Annual Chipotle Tour Encourages Boys to Join Choir

The annual Chipotle Tour took place Tuesday. A total of 112 men from the Varsity choir and the Choraliers traveled to eight schools, including all of the East feeder elementary schools as well as Indian Hills Middle School.

The day long excursion is called the “Chipotle Tour” because the group of singers travel from school to school, “touring the district”, and then stopping at Chipotle for lunch. The combined group of sophomores, juniors and seniors sing upbeat and fun songs, such as ‘SpongeBob Squarepants’ and ‘30-Second Falala’, at each stop.

“The idea [behind the tour is] to try to get young guys involved in choir at an early age, get them excited about it,” choir director Ken Foley said. “[The goal is to] just make everyone know that it’s cool to be a guy and be in choir.”

The mini-concerts at each school last around 15-20 minutes, allowing the choir to travel around to all the East feeder schools during the day. Five songs are performed at each school, including a choral arrangement of the school song and the popular song that is sung every year, “Silhouettes.”

Although the day is all about letting kids know how much fun it is to be in choir, it is also a good way for the East choir students to once again visit their elementary alma maters.

“My favorite part [of the tour] is watching the teachers see the kids that they taught when they were in elementary school and see them grown up.” Foley said. “Seeing [the teachers] come running up and saying ‘hi’, that’s the fun part.”