UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As the Penn State Glee Club was preparing last fall for its spring 2025 European concert tour, former member Mike Helms, a longtime supporter of the club, got word that due to the cost of the trip, some of the students might not be able to make it.
After meeting with Glee Club director Chris Kiver, Helms and his wife, Martha, made a gift of just more than $175,000 to the Glee Club endowment, which cut the per-student cost for the trip to about $600. Thanks to their support, 42 members of Penn State’s oldest student organization embarked on a 10-day concert tour of Prague, Vienna and Budapest in May.
“We were thrilled to be able to help make this trip a possibility for the members of the Glee Club,” said Helms, who graduated from Penn State with business degrees in 1968 and 1974. “Traveling abroad can be life enriching and helping the students gain access to these experiences is something that gives [us] great joy.”
The gift to the Glee Club wasn’t the first for the retired accountant, who owned a boutique firm in San Francisco for about 35 years. He and his wife offered support to the club in 2014, in part because Helms said that Kiver’s vision for the club’s endowment fit well with his own philanthropic goals.
Over the next 10 years, through the Glee Club endowment and on numerous Giving Tuesdays, he made several smaller gifts, which helped to cover costs for uniforms. Prior to Helms’ support of the endowment, tails for formal concerts could cost up to $350 per student but now the club owns enough to lend them to the students.
Included in the $175,000 gift is $60,000 in matching funds, which will be used to match estate gifts made to the Glee Club endowment.
“Mike and Martha have become Glee Club guardian angels. Their support over a number of years has transformed the experiences we are able to offer students,” Kiver said. “I never felt comfortable with the idea of students having lesser experiences because of finances. I know that resonated strongly with Mike and Martha, and we are getting much closer to the point where financial pressures don’t prevent someone from participating in a choir.”
At the Glee Club’s 135th anniversary reunion brunch in October 2024, with Helms in attendance, Kiver announced to the students that the gift would provide each of them with the opportunity to travel on the European tour for about $600.
“I will never forget the look on their faces — the astonishment, the joy, the tears,” Kiver said.
The trip brought the Glee Club to St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, one of Europe’s most significant cathedrals. Dating to the 14th century, the cathedral boasts a richly ornate interior and a reverberant acoustic suited perfectly for choral singing.
The final concert in Budapest was in Matthias Church located atop the Buda Castle Hill. Built in the 11th century overlooking the Danube, the concert was attended by a standing-room-only audience who, Kiver said, demanded several encores.
In Prague, the Glee Club shared a concert with a local community choir, the Lucky Voice Band, raising money for charity. One performance raised more than 1,200 Euro to assist educational projects in Burkina Faso.
A few weeks after the trip, Helms received a surprise — a letter from an appreciative student. The outpouring of gratitude hasn’t stopped yet — over the last few months, Helms said he has welcomed more handwritten notes, cards and emails.
Helms shared a few that jumped out as he read through a stack of letters:
- “Because of you I was able to experience such an extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime trip, making music with some of my dearest friends.”
- “This experience and trip changed my life, and words will never express your impact.”
- “Your gift inspired me to dive deeper each performance and remember who it is really about — the audience.”
- “Moments matter, rather than perfection. The little things like the laughter in the bus, the first standing ovation, the student who came out of his shell — often matter more than a flawless performance.”
“This is powerful stuff, and it changes everything,” Helms said after reading the letters and wiping away tears of joy. “It assures us that this was the right thing to do and we hope that others will join us.”
Donors like Helms advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.