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06/03/2021 12:01 AMHeather Surber knows the upcoming online auction to benefit the Community Music School (CMS) will be noteworthy. After all, Note-worthy Auction is its name, fitting for a place that is all about notes.
Heather is heading the auction committee.
The auction will take place online from June 2 to Sunday, June 6. It can be accessed at cmsct.org/auction.
For the past three years, Heather has headed the CMS annual spring gala, but this year the uncertainty about changing COVID-19 regulations ruled out a live event. Trying several months ago to predict when the restrictions would be lifted seemed to the auction committee to be too much of a risk.
“We had no crystal ball to know when things would be opening,” Heather says.
As a result, CMS will hold a first-ever online auction with items including things to do from gym memberships to golf outings and paddleboard adventures, things to eat and enjoy from gift certificates for local restaurants to shopping at local merchants, and things to feel good about from jewelry to spa treatments and manicures.
The proceeds benefit both the scholarships and the ongoing programs of the music school.
CMS, following COVID protocols, has nonetheless managed to continue lessons, many in person and some online during this year. In addition, musical groups including the New Horizons band and the string ensemble, masked and socially distant, were able to maintain a practice schedule.
“We were able to have a robust program,” CMS Executive Director Rick Wyman said.
This summer, he adds, CMS will be having individual lessons and a number of musical ensembles, including guitar and ukulele workshops, New Horizons Band, and performance camps for teens focusing on musical theater.
Next fall, in addition to its full schedule of offerings, CMS will add voice teacher Brian Cheyney, who Wyman points out is a musician with a national reputation. He noted one reviewer has labeled Cheyney “the next great tenor.”
Though she has worked hard as a member of the CMS Board of Trustees, Heather admits she is not a musician.
“I am a community member interested in the school. I want to support local things,” she says, “and I appreciate music even though I don’t play anything.”
Heather, now a Deep River resident, has also lived in Essex and Ivoryton.
“I have lived in the tri-town area for a long time,” she says.
She has been a Connecticut resident for an even longer time. She grew up in North Branford and, except for spending one year after college in New Hampshire, has always lived in the state.
In college, Heather thought she wanted to be a lawyer, concentrating on criminal justice.
“I loved my constitutional law class in high school,” she remembers.
She began to have doubts, however, after a criminal psychology internship her senior year. Still, she took the year after college to prepare for law school by studying for the LSAT exam. She also took a part time job in retailing, and then realized that was where her interest lay, not in the law.
“I always loved fashion,” she says. “I got sidetracked.”
She was a store manager at J. Crew and a district manager at Macy’s before working as a sales representative for World Trading Leather in Old Saybrook. Currently she is business development manager for Killingworth True Value.
From the time she was 6 years old to the time she was 17, competitive horseback riding was Heather’s sport. Now, she is a runner, something she says she had never planned.
Road running for Heather started when she and a friend decided to participate the 5K fun run at Deep River Family Day, but on the day of the race, her friend did not show up. Heather ran anyway, and has continued to run ever since. She has done marathons in Rhode Island and New Jersey but her average run is far shorter, three to five miles. She runs three to four times a week with a friend.
“I’m not competitive. I just do it for fun,” she says.
If she needs shoes to run in, she has a source. Her husband Mike works for Nike as Northeast soccer manager.
Soccer is important to the whole family. Both her daughters, Sophia, 17, and Emilee, 14, play at Valley Regional and also for a club team in Glastonbury.
Heather has organized the website for the upcoming auction through Betterworld, an online service that helps nonprofit organizations set-up auctions. Betterworld does not charge for its services.
Not having to manage all the bids gives Heather enough time to be a bidder herself. She is not saying definitely what she is interested in but mentions car detailing and spa treatments as possibilities.
Heather and her committee are providing a special service for successful auction bidders. They will deliver in what she calls “a reasonable distance.” Gift certificates, she points out, can be mailed. Arrangements will be made to send larger purchases to winners farther away.
“We are hoping CMS students have told families, grandparents, who live in other places about the auction,” she says.
To access Note-worthy, the online auction to benefit the Community Music School, visit cmsct.org/auction.