Several Glen Lake choirs students traveled to local nursing homes and rehab centers to bring holiday cheer through Christmas carols Tuesday.
The Lakers were singing all of the hits including “Silent Night”, “Holly Jolly Christmas”, “Deck the Halls,” and more.
“It’s a great way to meet with the community at a time where people are also seeing family and friends. It’s also a great way to connect, meet new people, and just have fun together as a group,” Glen Lake senior choir student Miles Wright said.
For Glen Lake choir director Rob Stow, signing Christmas carols locally has been a tradition for the past four years. The students went to a variety places including the Kingsley Lighthouse Rehabilitation Center, which focuses on brain injuries with folks of all ages.
“It’s something that’s important to me because it gives students an opportunity to perform in a non-traditional way, and I think it’s a life experience situation where they could do this after they graduate and sing carols and songs anytime they want to,” Stow said. “It allows them to see different folks who are living and how they can experience empathy ... There’s a lot of community members that don’t necessarily make it to our concerts and I want to have that opportunity to spread some music to those folks too.”
The next in-person choir concerts will come in February and March with the winter concerts.
“This is my first year at Glen Lake, and my first time experiencing caroling. To be able to go out with the class and sing, which I love doing, and spread cheer and it was really nice. I enjoyed it,” junior Aarienne Ackley said.
Glen Lake puppets took over the halls last week with a caroling invasion during choir class as Glen Lake teacher Rob Stow was away.
A Youtube video displayed students’ creativity in making puppets and singing Christmas carols.
The Laker choir room had a substitute who had the idea to bring their Christmas hymns to life with puppets.
“It was a stroke of genius and we decided to go along with it instead of just having a day where we sat and did everything on our own,” Ackley said.
Stow said the video made him laugh and proud because the goal of his teaching is that students can be independent and take initiative.
“They ran with it and they came up with funny ingenious ways to sing. It was a goofy way to practice their song but it was also fun and educational,” Stow said.
