Community Christmas Choir concert at Russellville Dec. 2-4

RUSSELLVILLE -- The Community Christmas Choir, under the direction of Jamie France, is preparing for the 10th annual Community Christmas Choir concert at the Russellville Community Center.

This year's concert is titled, "The Gift of Christmas," created by Phil Barfoot and arranged and orchestrated by Dave Williamson. This highly anticipated annual event is open to the public.

The Community Christmas Choir concert will be performed at the Russellville Community Center at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3 and on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 1:30 p.m. Each performance will last approximately one hour.

Free nursery and childcare services will be available during each performance.

"The Gift of Christmas" features an 80-member adult choir, a 50-member children's choir, a multi-character drama team, soloists and various special effects. "Visions of Praise," a sign language praise team will make a special guest appearance.

The Russellville Community Center will be transformed into a winter wonderland filled with holiday decorations and a festival of trees.

A pre-concert dinner will be prepared by the Russellville Community Center and will be served one hour prior to each performance.

The meals, consisting of a salisbury steak dinner planned for Friday evening and a chicken and noodles dinner planned for Saturday evening, will be served starting at 6 p.m. The spaghetti meal planned for Sunday will begin at noon.

A free-will offering will be accepted for the meal and all the proceeds will benefit the Russellville Community Center by going toward its operational expenses. Spectators are urged to come early to enjoy a hot meal with warm fellowship while showing financial support for the Russellville Community Center.

Christmas bake sale items will also be available before, during and after each of the three performances. The holiday cookies and candies are donated by the volunteer members that make up the Community Christmas Choir. A free-will offering will also be accepted for these goodies and all the proceeds will go to benefit the 2012 Community Christmas Choir.

The Community Christmas Choir was formed 10 years ago when three rural churches, Browns Valley Christian, Freedom Baptist and Parkersburg Christian decided to unite their small respective choirs into a single 35-member group.

Over the past 10 years, the choir has grown in popularity and size to include choir members from churches in northern Putnam, southern Montgomery and northeastern Parke counties. In 2005, the venue was moved to the Russellville Community Center, where last year, nearly 1,500 people attended the three-day event.

The Community Christmas Choir wishes to once again take this opportunity to provide for those individuals in our local communities who are less fortunate and will not have enough to eat this winter by collecting non-perishable food items at the door. Donated items will be distributed to food banks in Putnam and Montgomery counties. If you plan to attend, please donate generously to this cause.