Why I Give: Allie Battocletti

Perhaps most important of all, the ICC has given me a community of friends and peers – people I will share a lifelong bond with. To this day, my best friends are people I met through the ICC. Someday my bridesmaids will be all of my “ICC girls.” When we all went to college, my close group of ICC friends scattered; today we live in different cities all across the country – from New York City to Chicago, Orlando to San Diego, to myself down in Houston. Yet our friendship is closer than ever. When I come home to Indianapolis for the holidays, my ICC friends are the first friends I want to see. Even beyond my close group of friends, I recently realized that the bond the ICC community shares extends among everyone who has ever been in the program. Traveling back to Indianapolis for Cheryl West’s memorial service, although such a sad circumstance, was also a beautiful example of the strength of the ICC community. Coming together to share this moment with decades of the ICC/IYC singers, seeing how even though we may differ in age, we all share a common bond, made me even more proud to be a part of the ICC community and more passionate about actively supporting the program. Beyond giving back financially, I look forward to being an active part of the developing the ICC Alumni Association.

Even though I now live in Houston, I proudly display my ICC Alumni bumper sticker on my truck. Someday, even if I’m not living in Indianapolis, I hope to send my children to a summer Choral Festival, so they too can have at least a brief experience of something that has been so integral and important to my life. No matter where I live, I will continue to give to the ICC. I know the ICC will have the same impact on countless lives for years to come, just as it did for me.

Sincerely,

Allissa (Allie) Battocletti
ICC/IYC Alumnae, 1997-2006