The live holiday music that used to fill the Christmas Bureau every year ended when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. This year, it’s coming back.
The bureau played tape-recorded music at the Spokane County Fair & & Exposition Center in 2015 in an effort to limit the variety of people inside. There will be recorded music this year, too, with the exception of Saturday. That’s when participants will be treated to live music.
The bureau will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. that day. In the early morning, the Pacific Island Association will have vocalists, ukulele gamers and hula dancers performing Pacific Island Christmas music. In the afternoon, Jimi Finn will be performing as a one-man band. Finn has actually played for the Ridler Piano Bar Dueling Pianos and has actually a band called Jimi Finn and the Naturals.
Music organizer Christi Folkins said she’s happy that live music will once again belong of the Christmas Bureau, even if it’s still restricted.
“Music creates such a universal language,” she said.
Folkins began offering with the Christmas Bureau twenty years ago, and there were demands from people who wanted to sing. Folkins said it made sense that she be the one to help arrange it.
“It was a natural fit for me,” she stated. “Music has always been a huge piece of our family’s life.”
The music program grew from a couple of periodic performances to a full schedule with numerous performers every day. There were singers, artists, comics, ventriloquists, choirs and dancers. The oldest entertainer was an 88-year-old tap dancer and the youngest was a 3-year-old fiddler.
Folkins said she constantly spoke with the performers that they were touched by the experience, which it assisted put the real meaning of Christmas into point of view for them.
She stated she hopes to build up the live musical efficiencies so there will again be a full schedule of entertainers bringing Christmas cheer to those standing in line and picking out toys and books for their kids.
“Christmas music is such an essential part of the vacations,” she stated.
Donations
The $600,000 Christmas Bureau objective is inching closer, with new donations of $4,690 bringing the year-to-date overall to $81,715.18.
Mary Paupst donated $1,000 by means of PayPal. Doug Dominey contributed $400 by means of PayPal.
Bryce and Cheryl Backus, of Spokane Valley, donated $300. Lynda Ensign, of Spokane, contributed $300. A confidential Spokane donor gave $300. Mary Kay Eddy sent out $300 via PayPal.
Tamara Dees sent $250 via PayPal.
The Krause household, of Spokane, sent $200. Marcia Dorwin contributed $200 by means of PayPal, composing “Merry Christmas!” Margaret Yurik-Clemons gave $200 via PayPal, as did Elizabeth Pontarolo.
Diane Zemke contributed $150 via PayPal.
James Vroman, of Spokane, gave $100. Peggy Estey donated $100 through PayPal, as did Therese Hart, Sue Blankenship and Kelley Opperud.
Scott Engstrom contributed $80 through PayPal.
Steve, Gail and Bea Quaid, of Colbert, donated $50. Mary Ellen Steen, of Liberty Lake, sent out $50. Kara Moraski gave $50 through PayPal, as did Marcia Downing, Yanxin Liu and Nicholas Zollinger. Bridget Clark gave $5 via PayPal, as did Lillian Marshall.