Young singers spread holiday cheer

GES music teacher William McCleary leads one of two third-grade choirs in the annual holiday concert. Photos by Janice Steinhagen.

Choral groups both large and small offered sounds of the holiday season across the region last week. At Griswold Elementary School, the annual third-grade holiday concert, presented on Dec. 13, was offered in two separate shifts to allow for a manageable choir size. The event, conducted by GES music teacher William McCleary, was the first performance on the school's new cafetorium stage.

In Voluntown, a strolling band of teenagers from Voluntown Baptist Church brought Christmas carols and home-baked mini-bread loaves to residents of the senior housing complex on Dec. 16. Led by interim pastor Rev. Paul Overdorff and several adult leaders, the young people knocked on doors and offered rousing renditions of Christmas favorites, ending each set with “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.” The outreach project is an annual tradition, said adult leader Brenda Earle.