Bear Creek High and Christa McAuliffe Middle Schools' Winter Concert

Bear Creek High School’s jazz ensemble and symphonic band and Christa McAuliffe Middle School’s concert band are asking the Stockton community to reach out to help homeless families enjoy this holiday season.

Their free winter concert will include a finale that asks audience members to participate by bringing forward donations of new clothes and toys for the New Hope Family Shelter. The finale concert piece, A Solitary Piece, composed in 2016 by American musician Brian Balmages, is a response to the plight of the homeless, particularly during the holidays. In the past two years, this song has been performed at over one hundred venues, each one using the concert as a chance to collect donations to alleviate the hardships of their local homeless population. Bear Creek and Christa McAuliffe are asking the audience to come with new children’s clothing or toys for the Gospel Center Rescue Mission’s New Hope Family Shelter or offer a monetary donation for the Mission.

The two schools’ bands will play Balmages’ “A Solitary Wish” as their finale. Joe Sandoval, Bear Creek’s band director, is also connecting with the school’s student leadership hoping to coordinate a school-wide donation drive.