Christmas program brings spirit
Andrea Martineau and Pam Lewis play flutes in the community band prior to the start of the program.
With Patsy Foote on the violin and George Regan on the guitar, Marioel Mattox sings, "Christmas in our Hearts."
Thomas Hall plays during the instrumental duet during the community program.
Merlyn Osborne played a duet on the violin with her instructor.
Denley Loge lended his musical talents to the community band on Monday night.
Glenna Cook plays the violin in a duet on Monday night at the community Christmas program.
The community choir performed a selection of songs at the end of the program. They spend months rehearsing for the program, dedicated to giving a great performance.
It’s hard to describe the sounds of the Community Christmas Program in words. Local people with loads of talent took the stage, each performing a selection of some kind. If you weren’t in the spirit of the season before entering through the doors of the church, you were sure to when you left.
The St. Regis-Superior community band played before the program began and invited the audience to sing along to “Joy of the World” before stepping off stage.
Father Kevin Christofferson of St. Mary’s Catholic Church welcomed everyone to the program and hoped they had a pleasant, enjoyable evening.
“There’s going to be some very beautiful music,” he said.
Roger Brown from the United Methodist Church also welcomed the audience as “we come to celebrate the birth of our Savoir.”
The chime choir was up first and played a beautiful, Christmas tune using chimes to set the mood. The United Methodist choir followed, singing, “The King Shall Come.”
Several instrumentals were performed during the program. Merlyn Osborne played a duet with violin instructor Patsy Foote and sung a duet with voice instructor Heidi Tufts.
Carol Bidwell did a reading, asking people to celebrate the spirit of Christmas for more than just one day a year. Marioel Mattox followed, noting to keep Christmas in our hearts.
Roman, Kenley and Wyatt Zylawy took the stage halfway through and played the ever familiar Ukranian Bell Carol. They followed with a second selection. The audience gave them a huge round of the applause and when Roman asked if they should play another, the audience gave them the go ahead. From the feeling of shopping for the perfect present to a familiar bluegrass tune, the audience thoroughly enjoyed the boys’ performance.
Diana Betts played a piano solo and Nancy Garcia told the story behind the story of Rudolph. The story was created by Bob May, who wanted to give his daughter hope. His wife had cancer and his daughter asked why her mother was different from others. Bob also knew what it was like to be different. As Bob went on to tell about Rudolph, he tried desperately to communicate to Barbara the knowledge that, even though some creatures of God are strange and different, they often enjoy the miraculous power to make others happy.
Following Garcia’s reading, the community choir directed by Mary Johnson filled the stage. Composed of singers from throughout the county, the choir performed four selections for the audience. The choir prepares for months ahead of time leading up to the annual program and as always, they gave a stellar performance. Voices blended into a beautiful melody as they sang, “Four Miniature Christmas Carols,” in English as well as “He is born” and “Still-Still-Still.” At the end, the choir led the audience in singing the first and fourth verses of “Silent Night.”
The event started more than 50 years ago when the Methodist ladies started getting together to hold Christmas parties in the church basement. Before too long, the ladies invited other women from the area’s churches and soon enough someone had the idea of putting on a program for the community.
Garcia said that though people often thank her for the program, she says that it’s not her efforts, but those that perform during the evening that make it a success.
“The people that perform during the program are the people that need to be thanked. They put in a lot more time and hours than I do and only perform for a limited amount of time. There are a lot of talented people in this area.”