November 8, 2011

Dan Kane Singers raise funds, and their voices, for Springfield’s St. Paul Parish

 

REGIONAL

Story and photos by Terence Hegarty

SPRINGFIELD – They raised their voices in order to raise funds for a parish center to be built at St. Paul the Apostle Parish on Dwight Road here.

The Dan Kane Singers, a well-known local choral group, performed a 3 p.m. benefit concert for the parish Nov. 6 in the church as more than 400 attended. Father Quynh D. Tran, administrator of the parish, told iobserve that more than 600 tickets were sold. He noted that many who could not attend the event still supported the fund-raiser by purchasing $10 tickets. “That made me feel very good,” he said.

St. Paul Parish was founded in 1962. The concert served as the first of several celebrations the parish has planned to celebrate its 50^th anniversary. St. Paul’s never had a parish hall and over the last few years, parishioners have raised more than $1.3 million toward the goal of having one built. Father Tran said that figure represents “Ninety percent of what we need.”

He said they do not have a definite timetable for the project but that he expects to have a groundbreaking “very soon.” Parishioners told iobserve that they hope to break ground in the spring and have the project completed next fall as part of their 50^th anniversary celebrations. The center is to be constructed on land adjacent to the church. The parish does not have a rectory at the present either.

The parish has more than 150 children in religious education classes, according to Father Tran. “We need somewhere for them to have classes and also their youth activities,” he said. He also said that being a multicultural parish means that they have more of a need for a strong social life.

“We really need somewhere to gather together for people to get to know each other,” Father Tran said. He said this is especially important because of the cultural and language differences between the English speaking parishioners and the numerous Southeast Asian parishioners who joined the parish five years ago as part of a merger of the Southeast Asian Apostolate and the parish.

Beverly Dimauro, a St. Paul parishioner, told iobserve that the social life of the parish “is extremely important.”

The concert lasted more than an hour-and-a-half and consisted of mostly religious songs. The more than 100-person chorus, made up of adults and children, were accompanied by Dan Kane on keyboards and Bob Moriarty on drums. Choral numbers gave way to soloists at several times during the performance. One soloist, Jennifer Gaffney, who performed “The Prayer,” was familiar to those in the audience who watch the Catholic Communications’ “Chalice of Salvation” televised Mass. Gaffney regularly serves as a music minister for the Mass that is broadcast at 10 a.m. each Sunday on WWLP-22NEWS

The Dan Kane Singers also gave way to the parish’s “Seraphim Choir,” made up of Vietnamese children. They sang “We are the World” and got the audience to sing and clap along. A piano solo and a duet also featured young Vietnamese parishioners.

Renditions of songs such as “How Great Thou Art,” “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “God Bless America” featured the chorus, while several soloists, many of them teenagers, impressed audience members as well. The music filled the church, which had late afternoon sunlight streaming in through the stained-glass windows.

The setting and the music brought Dimauro to tears. “It’s just so super,” she said. “You just sit there and the shivers run up and down your back, and you cry. It’s beautiful.”

Father Tran thanked Dan Kane and his singers for their generosity in making the concert, and the fund-raising, possible.

For more information on the Dan Kane Singers, log on to www.dankanesingers.org.

For more on this story, tune in to an upcoming edition of “Real to Reel,” the Diocese of Springfield’s weekly television newsmagazine that airs on WWLP-22NEWS Saturday evenings at 7.