FORT WAYNE – The rows of children behind soloist GorDon Martin stand still, quiet, disciplined.

Channeling Ray Charles, Martin belts out the first verse of “America the Beautiful.” Then he tells the crowd, “You know, when I was back in school, we sang it like this.”

The kids in the Voices of Unity Youth Choir start to sway and join in singing. The rapt crowd at Sweetwater Sound is small, and many are parents or friends of the choir, but the small crowd doesn’t stop the performers from pouring their hearts into the song.

They know they’re working up to a bigger stage.

The Voices of Unity Youth Choir has been invited to participate in the World Choir Games, an Olympic-style event that will take place in July in Shaoxing, China.

In a few short months, the choir members have raised $80,000. Combined with corporate grants, the choir is well on its way to raising the $400,000 it needs for the trip – thanks to multiple public appearances, a publicity campaign and leadership determined to raise money for a positive cause in a negative economy.

Martin and the choir performed Wednesday at Sweetwater Sound Inc. at a rally to woo corporate donors.

Martin, a singing mentor and solo coordinator, is confident the choir will raise the money, but that wasn’t the first thing on choir members’ minds in January when they were invited to the China event.

More than 400 choirs, representing 90 countries, will be there. The choir was overwhelmed by the opportunity. But what about the money part?

“That didn’t really set in until the next week,” Martin said with a laugh.

Martin grew up with Marshall White, founder of the Unity Performing Arts Foundation, singing at Greater Progressive Baptist Church.

The Voices of Unity Youth Choir operates under the umbrella of the foundation White created in 2000.

He and White loved music and loved performing. But they could not have imagined an organization such as Voices of Unity Youth Choir that could offer the chance to perform internationally.

“We did not have a platform like them,” Martin said.

The choir’s 80-plus members are ages 7 to 19. Martin has been involved with the choir for six years, and he’s been impressed not only by the formation of young musicians, but the discipline that gets drilled into the children.

“I think the most valuable thing about it is they’re fearless,” he said. “Nothing rattles them.”

Clint Kugler, director of Parkview Family YMCA, said that’s what drew him to become a board member of the Unity Performing Arts Foundation. Many members of the choir have better public-speaking skills than adults he knows, Kugler said.

The choir rehearses twice weekly, but the performers are also taught life skills and sometimes receive academic tutoring.

“The back story is these kids are not just growing in musical talent,” Kugler said. “They are growing as highly successful young people.”

That fearlessness will be important at the World Choir Games, where Voices of Unity will be the only choir from the Midwest and one of just five representing the U.S.

Positive notes

Parent Angie Yoder watched 15-year-old Asia Collins power through “Wind Beneath My Wings,” backed by the choir.

Yoder was moved to tears. To her family, the choir’s effects have been more than musical.

Yoder said her daughter, 11-year-old Alivia Croxton, was having problems at Irwin Elementary School – “normal fifth-grade drama,” Yoder calls it.

She wanted to head off the trouble before it started. So Yoder asked choir director White to step in, and his offer to visit Alivia at school was enough to motivate her to shape up, Yoder said.

She improved a letter grade in each subject, and she recently won an award for best behavioral improvement.

“I made a plan for myself, and I succeeded at that plan,” Alivia said.

She’s ending the school year on that positive note – and the heady anticipation of an overseas trip. She raised $2,400 from friends and family, meeting her personal goal and has moved on to help other choir members raise money.

“Most people can’t say, ‘I’m 11, and I’m going to China,’ ” she said. “It’s just an exciting feeling.”

Yoder said the discipline taught is good for all kids, and it motivated her to ask her son, 8-year-old Xavier Croxton, to try the choir for a month.

Xavier is a restless kid, and Yoder wasn’t sure he’d stick with it. But he has, for several months now, enduring six hours of rehearsal every weekend. And, judging by his soulful performance in the front row Wednesday, he was enjoying it immensely and making the kind of like-minded, motivated friends every parent hopes their child will make.

“This has shown him that he can have self-control,” Yoder said. “This shows kids, when you make positive choices, positive people will come to you.”

Xavier is matter-of-fact about his transformation, which he said was motivated by fear of getting kicked off the stage.

“I was scared of Mr. White,” he said.

But having his sister there helped, and he quickly found his place. He’s not afraid now of White.

“He teaches us life lessons every time we go there,” he said. “And then we sing.”

Music and more

George Danusis has a simple theory about this: “Invest in good seed, and you’ll get a good crop.”

To Danusis, the board’s chairman, the $400,000 the Voices of Unity Youth Choir needs to raise is small change compared with other ways money is spent in the U.S. It’s about as much as the cost to incarcerate a half-dozen prisoners for a year, he said.

He found a kindred spirit in White, who he said has a gift for teaching kids skills they need to lead healthy, productive, rich lives – the kind of lives that don’t lead to drug abuse or violence or teen pregnancy.

“These issues go away when you empower children,” Danusis said. “Marshall captures that.”

Marshall White’s official title is director/life coach, and he takes the latter role most seriously when it comes to the 460-plus children who have passed through the program since it began in 2000. His vision for the choir goes far beyond performing, and it isn’t simple to explain.

“Watching them perform is the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

First, of course, there’s the music.

White attended North Side High School and studied music in postsecondary programs where, he said, none of the classical-focused music programs were relevant to him.

White was music director at True Love Baptist Church for 22 years, and his musical background came from the gospel and jazz influences that are traditional sources of arts in the black community, he said.

While those are his passion, White tries to pick music from all genres – jazz, gospel, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, pop and country music.

Which leads to his second vision for the choir – diversity.

Nearly half the choir members are black. About a quarter are biracial, and the rest are white, Hispanic and other minorities. Forty percent receive financial assistance to participate.

The choir isn’t just for urban, at-risk kids, although it has some members that fit that description.

But its students come from 19 ZIP codes; one even comes from Chicago every two weeks for practices.

White said he set out to create a diverse arts program that does not target a particular culture or segment of society, and that’s explicit in the name “Unity,” he said.

But he’s most proud of the discipline and respect that the kids have along with the singing. Guests at Sweetwater on Wednesday commented on how quietly the children stood in line between performances and how well-spoken they are.

That’s what’s made raising the money for the China trip so important – and such a no-brainer – to White. Like Danusis, he hopes a positive cause, and the chance to affect kids’ lives early, will draw donors.

“We don’t see positive causes as an urgency to support,” he said. “We need to change the way we see things.”

aturner@jg.net