At our May 4th Virtual Musical Showcase, we had participants join us from coast to coast. One of those participants was Chris, a Core Member at L’Arche Wavecrest, in Orange County, California. Chris performed a wonderful rendition of the Disney song “When You Wish Upon A Star”. When asked how he felt about sharing his musical talent, Chris replied “I’ve been practicing my music and learning how to share it. I was proud of what I did.”
Chris was one of eight performers who shared their musical gifts and talents that evening. One of our participants, Ricardo, who called in from Atlanta to listen, was blown away by the performances. “I really enjoyed listening to everyone’s musical talents, everyone has their own talents from ukuleles to piano playing… but the thing that I really really enjoyed, besides making new friends, was a version “Maybe” from the musical Annie performed by Mary Evelyn from North Carolina. For the rest of that night and the rest of the weekend I couldn’t get it out of my head! The way she delivered the song was incredible. I don’t know how I’m not getting emotional talking about right now!”
Besides the fun of sharing music together, both Ricardo and Chris commented on how special it was to connect with folks of all abilities across time zones. “My favorite thing was just being with everyone,” Chris said, “and I want to do it more often so I can get to know everyone better and we can become special friends.”
“It makes me feel great to attend an event in other state,” Ricardo added, “because it restores my faith in humanity. I get to travel virtually and see the great work being done for the sake of community in communities that are not my own. I also get to grow my Disability and inclusion family even bigger.”
From L’Arche NC, we are grateful for opportunities like this Musical Showcase to gather with friends like Chris and Ricardo, celebrating everyone’s gifts and talents. As Ricardo put it, “Events like this expose the abilities and gifts of the Disabled community to the world, and gives everyone the chance to show off their God-given gifts, which [Musical Showcase participants] beautifully showed off. And then it gives them the chance to be cheered and celebrated by others. And who wouldn’t want that?”
If you didn’t get the chance to join us in May to cheer and celebrate, we have plenty of opportunities coming up in the month ahead. You can check them out here.
