The 4-foot-10 music teacher often had to stand on the piano bench while she was playing so she could watch her students as they sang.

The late Julie Johnson spent time teaching in about every elementary school in the Coeur d’Alene School District plus some middle schools. Her passion and joy spread like wildfire to everyone around her.

Now, eight years after her death, her influence is still celebrated at the annual Julie Johnson Jamboree.

“It keeps her legacy alive,” said Julie Powell, the music teacher at Bryan Elementary School and Fernan STEM Academy and who was one of Johnson’s students and eventually coworkers. “It’s the essence of who she is — it brings kids together to sing. It’s the power of music when we do it all together; that’s when you get goosebumps.”

This year’s Jamboree will be April 12 at Lake City High School at 6:30 p.m. The event memorializing Johnson features the hard work of the school district’s elementary choirs and raises money for scholarships for students who can’t afford to rent instruments.

Powell, who is currently on a one-year leave from teaching, said if it weren’t for Johnson, she wouldn’t have become a music teacher. She said Johnson’s love and joy for music really inspired her.

“She respected music as a body of knowledge. She knew it was just as important as other subjects we can study because it teaches to the soul and to who we are as whole people,” Powell said. “It was an honor to work with her — I hope some of it rubbed off on me.”

Johnson was involved in music everywhere she went, not just in the schools. Her son, Jake, said he grew up surrounded by music, but never felt pressured into it. Now, he’s also a music teacher in Nashville, Tenn.

He said it wasn’t rare for him and his mom to be walking through the grocery store and have someone he’d never seen before run up and give his mom a hug.

“It took me until I was an adult to realize how many people she had a positive influence on,” he said. “It’s nice to see her influence carry through [with the Jamboree] — that there’s still an opportunity for kids to reap the benefits of everything she did when she was alive. And it’s all through the vehicle of music.”

Spencer Normington knew Johnson as he went through middle school and high school. Johnson would play the piano accompaniment for his choir solos and the plays at school. He said Johnson inspired him to continue with music.

When Normington was offered a job as the music teacher at Ramsey Magnet School of Science, Johnson was there to lead him through the steps, even though she was very sick and reaching the end of her life.

“Up until the day she passed, she was giving of her knowledge and it was pretty special,” he said. “She still inspires me. I don’t know if I could ever live up to Julie as a music teacher, but it’s something I can aspire to. I try to be that positive change that she was.”