Christmas concert leads to more for Covered Bridge Harmony

It all began with the goal of having a Christmas concert in the Greencastle community. We set our date for the concert and decided to invite women to come and join us to sing three songs for our Christmas concert. After dazzling them with our sensational singing, charm, fun and can-do attitude, we’d see if they would want to join along as our sisters in song. (I mean, who wouldn’t?)

Well, two of the ladies just couldn’t wait until after the concert and joined us right away. Then came three more additions to our chorus, including a mother/daughter pair which includes our youngest member at age 11.

And boom, there you have it — five new members — a perfect addition to our CBH family.

Well, the night of the “Simply Christmas” concert finally came. We hold the concert on a Monday night — our regular rehearsal night — as we know that the weekends in December are crazy busy for families, and we don’t charge for the concert. We just ask for donations, but we also give away the majority of our proceeds to a local charity.

I don’t know if we picked just the right charity or if our singing was particularly tremendous that night, but the church sanctuary was packed, and after paying the church and the guest handbell choir, we were still able to take in more than $400. So, in addition to the literal “big” check of $400 to the Putnam County Non-Food Pantry, our chorus brought in dozens and dozens of items, including toilet paper, paper towels, shampoo, cleaners, diapers, feminine hygiene products, soap and much more.

Putnam County has a high poverty rate, and people cannot get these basic necessities with EBT cards or food stamps. We were so happy to share our wealth and non-pantry items to such a deserving community non-profit like the Putnam County Non-Food Pantry. We look forward to giving another great concert, again, this December and selecting another great charity to choose to gain some much-needed funds.

But the fun didn’t stop there with new members and our successful “Simply Christmas” concert. After the holidays and back to our rehearsals in January we noticed that either our members had eaten a little too much over the holidays or that our risers were getting smaller.

Fortunately, neither was the case. Due to our additional members, our space on the risers was getting a little small. We needed to obtain two new sets of risers, and fast. So we engaged in applying for a grant, asking for the cost of one new set of risers if we would pay for one set. (Hint — We were told this was a good way to request additional funds and also show that we were willing to spend some money on ourselves, too.) Guess what? It worked. We were awarded a $900 grant for the purchase of a set of risers.

We are happy to announce that the risers have been ordered and will be on their way to Greencastle soon. Then we’ll really be able to spread ourselves out and have a little more room.

There’s still more room on the risers for more women who love to sing in harmony. Come and see what we’re all about at the Greencastle Middle School band room (purple door) on Mondays at 7 p.m.