Alums reunite to sing 'Seasons of Love' for former choir teacher
When alumni of Rocky Mountain High School heard their beloved former choir director Barbara Lueck was ill, they formed a Facebook group to discuss how to help.
Their idea was an epic performance.
More than 50 alumni spanning two decades reunited at their former high school on a Saturday morning to perform "Seasons of Love" from the Broadway show "Rent." And they nailed it, making "Mama Lu," as they called their former teacher, proud.
Lueck has a kind of cancer called Leiomyosarcoma. Though today she's "feeling much better," as she told "Good Morning America" at the time of the gathering, she was not feeling well.
"We didn't want to overwhelm her with visits," Doug Usher, one of the organizers and the videographer and editor for the event, told "GMA."
As word spread of the plan to perform for Mama Lu, Usher said "literally one person [in the Facebook group] mentioned 'Seasons of Love' and everyone said that's the one. It's one of her favorites and one that we sang a lot in my high school years."
Aside from the many former students who gathered to sing, there were others who couldn't be there in person, but wanted to contribute. Usher found a way to make them part of the video too.
Amanda Huner, another event organizer, told "GMA," "She is an amazing person. Everyone is as important as the other."
Usher said Lueck was there for her students in and out of the classroom.
"She is a deeply caring individual with a love of education and a love of people," he said. "She really embraces how music can be a major force for community. We became a family and she was the mom, Mama Lu."
A "family" is exactly how Lueck described it, too.
"Being in a choir of theater group or any arts group is a place to belong to a family," she said. "And it's family accepting people of all kids of young people and devoted to a common goal."
During her time at Rocky Mountain High, Lueck took her kids to Japan, arranged for them to sing at Carnegie Hall in New York City and sang at countless local events.
"We had so much fun," she said.
Lueck taught at Rocky Mountain High School for 16 years. Before that, she taught for 13 years at a nearby junior high.
"I've watched the video a million times," she told "GMA." "My only regret is that I wasn't there to hear their chatter, to meet their kids. I am so thankful they gave time out of their busy lives to do this for me."
