Bataan Elementary students hold annual White Christmas concert, help local food banks
PORT CLINTON - Bataan Elementary School students participated in a holiday tradition last week that many of their parents and grandparents enjoyed as children.
White Christmas, held Wednesday, is an annual event celebrating music and benevolence that was begun by a former Jefferson Elementary School principal, the late Bill Pope, in the 1960s. Students brought in nonperishable food items for local food banks and sang Christmas songs.
The event featured the school’s fifth grade choir, recorder band and bell choir. The performances gave this year’s fourth graders a chance to see how fun fifth grade will be if they decide to join the music program next year.
School collects canned food for food banks
“The purpose of the event is to collect canned food for local food banks, bring the kids together for a Christmas celebration, and showcase our choirs,” said School Counselor Lynne O’Neal.
The musicians were led by the school’s choir director, Toby Farrell. Retired teacher Glen Verhoff provided accompaniment on the piano.
“Mr. Verhoff comes back each year to help with this,” O’Neal said.
Farrell said the vocal choir and recorder band practice once a week, but the bell choir gives up two recesses every week for practice. Their dedication shows.
“This group is very advanced,” Farrell said. “They learned 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' It’s very unusual for a group to get that advanced.”
Fifth graders travel to perform at the Vineyard on Catawba
After the White Christmas event, the fifth grade musicians performed at the Vineyard on Catawba, took a break to eat lunch at Pizza Hut, and then performed for their parents in the afternoon.
On Dec. 8, they performed for the Hope for the Holidays Toy Drive sponsored by TV station 13-ABC at the Ottawa County Salvation Army Service Center.
“We’re really in demand,” Farrell said.
A lunchroom table overflowed with canned goods donated by students. Bataan Intermediate Principal Morgan Siefke praised the students for their generosity and encouraged them to continue their benevolence through the entire Christmas season.
“You brought in a lot of items for people who maybe don’t have as much as we do,” Siefke said. “You helped people. Let’s continue to do these great things for other people.”
Fifth graders Easton Stout and Olivia Keeton, who were among the students in the audience, said they enjoyed the performance.
“It was really good. I liked the songs,” Stout said. “It had really good singing, and the bells and recorders were really good.”
“I think it was great,” Keeton said. "One of my friends, Kinley Miller, was singing, and I think she did a really good job. The guy on the piano was really good, and Mrs. Farrell was really good. The fourth graders will get to do this next year, and I think they’ll do a really good job, too.”
Contact correspondent Sheri Trusty at sheritrusty4@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on Port Clinton News Herald: Bataan Elementary students continue White Christmas concert tradition
