The sun shined brightly at Carrie Blake Park, making a great day for three community organizations to come together. The Sequim Community Christmas Chorus raised $700 from concert ticket sales to recycle back into the community.

For the first time since the chorus began making a yearly community donation seven years ago it decided to split the donation between both Sequim Community Aid and the Shipley Center.

“It has become one of our missions to donate to a community organization,” chorus coordinator Gail Sumpter said. “This year we had a discussion and decided to spread the donation around and to help provide funds for a senior to join the Shipley Center who otherwise couldn’t seemed like a good cause.”

The Sequim Community Christmas Chorus was started by a group of businesswomen, Jackie Dawley, a longtime chorus member, explained. In the beginning the choir was made up of people pulled from a variety of church choirs from around the area, but anyone could join and was encouraged to do so.

Now the chorus typically has about 70 to 75 people. Rehearsals begin in late September and continue once a week through November and by December the chorus must be ready to perform. It is from these community performances the chorus is able to raise money to later donate.

In past years the community organization to receive the donation as been Sequim Community Aid which is a nonprofit group of about 18 volunteers with a goal to provide emergency assistance for rent and utilities to Sequim residents within the Sequim School District, Sequim Community Aid volunteer Donna Tidrick explained.

“We’re really a hands-on community service,” Tidrick said. “All money the organization gets goes directly back into the community because we all work from home so there’s no office to support.”

But unlike past years the Sequim Community Christmas Chorus also donated funds to Sequim’s senior center known as the Shipley Center.

“The money donated by the Community Chorus is going to contribute to our Healthy Aging for All program,” executive director of the Shipley Center, Michael Smith, said.

“The program provides low-income senior residents the opportunity to be involved with the center.”

Everyone at the Shipley Center is very appreciative of the Sequim Community Christmas Chorus to have donated to the center this year and every bit helps contribute to the center’s $388,315 budget, Smith said.

For more information on the Shipley Center’s programs and upcoming gala, contact 683-6806. Or for information on the Sequim Community Christmas Chorus, contact Julie Jackson at 683-1355. And lastly, for information on Sequim Community Aid, contact 681-3731.

Reach Alana Linderoth at alinderoth@sequimgazette.com.