This Christmas season will start with a little bit of song and community this year at the first Bloomington Christmas Sing-Along.
The event, in partnership with First Methodist Church and the Open Door Church’s Jubilee, will allow the crowd to sing Christmas carols at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Buskirk-Chumley Theater.
“If you’ve been to a really great concert where everyone is singing along to a song that you like it leaves you with this sort of high, and hopefully that can carry on into the rest of the year,” said Travis Quirk, who organized the singalong in partnership with Brandon Pfeiffer.
The singalong will also strive to raise awareness and funds for the Interfaith Winter Shelter, an organization that provides emergency shelter for the homeless community during the winter.
Pfeiffer said a donation of time is just as valuable as a monetary donation this year because the shelter needs people to help them run the organization.
“The winter shelter has been in Bloomington since 2009, and I know every year they have a need for volunteers,” Pfeiffer said. “We thought this would be a good way to kind of raise awareness for the shelter, let people know that it’s here and that it’s done a lot of good for people in our community, so even if people can’t afford to give money, they can help out by volunteering.”
Quirk said combining a united community and supporting the shelter is what makes the performance and its style special.
“I think it’s a great cause,” Quirk said. “It’s accomplishing two things. One is helping to bring the Bloomington community together around the holidays and then also raising awareness for the shelter, which has done an incredible job every year.”
The singalong is free to all who attend and is appropriate anyone of any age who enjoys singing or listening to Christmas carols.
IU sophomore Grace Minnick, who will lead Jubilee, said the event gives IU students the chance to work with new people for a good cause.
“The Interfaith Winter Shelter is, from a student’s perspective, a really great opportunity for students to really get to work with people who are outside of IU’s campus, people who we normally wouldn’t interact with,” Minnick said. “To be able to have this event to kind of bring the community together and promote this wonderful program is really neat.”
Quirk said an event like this could have a positive effect on Bloomington locals and the homeless community the singalong supports.
Pfeiffer said he hopes people will enjoy themselves and connect with the other singers and the sense of community will inspire them to give back this holiday season.
“Sometimes when you just get people in a room together singing songs together, it’s just like a feeling or fun magic that happens,” Pfeiffer said. “I think it’s kind of just a way to relax and enjoy this time of year with other people.”
