Seal Beach 96th Anniversary Honors Local Legend

On Sunday, October 2, The Los Al H.S. marching band, the Los Al “Jazz Band 1” and the Seal Beach Jazz Trio will be playing a concert to honor our 96^th Anniversary.

This concert will also honor local educator Chuck Wackerman who has enriched all our lives and our children’s lives for over 55 years.

Chuck Wackerman

Chuck began teaching in the Seal Beach school district in 1956 and we…and our children… have been the lucky recipients of his legendary skills teaching our kids ever since.

The concert will begin at 4 p.m. and continue until 6 p.m.

Richie Sebastian will be directing the Marching Band and John Rush is the director of Jazz Band 1. The Seal Beach Jazz Trio are an outstanding added attraction.

SEAL BEACH’S FAMOUS JAZZ TRIO

The City of Seal Beach has planned a 96^th Founders Day Celebration and not only will this event  commemorate our 96th anniversary but acclimation of the thousands of Seal Beach and Los Alamitos students it will also honor our  legendary local instrumental music educator, Chuck Wackerman, who for over five decades has enriched the lives of thousands of Seal Beach/Los Al students and music lovers.

Everyone is invited and the concert is free. Please bring your own chairs.

Mr. Wackerman received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Science in Music Education from the University of Southern California. He taught elementary, junior high and high school band, orchestra and jazz bands in the Seal Beach and Los Alamitos school districts. For nine years Chuck directed the jazz combos for the Orange County High School for the Arts. At both the middle and high school levels and has developed award winning jazz ensembles.

This year our honoree was inducted into the California Jazz Alliance Hall of Fame and recognized by CSULB Jazz Orchestra for outstanding contributions to jazz education.  He began with the Seal Beach Unified School District in 1956 and when Seal Beach unified with Los Alamitos even more children had the marvelous opportunity to be under his tutelage. We will honor and recognize him for his work with our children. We encourage all former students to attend and they will have a chance to reunite with old friends and listen to great music.

Chuck has served as an auditioner, band manager and a director for the California School Band Orchestra Assoc. Junior High Jazz All Stars. He received the Irene Schoepfle award for his contributions to music education in Orange County. He also has been awarded the Jazz Educator of the Year from the Fullerton College Jazz Festival. Currently he is teaching jazz band at McAuliffe Middle School in Los Alamitos. Mr. Wackerman’s Jazz Groups have always been great musical examples at jazz festivals thru out CA. He was a Master teacher for nearly two dozen student teachers from Cal State Long Beach. His own children are also entrenched in Musical Careers and Chuck has certainly been a pioneer and role model for jazz education in California. Chuck is celebrating his fifty fourth year of teaching instrumental music.

So, you think you know everything about Mr. Wackerman. Well, he came from a musical family himself.  He grew up in Alhambra.  His mother was a pianist and his father was a jazz fan so he listened to a lot of jazz.  When he was ten years old he decided he wanted to play the trumpet so he went into a that small local music store and got a used trumpet for $20 which included ten free lessons. The rest is history.

This is an opportunity for all former students of Mr. Wackerman to come and celebrate the 96th anniversary of Seal Beach with him.

Chuck is not a ‘spring chicken’ but  just to be clear his is much hounger than Seal Beach. Our town  was incorporated in 1915 with a Joy Zone that covered several blocks that included a roller coaster named “The Derby” and the Jewel City Cafe where the dance floor was built with springs underneath so that dancers could sway.  This 96th celebration is a harbinger of things to come in 2015 when our 100th anniversary arrives.  Libby Applegate assures us that all the volunteers working with her on Founder’s Day Committee have big plans for that special birthday.  Until then we’ll have  smaller celebrations each October until 2015.

In the meantime Y’all come down to the pier on Sunday Oct 2. and add your name to the list of volunteers to help plan our centennial when the Joy Zone will return once again.

This is an opportunity for all former students of Mr. Wackerman to come and celebrate the 96th anniversary of Seal Beach with him.

For more information: Please go to www.sealbeachfoundersday.com,  Seal Beach Community Services Dept.  562 431-2527  Ext. 1306  or  Carla Watson  e-mail: carlawatson@verizon.net