The Voices of Unity Choir was invited to participate in the World Choir Games in Shaoxing, China, in July. Holly Parks, the mother of two choir members, is helping with the choir’s Dreams of Gold campaign to raise money needed to get the choir to China. She spoke with editorial writer Stacey Stumpf about the choir games. For more information about donating, go to dreamsofgold.org.
Here are excerpts of the interview; listen to the entire interview and watch a video of the choir singing by going to The Journal Gazette’s home page at www.journa1gazette.net. Click “opinion,” then click “5 Questions for Holly Parks.”
1 What are the World Choir Games?
The best way to describe it is that they are the Olympics for choirs. It is a competition. It’s hosted by Interkultur based out of Germany. They host the World Choir Games every two years, and its run is like the Olympics. They have opening ceremonies. They have closing ceremonies. There are probably about 90 nations represented that bring choirs. Over 400 choirs will be there.
2 Why is it such a big deal that Voices of Unity is going to be there this year?
I think the biggest deal is that we were invited to go. … You can go on their website, and if you wanted to enter your choir, you could go through all the processes of getting accepted. The fact that we were invited to go is a really big deal not only for Fort Wayne, but for our state and the Midwest in general. Only five choirs from the United States will be represented at the World Choir Games. Three of them are from Nevada, and one of them is from California. We’re the only choir from the Midwest area that will be representing the United States.
3 How many people are going; what will it cost; and how is fundraising going?
The budget right now is about $400,000. We have quite a rather large choir that is going to the World Choir Games, so we have all of the traveling expenses. There are about 60 of the choir members who are going. However, there are chaperones for that many children. There are mentors who are going; there are staff, the band. Altogether, there will be about 100 people traveling to China in our group.
The fundraising is actually going well. We do have a long way to go. But we knew when we were invited – we were only invited in January – so we knew in seven months we had to do a huge amount of fundraising. We’ve been the pedal to the metal – we’ve been really working hard at it.
Well, the kids alone have raised about $75,000. We just announced this morning that we have a $50,000 grant from Steel Dynamics. … And we also have a corporate rally that’s going to be held on May 26. That is where we’re hoping to just get all the local businesses to come, hear the choir, support what we are doing and hopefully bring a check to take us over that mark. Obviously, we have a ways to go, but Fort Wayne has really stepped up.
4 Why did your daughters get involved with Voices of Unity?
McKenna is 9, and Emily is 7. … I used to teach at IPFW – this was about 10 years ago – right when the Voices of Unity was first getting started. And my classroom that I taught in was right next to where they rehearsed. I just could tell this was an organization unlike anything I had ever seen. Mostly, I think I was drawn by the music, which was phenomenal.
I had no children at that time, but I said when I do, that’s where they’re going to be. So, I really waited 10 years till my girls were old enough. … As soon as they hit the age level, we signed up because it’s such a great organization.
5 You are chaperoning the trip. How are you preparing for that task?
We’ve been doing a lot of research, and we have a lot of volunteers that are helping with this. We have a travel committee that has put together lists. … You can’t help but just get excited when everyone is coming together to make this happen. It’s a big task, but because everybody is so excited about it, it makes it all worthwhile. It’s going to be great!
