Just more than a week ago, members of the Lawrence Chamber Orchestra were concerned they didn’t have enough fans.

“We’re trying to find an audience – people in a way who need us,” John Boulton, a member of the group’s board of directors, said in a July 9 Journal-World article.

Just a few days later it became obvious that the orchestra certainly has one very big fan. An anonymous donor stepped forward with a $100,000 check, allowing the group’s board to scrap plans to scale back the orchestra’s schedule and to cut down on its number of regular members.

For the generous donation, the community clearly needs to say “thank you.” Or perhaps more appropriately, as patrons of the arts frequently say, “Bravo.”

However we say it, a debt of gratitude is owed. The existence of the Lawrence Chamber Orchestra does more than occasionally fill the air with interesting and meaningful music. The orchestra is one of the many ways our community shows everyone our commitment to culture.

The recent plight of the orchestra should serve as a good reminder that it takes more than simply calling ourselves home to Kansas University and Haskell Indian Nations University to be committed to culture. It takes the interest and efforts of a group of caring individuals.

Thankfully, someone stepped forward and took the extraordinary effort to substantially boost the bank account of this worthy organization.

But there is still opportunity for the rest of us to help too. Certainly not all of us are in a position to help fill the organization’s coffers like the recent donor did, but we all can fill something else that will do the orchestra’s members plenty of good too – seats at their upcoming concerts.