enterprise Sandwich.  The cast of “Les Miserables” includes, top row(from left) Grayson Theirrien, Henry Muhlebach, Cameron Phillips, Marty Mulroy, Brendan Cronin, T.J. MacDonald, Evan Dovalo; and lower row, (from left) Malcolm Ferguson-Kelly, Tyler Monteith, Ross Klaiber, Scott Kent, Xavier Bruni. In front are Alex Brennan as Marius and William Lodge as Enjolras.