Bastrop Rotary supports many community organizations, but one which makes us feel especially good is Bastrop’s Honor Choir. The Club recently donated funds to help the Choir achieve its annual enrichment experience this year.
Founded in 2009 by area musician Bill Owens, the Choir is committed to “honoring” children who may have been abused or neglected. The choir’s Mission states: “With the power of music to heal a broken spirit, we sing for the children who have no voice; who have no choice. We honor them and those who help them by sharing our energy, our resources, and our song”.
The group is considered the Bastrop-area Children’s Advocacy Center’s “best ambassadors.” Owens says, “A young person is in the Choir because I see GREAT CHARACTER and GREAT GRADES in them. Each one has a heart for giving and a mind for agency”. The singers are committed to learning about and providing support to abused and neglected children. And they sing wonderful music!
The Choir’s annual enrichment experience will occur in New Orleans this year, singing at the Crescent City Choral Festival, with eleven other choirs from around the country, and performing a formal concert on June 30th. The service project for this trip is at the New Orleans Children’s Advocacy Center. The Choir will sing in the concourse of the Children's Hospital, then work on the CAC's donation closet. (Owens says the singers can also look forward to a swamp tour, some museums, riding street cars, and enjoying City Park.)
Bastrop Rotary is proud to provide continued support for the Bastrop Honor Choir. We look forward to their singing at our Christmas party for a third year, and to seeing the completion of their leadership curriculum, “CaringLife,” next year. The Honor Choir singers are an inspiring bunch of young people, willing to march into territory many adults would prefer to ignore. Bastrop Rotary honors them, they are people of action.