17-year-old celebrates father’s memory in award-winning music performance

On Feb. 28, Pacific Ridge School junior Ella Shreiner and her band, Raintree Drive, competed in Carlsbad’s AMPED Music and Arts Throwdown for Teens and came away with first prize. The group, formed in 2019, impressed the judges with their original music. For Shreiner, the performance was also a celebration of her father, David Shreiner, who died from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in October of 2018.

“My dad is the one who inspired me to become a musician and bought me my first guitar on my 13th birthday. He was really the one who told me to go for it,” Shreiner said.

Ella Shreiner with her father Dave on campus at Pacific Ridge.

(Courtesy)

Shreiner has been actively involved in fundraising for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in the past year, including making and selling guitar pick jewelry through her business @PicksforDave and competing in the society’s Students of the Year contest with a team of high school students from across North County. The student groups compete to raise the most money in a seven-week period. The competition ended on March 7.

During the contest, Shreiner and her team held a fundraiser at San Diego’s Mahalat Distillery, at which she spoke about her father and sang his favorite song. Raintree Drive also held a concert on the Pacific Ridge campus. The two events raised roughly $11,000 for her team.

The AMPED festival capped a busy performing season for Shreiner and her bandmates, Encinitas resident Jake Sager, Evan Mickelson of Rancho Santa Fe and Michael Saunders of Carlsbad. The band plays regularly at Pacific Ridge events and concerts, and Shreiner also performed the lead role in the school’s recent musical, Mamma Mia.

Another Pacific Ridge School student band, Wack?, was awarded second place at AMPED. -- News release