Chorus of children

FORT RECOVERY — Children sing biweekly at their Fort Recovery church from September through May, and have a variety of special performances throughout the year. But it’s when Christmas time nears that they really get excited.
The Mary Help of Christians childrens’ choir will celebrate its favorite season Wednesday when it sings before and during the 3 p.m. Christmas Eve Mass.
Linda Kahlig, who has been the adult leader of the group since 2003, said she sees eyes light up each year when she tells her singers it’s time to start working on Christmas songs.
“I don’t know why I like Christmas songs so much,” said sixth grader Brenna Homan, who is in her fourth year as a member of the choir.
The group of 29 third through sixth graders — 20 girls and nine boys — has already had a few warm-up performances ahead of their Christmas showcase.
On Dec. 14, it sang at a meeting of the women’s altar sodality. And on Sunday it helped with the live nativity performance by the church’s preschool religion classes with a series of songs, including “Mary had a Little Baby” to the tune of “Mary had a Little Lamb”.
The children will begin singing about 2:40 p.m. Wednesday, with a selection that includes “O Holy Night”, “The First Noel”, “Little Drummer Boy” and group favorite “Christmas Cannon”.
“They are all excited about that because I break them into small groups,” said Kahlig, who leads the group along with high school student directors Emily Alig and Jessica Wendel. “They have solo parts in groups of two, three and four.”
Kahlig plays organ along with the choir, and sixth grader Anna Wendel accompanies the group on the guitar. The Christmas performance will also include students playing drums and the harmonica.
In addition to their regular church performances, the children also sing for New Year’s Day, Three Kings’ Day and Easter. They finish each year with special songs for Mothers’ Day before taking the summer off.
After finishing her third year last spring, Brenna encouraged her brother Troy to join this year. The third grader said her sister was right about the choir, saying he’s enjoyed meeting new friends, having fun and learning new songs.
The choir expands beyond Fort Recovery, and even Mercer County, as Kassie Weyant travels from Ansonia to take part.
She had started to sing in her school’s choir, but found that it wasn’t enough to fulfill her love of music.
“After I started doing that, then I wanted to go somewhere else because I only had school choir once a week,” Wyant said. “I was trying to find somewhere else where I could go and we found this church …”
Three years later, she’s a loyal member.
“I told my mom I didn’t care whether I had sports after school or not,” Weyant said, “I was going to make time to come to choir with Linda.”
Most of the members said they joined the choir because they love to sing.
But they also all noted that being a part of the group is fun largely because of Linda.
She lets them dance while they sing, plays games to help learn songs and has an annual Christmas pizza party. She also gets her kids Christmas gifts — this year it was a T-shirt with the character Olaf from the movie “Frozen” on the front.
“Nicest woman on the face of the earth,” said Amy Wendel, whose daughters Anna and Alexis are both members of the choir. “Linda teaches them so much more than music … It’s really incredible.”
Kahlig is just as appreciative of her opportunity to work with the youngsters.
Often when the singers begin, they might not be quite on key, Linda said. And it’s fun to see them grow, both in vocal ability and confidence.
“They’re pure,” Kahlig said. “They’re sincere.
“I’ve got a friend who says, ‘I get a tear in my eye every time I sit in church and I hear those kids sing because they’ve got the little voices of angels.’”