County girl comes home to help the hospital

The Young Singers Choir performs at Picton United Church in a fundraiser for the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital Foundation. Tim Shkolnik photo

In an era when the provincial government has all but forgotten about many small rural hospitals, it was extremely refreshing to see a County Girl come home to help her community.
The  Young Singers choir came to town last Saturday to help raise funds for the Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital Foundation because their founder and musical director, Anna Lynn Murphy, is from Milford.
She told the crowd at the Picton United Church fundraiser she is proud to be a “County Girl”. Anna Lynn is the daughter of Phyllis and the late Donald Walker. Mr. Walker was a member of PECMH Board of Directors for 12 years and the Chair from 1978-81.
Anna Lynn almost lost part of her finger when she was eight-years-old, but because of this wonderful little County hospital, her finger was saved and she was able to resume playing the piano. Anna Lynn went on to study music and founded this amazing choir.

I had not planned on staying for the entire performance, but I found myself still sitting there two hours later completely mesmerized (as was everyone else in the audience) by this very talented group of youngsters.

The Young Singers consists of four choirs with members aged 6-21. This particular evening two of the choirs were performing under the musical direction of Anna Lynn. Over the past 19 years the organization has flourished as it has empowered more than 600 children throughout the Durham Region by fostering their creativity through music and leadership. To learn more about this very talented group of singers visit their website at www.youngsingers.ca.

These talented singers moved throughout the majestic Picton United Church regaling the audience with a wide variety of magical, musical sounds. It is certainly an evening those of us in attendance will fondly remember. The Special Guest Artists that evening were the members of Trinity – Kim Inch, Renie Thompson and Jeanette Arsenault. These three friends have been performing together in wonderful harmony since 2007, often at fundraising events. Most certainly one of the highlights of the evening was when Trinity and the Young Singers performed Jeanette Arsenault’s “Arise ” and “This is My Canada”. The evening was very ably hosted by Monica Alyea.

Apart from the high calibre of music performed that evening was the fact that all the performers donated their time to help raise funds for our local hospital. They all paid their own way (hotel/bus etc.,) while other expenses were covered by donations from local businesses and organizations. Not only did these young choir members perform at a fundraiser for our local hospital, the day before they also sang at two local County schools, a seniors’ home in Belleville and at the Relay for Life in Picton. On the day that they returned home they had also travelled to Kingston to give yet one more free concert.

The night of the concert at the United Church there were perhaps 150 in the audience. I couldn’t help but think back to February 2009 when the audience numbered more than 800 at a meeting to show support for our hospital. Perhaps many were still exhausted from attending the second annual 12-hour Relay for Life event.
It is no surprise that the “Young Singers’” motto is “Excellence in life through excellence in music”.
THANK YOU Anna Lynn. I’m sure we all agree with you when you say that your father would be very proud.

COMING UP – June 26 – E-Waste Collection Day at Picton Home Hardware, 13544 Loyalist Parkway from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Donations support Prince Edward County Hospital Foundation. Full list of Industrial, Commercial and Institutional materials  accepted at this site here: http://www.countylive.ca/?page_id=180

Fran