ISSUED: 19 November 2013
MEDIA CONTACT: Valerie Owens
SHEPHERDSTOWN, WV — As part of its arts advocacy and service learning project, the Shepherd University Senior Music Seminar class will present a concert, “If Music Be the Food of Love: Music for Meals,” to benefit Meals on Wheels of Jefferson County on Monday, December 9 at 7 p.m. in the W.H. Shipley Recital Hall in the Frank Center.
The concert will feature vocal and instrumental holiday-themed performances. Students from the Senior Music Seminar class will perform holiday music in various combinations including brass quintets, jazz combos, vocal solos, choral ensembles, and instrumental solos. Members of Sigma Alpha Iota, the professional women’s music fraternity; Phi Mu Alpha, the men’s music fraternity; and Scene Stealers, the student-run musical theater organization, will also be performing group songs and musical numbers.
Concert admission is free; however, canned and dry goods, as well as monetary donations, will be accepted to benefit Meals on Wheels of Jefferson County. Meals on Wheels delivers daily hot and healthy meals to anyone in Jefferson County who is homebound for any reason, or is unable to prepare at least one balanced meal per day, regardless of his or her age, income, infirmity, race, gender, or neighborhood. This year, the organization has experienced a drastic reduction in funding.
The goal of the Shepherd music students’ fundraising concert is to ensure that Meals on Wheels clients can remain independent in their homes for as long as safely possible. The service meets two essential needs: ensuring that clients receive a healthy, well-balanced daily meal to prevent malnutrition, and monitoring the client’s well-being and summoning the client’s caregiver of record, or emergency help, if needed. The drivers also bring a little cheer into the client’s life with a daily visit, since many clients are quite isolated. The prepared meals are packed by volunteer packers and placed into hot and cold food boxes for delivery. The volunteer drivers and visitors load the food boxes in their vehicles for delivery throughout the county. The program is carried out through the efforts of 80 dedicated volunteers, one paid part-time cook/kitchen manager, and two paid part-time schedulers/office administrators. Meals on Wheels is funded through three sources: direct donations from the client, client’s relatives, and friends; the United Way of the Eastern Panhandle and the Combined Federal Campaign; and fundraising events, grants, and individual donations and donations from churches and service organizations. Come celebrate the sounds of the season with the Shepherd University Senior Music Seminar class and help support Meal on Wheels of Jefferson County.
For more information, contact Dr. Scott Beard (faculty advisor) at sbeard@shepherd.edu or Jen Watland of Jefferson County Meals on Wheels at 304-620-2723.
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