Mayor’s Row………by Ned Mitchell

            Hold on to your hats, this is the second week in a row that folks in Sesser have done something nice for someone else.  As you readers know last time we talked about helping out a newly married soldier and his bride for Valentine’s Day by providing tickets to “Barefoot in the Park” and dinner at the Opera House Café.

            This week we are excited about unveiling our new Wurlitzer grand piano in a special recital to be held this Friday night, February 29^th.  The event will begin at 7:00 pm and will feature three musicians, two from Sesser and one from a far away land.  The Sesser musicians that will play for us are Kyle Miller who is a sophomore at Sesser-Valier High School and Andrea Harris who is a teacher at Sesser-Valier.  Kyle, I am told is an outstanding musician and a fine young man.  He will play some classical selections and will be the first person to have the honor of playing this fine piano.  Andrea will play some religious selections and let me tell you she is a great musician. 

            The last person to perform will be Chan-Mi Ryu who is from Korea.  You may have read about Chan-Mi recently in area newspapers and the problems she has encountered since coming to this country.  Chan-Mi applied for and was accepted to study piano at SIUC.  She has been playing the piano since age 4 and has played in competition in her country for the last 9 years.  SIUC was fortunate to attract this very talented young pianist.  Once Chan-Mi arrived in Carbondale she was met with the bad news that she would have to take a special course in English before she could begin her studies here.  The problem with that is she does not have the $2,000.00 tuition.  Chan-Mi’s father is a Presbyterian minister and her mother a housewife in Korea.  My first thoughts when I read about her plight were too bad she doesn’t play basketball or football because that little $2,000.00 problem would already have been taken care of if she did.  Never mind my sarcasm!

            Chan-Mi will round out the evening’s entertainment by playing a selection of classical music for all to enjoy.  How are we doing something nice here, you ask?  I’m glad you asked!  We are having a free recital for area residents to enjoy.  The nice part comes in when we pass the hat to collect funds that will be sent to the SIUC School of Music designated for Chan-Mi to use to help with her tuition.  This will be a fantastic event for all of us to enjoy and trust me it will give each of us a great feeling to donate money to help this student from a foreign land.  Every church around should jump on the chance here to help a fellow Christian who has taken a bold step to come to a foreign land to study music.  I simply cannot fathom the concept of me taking off to Korea to study.  I would not know the language or any of the people there.  We are truly fortunate here in America that young people like Chan-Mi want to come here to get an education.  We do take so much for granted!

            Each musician will perform for about 20 minutes to it will not be a long recital.  After the recital the City of Sesser is hosting a free coffee and cake reception upstairs in the Woll Room that will allow those in attendance to visit with all of the musicians.

            Practically every small town either has a famous attraction or they are trying to create one.  We are so fortunate here in Sesser to have the historic Sesser Opera House and I can tell you that we are the envy of folks in much larger towns all around us.  You see there are very few Opera House theaters left in existence.  There are several old movie houses, but really they were not built for live theater.  They were built to show movies and basically if they have any stage at all it is very small.  We have one of the few in several states around us that were built in 1914 as an Opera House and that has been restored.

            City fathers here have made a decision within the last few years to promote this grand old building as the main attraction to Sesser.  We have even tried to get the local Chamber of Commerce to help us!  (I have got to work on that sarcasm!)  Anyhow after some study and discussion we decided a couple of months ago to purchase a very nice grand piano for the Opera House.  The instrument is valued at $25,000.00 although we did not pay that much for it thanks to a good amount of help from Bill Barras who owns the Baldwin Piano Store in Herrin.  Our theory was we put a lot of money into other community ventures such as parks and ball fields but we had not done anything special for the Opera House in quite some time.  This instrument will become a part of Sesser’s history and will be around for years to come.

            Helping people is what a lot of Sesser is all about.  We have had a very good core group of supporters for the Opera House, many of whom are now deceased that have left with us a legacy to live up to.  I know that those who convinced a young mayor some thirty years ago that we needed to save the Opera House would be very proud of what we are doing with the old building now.  I think that original owner Charlie Gualdoni would be proud of how the building looks and how it is being used for everything from high school plays to live theater to community wide church services, cantatas, concerts, and town meetings.

            So in a nutshell each of has an opportunity to come out this Friday night and not only enjoy fine piano concert music by very talented musicians, but more importantly we have the opportunity to help someone out who needs our help.  Sesser will continue on the course that has been chosen for us by those long gone and we will do our part to improve not only our lives but those of others that we come in contact with. 

            The Opera House Café will feature an all you can eat fish buffet before the concert if you are interested.  Get there early for a good meal and a good seat!  You can call 625-6300 for more information.

            Special birthday wishes go out to Cordia Francis who celebrated her 90^th birthday with a party at the Opera House Woll Room banquet facility.  The room was very well decorated with lots of purple and featured some of Cordia’s sewing, knitting, and quilting creations.  She had a large crowd of family and friends and all were treated to great food and cake.  My dad, Amos celebrated his 89^th birthday, grandson Christian turned 5 and granddaughter Johnel is now 9.  Did I mention that I turned 60 this week? 

            Congratulations to the Sesser-Valier boys high school basketball team, cheerleaders, coaches, and fans after they won the regional tournament last week.  We wish them success as they continue on toward the March Madness that hits all of us this time of year.