Spreading holiday cheer
Kelowna high school teachers form choir for a day to go carolling at seniors homes, Gospel Mission
It wasn’t difficult to find the Immaculata Teachers Choir. All I had to do was follow the distinctive sound of the jaunty Christmas carol “Jingle Bells.”
The 32 teachers in the ad hoc choir were in the second-floor, multi-purpose room of Mountainview seniors home in Kelowna, singing their hearts out for the assembled residents.
“This is the first time we’ve had a teachers choir and I think it went well,” said Jeremy de Haan, the religious co-ordinator and theology teacher at Immaculata Catholic high school.
“I’m in charge of organizing the staff retreats, and teacher Rhonda Sali suggested for this one, so close to Christmas, we form a choir and hit the road.”
De Haan admitted he’s not very musical, so while he did the planning for the choir, it was music teacher Heather Hrasko who took over the singing program.
It was a challenge to bring together a choir for just one day, so the teachers met in the music room of the high school on KLO Road on Friday morning to warm up their voices for an hour.
Hrasko led a quick vocal lesson, and then they were off on foot to Mountainview.
The seniors home is just across the road from the school, so it was a handy first stop.
The teachers kept the lineup simple and relied on the size of the choir to highlight those with nice singing voices and drown out those who were pitchy or tone deaf.
As such, the six-song set was a collection of easily sung favourites, from the aforementioned “Jingle Bells,” “Silent Night” and “O Come Let Us Adore Him” to “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “Here Comes Santa Claus” and, the finale, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”
It was hard to tell if all the residents liked the Christmas cheer or not. At the extended-care facility, the most elderly among them simply sat there while others sang along and applauded.
The teachers all had lyrics sheets in case they got stuck.
And it’s easy to get thwarted on a Christmas carol, even if we do hear them many times each year, the choruses are catchy and we think we know all the words.
For instance, everyone knows the famous line: “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to ride in a onehorse open sleigh.”
But you’ll find yourself reaching for the lyrics sheet for: “A day or two ago, I thought I’d take a ride.”
Similarly, with “Here Comes Santa Claus,” everyone can sing: “Here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus, right down Santa Claus Lane.”
However, most are only humming by the time it comes around to: “Peace on earth will come to all, if we just just follow the light.”
The teachers loaded into a yellow school bus for the rest of the tour to sing at Kelowna’s Gospel Mission downtown and Glenmore Lodge care home.