Students perform ‘Songs for the Troops' in real time

Chester — It might have been the best taste of home these soldiers got this Christmas. Chester Middle School Principal Ernest Jackson pulled it off. His “Songs for the Troops” program indeed went as planned last Thursday, with five schools from around the area singing and dancing live for 200 soldiers with the 7th Regiment Cotton Balers, Jackson’s old unit, which just landed in Iraq for its fourth tour of duty. “I know from being a soldier how powerful and meaningful this is,” said Jackson after the concert. “If we can, I would like to do this every year.” The concert, which included students from five different schools and locations, was originally planned to be broadcast live last Tuesday. A communications glitch put it off until Thursday, but it was smooth sailing once the program got underway at around 11 a.m. After Veterans of Foreign War Post 4662 presented the colors, the music began. First, BOCES did a rousing version of “Jingle Bell Rock.” The Chester Middle School Chorus sang, followed by the Chester High School band. Then the venue shifted to Monticello where the computer system had crashed. But, just 10 minutes before their middle school was about to perform, their system came back on. “It was incredible that it went on,” Jackson commented. Port Jervis followed with holiday songs and dancing. Then Minisink took its turn. The Warwick Middle School was up next. The Chamber Choir got the troops laughing with its rendition of “Spider Pig” from The Simpson’s Movie. The Jazz Band and Select Orchestra performed some instrumentals for the troops. The Chester Middle School band was the final group performance. Closing out the day was Chester’s Shannon Mingual singing the National Anthem. The concert was a live feed to Iraq with the kids able to converse with the soldiers and vice versa. In Chester Academy, they had a huge screen that was split. On the left were the soldiers, on the right the performers. There was a two second delay for the transmission. “It took two seconds to get from Chester to the middle of nowhere,” said Jackson. Kate Rheaume, an eighth grader at Warwick Middle School and member of the chamber choir, said the experience was pretty cool. “It was really cool, but I felt bad because they couldn’t be with their families,” said Rheaume. “It was bittersweet.” The regiment’s commander appreciated what the kids had done, especially since he himself had seven years of piano lessons, Jackson said. Between songs, the soldiers were cheering and clapping. About 200 from the unit got to watch. The other 650 were either on patrol or sleeping. But they will get to watch it since the entire thing was videotaped and available to them online. “This was a piece of home, a mental vacation back to the United States for these guys,” said Jackson. “I hope we can do it again next year.” The event took on a more somber meaning when just a week earlier, a soldier in Jackson’s old unit, Sgt. Samuel Kelsey, just 24 years old, was killed by a roadside bomb in Tunnis, Iraq. Samuel’s mother requested that everyone watching or participating in the program extend an act of kindness to service personnel serving in Iraq. The “Songs for the Troops” program was dedicated to Kelsey. The entire “Songs for the Troops” program is available online at www.chroniclenewspaper.com.