Terry Crull<\/a> and a 70-piece entourage of friends, family and faculty will join them for the performance as well as a series of additional concerts.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n\u201cWe get to kick off the whole thing on that morning of Dec. 7. The very first thing will be us singing \u2018The Star-Spangled Banner,\u2019\u201d Crull said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The choir received the news of the performance in September 2020 from Music Celebrations International, a company that the FHSU choirs with worked closely and utilized for their trip to Salzburg, Austria four years ago.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was this company that invited them to the Hawaii performance.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Katy Walters, a senior who has performed with the Fort Hays Singers for three years, said she was ecstatic when she heard the news.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe had talked about a couple different trips we might take. And Hawaii wasn\u2019t even on the radar yet, and they announced it to the group last fall when we were all masked up and sitting, you know, six feet apart,\u201d she said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Walters also describes the experience as humbling because veterans, political figures and community members will be part of their audience.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because of the event\u2019s significance, she expects tears during the concert and hopes the audience receives the heart the choir puts into their performance.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the arts, you know, that\u2019s where we share part of ourselves and especially at a service like this in which it\u2019s a memorial for what happened and the tragedies that went on at that time 80 years ago,\u201d Walters said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Crull, the choir\u2019s first concert of the week is a 30-minute concert of Christmas music in a service at Kawaiaha\u02bbo Church, the oldest church in Honolulu.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their second performance will be at the U.S.S. Arizona memorial then they will be a part of a wreath-laying ceremony at the U.S.S. Missouri. The next day, they perform on the deck of the U.S.S. Bowfin.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Fort Hays Singers music includes patriotic numbers like \u201cThis Is My Country\u201d and popular tunes from the 1940s like \u201cMy Funny Valentine.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to just go there and tourist,\u201d Crull said. \u201cWe want to work. We\u2019re singers. We\u2019re a choir.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group is taking a full repertoire of pieces, but they are also taking a wreath.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a three-foot diameter wreath with sunflower petals, fake of course but real as they look, made by Flowers by Frances. And on the yellow petals of the sunflowers, we\u2019ve written names of veterans,\u201d Crull said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pam McGown, the choir\u2019s accompanist, originally proposed the wreath as a way to fundraise for the trip. Community members could send the choir a donation and the name of a veteran to add to the petals.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Once the choir arrives in Hawaii, they will leave it at the section of the Pearl Harbor memorial dedicated to the Kansas who served and were killed there.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo that wreath, we made close to $30,000 with donations because we asked people to send names and then whatever donation they wanted to,\u201d Crull said.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ultimately, remembering those who served at Pearl Harbor is the choir\u2019s purpose.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Crull wants to share that sense of history with his students through the performances. He explained wants to impress upon them the suffering veterans experience to protect their country\u2019s freedoms.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPatriotism is important to me, maybe because I never got a chance to serve,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think that\u2019s important, and I hope I can pass a little bit of that along to my singers.\u201d
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both Crull and Walters expressed their thanks to everyone supporting them, including the FHSU Music Department, which rearranged a Hays concert so the students could travel.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI guess I just want to say gratitude to all the people who have donated and to everyone who\u2019s given their service in any conflict or any branch of the military,\u201d Walters said.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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