Dueling Choirs Will Sing To Benefit The Food Pantry In Marlinton

Marlinton, WV – (Charlotte Slagle singing Amazing Grace)

That’s Charlotte Slagle giving you just a taste of what you might hear at the Dueling Choirs competition this Sunday at the ARC building on second avenue in Marlinton. The competition promises great gospel music and family fun, but it’s also for a good cause.

“We’re trying to raise food and funds for the food pantry in Marlinton, and we came up with this idea to get people together to sing some old time hymns, compete against each other and we’re going to have a lot of fun with this,” says Slagle.

She says the idea for the competition popped into her head on the way home one night after singing at the Pocahontas Center.

“And I was on the way home and it just sort of struck me like lightning, and I thought, you know, a bunch of our choirs ought to get together and just do something fun, and make some money or raise some funds for a cause,” she says. “I thought the food pantry would be a good place to do it and the Pocahontas Cooperative Ministries is willing to take this one on and that’s how we came by it.”

She says they have at least six choirs signed up from Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist and Brethren churches. And she says that’s a good thing as they are seeing an increase in demand on the food pantry.

“As far as the food pantry is concerned, we’re seeing probably three times as many families now this year than we saw last year who are in need,” says Slagle. “And we’re seeing a lot of older folks coming and they are in need of food, because they have a choice of buying food or buying medicine and we’re there to help.”

Slagle says they are asking people to bring a can of food and if they want to make a monetary donation, that would welcome, but not required. The singing starts around 2pm Sunday afternoon. She says they’ll also have other activities for the younger crowd.

“Along with the singing we have someone who will be there for the smaller kids,” she says. “They will be doing games, and they’ll be doing some competition also, they’ll be doing some crafts. We have boy scouts, girl scouts, 4-H’rs, youth groups, all on board coming in to help do their thing. Some of those kids will be keeping score, some of them will be checking the expiration date on the canned food; they’ll be separating the canned food into peas, corn, beans, whatever.”

She says the boy scouts will help take the food back to the pantry and put it on the shelves. Slagle says the “winner” of the competition will be determined by the group that brings in the most donations, so choirs are encouraged to get as many supporters as possible to come and bring a can of food.

A spaghetti dinner will also be available for takeout starting between 4:30 and 5pm Sunday afternoon. The cost for the dinner is $5.00.