Concert celebrates the season

More than 100 people attended the 3rd Annual Community Christmas Concert at the Plains Bible Chapel Saturday night.

The 20 member choir included men, women and children, some from the Plains Bible Chapel, some from other churches, and some individual residents who wanted to be part of the holiday musical performance, gathered for an hour and a half and sang a variety of tunes from "Jingle Bells" to "O Come All Ye Faithful."

The annual concert is the brainchild of Plains Bible Chapel member Jeanine Croft, who wanted to have an event to bring the community together to celebrate Christ's birth. "I love Jesus, I love the season, I love the music, and it's a wonderful opportunity to share it with the whole community," said Jen Avilla, who has helped coordinate the concert and had the only solo, "Coventry Carol," with Donna Scheiter on the piano. Avilla and Kate French also performed a duet of "Breath of Heaven."

"I love to see people from the community step forward and want to participate in the special numbers. In a way, it forces people to share time as they practice and it makes the whole event all the more fun," said Croft. She did a duet, "Make Room," with her husband, Donny, on the guitar. He and Scheiter shared duties on the piano with Josh Champneys, Mayme Ercanbrack and Neva Thompson.

"Many people said it was our best concert yet," said Croft. She added that they bought better microphones, which helped elevate the show and make the voices better heard. She said they're already planning for next year. Most of the songs included the entire choir, which had singers from 5-year-old Josie Frankhauser to older adults. Eleven-year-old Moriah Champneys did a duet of "Hallelujah" with her father, Josh, who sang and played the guitar. Anaelle Avilla, 11, and her sister, Allie Avilla, 9, did a piano duet of "Jingle Bells."

The performance included 22 songs with the audience joining in on some, including "We Wish You A Merry Christmas". "The Twelve Days of Christmas" included audience participation, where several members of the audience popped up and chimed out their parts, with the choir doing the five golden rings part. "Each year seems to get better as people get the idea and have more fun with it," said Jeanine Croft.

The event included chili, desserts and drinks after the performance and Rich Culbertson, the church pastor, did the opening and closing prayers. Avilla said the Community Christmas Concert is growing each year, particularly with more men in the choir.

"We were very happy with how the concert turned out," said Croft. "We did more difficult numbers this year and they really came through and I think were challenging and fun," she added. The choir rehearsed twice a week for the last three weeks. "I just love seeing people making new friends and enjoying making music," said Croft.