Resounding Joy–Luncheon, April 9, 2013

WooHoo!  What an awesome God we have!  We saw his handywork today through a great group of teenagers from Dayton Christian High School. The singing group, Resounding Joy, performed for a full hour for our enjoyment!  If you missed it, you can hear it here later in this blog post.

To start, several of the kids played the piano for our Prelude period prior to our normal procedures and their concert. Thank you Luke Goodman, Morgan Beck, Abegael Walkin, and Carolyn Herman. (forgive me if these names are spelled incorrectly) Later these same students performed with the chorus.

Remember, you can double click on any photo to see it in a larger size!

Next, the group performed a good number of songs intermixed with speaking parts.  I will include a number of photos in no particular order except in the order of the performance.  You can hear the entire program (minus my ramblings) HERE!

They even had their own interpreter for the blind and percussion section!

Great soloists, too!

Look out, Billy Graham!

Someone later commented to me that he felt that he’d heard three sermons and praise sessions!  Resounding Joy did a great job representing Dayton Christian Schools and our Lord God.  But, I told him this doesn’t get an excuse for skipping the next three sermons!

Young @ Heart Luncheon–March 12, 2013

First, let  me be sure to let everyone know that our Young @ Heart program is open to anyone of retirement ages. If this means you, please feel free to join us any month. Most months, we meet at 11AM on the 2nd Tuesday for a program then have our luncheon at noon.  Programs vary but include Music, Magicians, Ventriloquist, Juggler, Special Personalities (Mark Twain will join us soon) and Speakers. Contact our office or let me know, if you are interested in joining us for a program. Browse this blog for a good idea of the broad range of our programs.

This month, we had a special presentation from the Miami Valley Women’s Center. However, after our normal opening (jokes, birthdays, and anniversaries) we had a special music number by Christina Comer.

Christina is a special friend for Y@H and is a singer that our people really enjoy hearing. I think they would often prefer her rather than some of our paid performers. Maybe we should have her do a full concert for us sometime. What do you think?

You can hear her sing by clicking on this LINK!

Following Christina we heard from several of the staff from the Miami Valley Women’s Center (MVWC).

Nancy Jensen is the Medical Services and Clinic Director at the center and she led off with a short talk about the mission of the center then introduced the other speakers.

Brad Berlean is the director for the Men’s Programs. He followed Nancy and spoke about the services and  programs that MVWC offer to the boyfriends and husbands of their clients. This is an important program to be sure that these men become good fathers and spouses.

Finally, following Brad, we heard from Tiffany Siefman who directs the women’s programs. As with the men’s program the goal is to support women in the role of mom and spouse.

You can hear the program, HERE.

Nancy finished with the introduction of the Baby Bottle program that we’ve done here at Young @ Heart for a couple of years. Several of you have been asking when we would do this again and one even brought in a bottle of change in case he missed an opportunity. So we offered the bottles again to anyone who wants one.  Fill them with your loose change and bring them back, next month. The center depends entirely on donations and gifts from people just like us. They do not accept federal funds so that they can operate as a Faith Based program.

Young @ Heart Luncheon–February 12, 2013

Our program for this month was a Valentines Theme. We listened to some fun music and enjoyed a nice meal.

To start, we enjoyed music by Fred Scheffler and Nathan Brandt at the piano for our Early Bird Prelude material. I thought Nathan did a great job. He is David’s brother. David has played for us in the past but is now away at the University.

Following our normal opening material, we enjoyed a concert by the New Horizons Jazz Ensemble. They played some nice music including a lot of Glen Miller music.  This band is sponsored by the University of Dayton Continuing Education Department. Most of the musicians are senior citizens who in the past played instruments in bands, etc. Maybe some of our people would be interested in dusting off an old instrument and polishing some old skills and joining the program.

I hoped to be able to also post a sample of their music, but unfortunately, this was  not properly recorded!    So, you can get a taste of the music style at his website. We didn’t have any vocalists, though.

The drummer in the center photo above is my primary contact with the group and a fine gentleman, Chuck Steward.

…. and yes, that is a plastic trombone. There were actually four of them all different bright colors and they sounded pretty good in the one number where they were used.

The ensemble is led by Tom Pfrogner who is also involved in a number of other musical projects, including his own group, Tom Daugherty Orchestra. He was also a High School Band Director and teacher. As you can see, he also plays a Trombone and the piano/keyboard.

Lisa and her staff did another fine job in the kitchen and dining room! Several of you requested her recipe, so that will be available in our March Newsletter.

We also introduced our Fall Travel plans. We’re going to Florida in September! Be sure to check this out, if you are interested, and get your money in for the reservations as soon as possible! See the Brochure, HERE.  I am surprised at how quickly this one is filling up. Hopefully, we can get about 50 of you for this one.

February 8, 2013 – Luncheon with Dave Harney

Our February Luncheon program was a very good one with one of our favorite musicians, Dave Harney. Dave is a excellent soloist and also sings with Gospel Quartet groups. He has been performing with Young at Heart since before I came on the scene! He and his wife Mary are always welcomed warmly to our programs.

Dave sang a good number of his songs along with several of his newest ones that are featured in his latest album.

Dave has been heavily involved with Christian ministry for over 30 years. First, he was a youth pastor, then he added the music ministry to his repertoire and became a choir leader. He has been doing this current ministry now for 8 years. I don’t know when he first started singing for Young at Heart but it was before my time started here over 5 years ago.

I recorded a couple of videos of his music, so if you missed this concert, here’s one to watch.

Dave Harney–Rock of Ages Hide Thou Me

We also recorded the entire program. Listen, HERE.

Next month we will feature a new group for us. New Horizons, a senior citizens band, will bring their music to Young @ Heart. They are associated with the University of Dayton and they’re always looking for new talent. If you are interested, check out the Continuing Education Department at UD! More importantly, come and join us for our February Luncheon. This will make a great Valentines program!

It’s a Wonderful Life – La Comedia

This play at La Comedia was also a Wonderful Musical! We took our Young at Heart Day Trip to La Comedia to catch this great Christmas program. Everything about this was perfect!

• For starters, our seating was great!
• The Buffet was outstanding
• The Musical was one of the best plays that I recall ever seeing at La Comedia.

We had a good group of Young at Heart people go with us for this special event. La Comedia always does a very good job for us. Therefore, La Comedia has become one of our favorite destinations for our Day Trips. Good thing; because we will go three times in 2013!

Our seating has improved significantly since we moved up to the section above the floor level. We can see better and the seating is more comfortable. All tables seat 2 or 4 people rather than the 8 people that we had down on the floor level, last year.

But, it isn’t about the seating; it is a about OUR people!

Of course, a big attraction to La Comedia is also the food! I personally thought the food was even better than normal.

… and service!

But of course, we also came to see the play/musical. “It’s a Wonderful Life!” Good overcame evil once again. The actor/singers did a great job. The finale with the singing of “O Holy Night” was outstanding and received a standing ovation.

For copyright purposes, we were not allowed to photograph of take video  during the program. However, we always get to meet the players after the play. This is a shot that I took of the lineup.

Well done, La Comedia!

Young @ Heart – Christmas Luncheon Program

This month we celebrated Christmas a little early with a very special program and special menu for lunch. I think everyone was very pleased with both the program and the food.

Our program started with a Piano / Organ duet Prelude by Grace Averitt at the Piano and Nancy Jensen at the Organ. Their music was well done but I’ll let you hear it here, too! 

Following this music, I did our normal opening material and jokes.

THEN! We were pleased to be entertained by the Carillon Brass. This group will be doing a similar program this weekend (Friday Afternoon) at the Loft downtown. All five of these brass musicians are also part of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, in addition to other duties and jobs such as teaching, etc. Our own Pastor of Worship and Music, Charlie Pagnard did most of the talking and played Trumpet.

Oh, that’s right, they are a Quintet, that means 5.  So here are the other 4. These included a French Horn, another Trumpet, at Trombone, and a Tuba!

I’ll include a couple of YouTube links so you can actually see and hear these men in action:

Carillon Brass at YAH

Carillon Brass at YAH - Dec. 11, 2012 (More Video)

Now, you can also listen to the entire concert HERE.

Finally, if this isn’t enough, we had a fantastic lunch! Last month we had everyone vote on their choice for meals and the winner was – Ham, Potatoes, Fruit Salad, and Pie. Lisa chose the pie and I thought it was great, even though I had never had anything like it before. Egg Nog Pie!  Thank you Lisa and the kitchen and dining room staff for a fantastic Christmas meal!