HER STORY HER SONG 2011
April 26th • 7:30pm - Bethlehem Lut
heran Church • St. Cloud, MN
From its inception, Her Story Her Song has been designed to give participants and audience members an opportunity to explore an aspect of life from the feminine perspective. Each year, participants seek a community connection that will expand awareness of the community’s support systems available to help women and children and to provide a worthy service opportunity for choir members and staff.
In past years, connections have been made with a wide variety of service agencies, including the Central Minnesota Task Force on Battered Women, New Beginnings, the Women’s Fund of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, the Northstar Club of Sartell Middle School, Parent, Child and Women’s Services of the St. Cloud Hospital, Hands Across the World, the St. Cloud Children’s Home, St. Scholastica Convent, and Journey Home.
For this, our 10th year, we are honored to be collaborating with Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity Women Build, a Habitat for Humanity International program that encourages women to make a difference by building homes and com
munities. Women Build brings together women from all walks of life and all sectors of the community to tangibly and immediately address the housing crisis that affects millions of women and children. Our collaboration has included several meaningful interactions:
- On Saturday, March 19th, Women’s Choir members spent a day volunteering to assist with set-up, decoration, and clean-up at the 2011 Family Reunion, a fundraising event for Central MN Habitat for Humanity. The event chronicled “One Family’s Journey Home” and raised significant funds for Habitat homes in the Central Minnesota area.
- On Monday, April 4th, Dick Bitzan, board member for Central MN Habitat for Humanity, paid visits to both the SCSU Women’s Choir and Cantabile to share the story of his climb of Mount Kilimanjaro as a means to raise awareness and funds for the Kyle Hanson family home. The Kyle Hanson family is the recipient of this year’s Women Build efforts.
- Women’s Choir members prepared a presentation for SCSU’s Community Engagement Expo, chronicling their partnership with the Central MN Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build Project. Michelle Redding, from Central MN Habitat for Humanity joined the students at this event, which was held on Thursday, April 1
4th.
- Cantabile members participated in a process of pondering and discussing what home means to them. The students then created origami houses with some of their thoughts and wishes written inside.
With this meaningful connection as a catalyst, music and readings for the Her Story Her Song concert have been chosen to help performers and audience members consider not only various aspects of home, but also the power we each have to create community and to make a difference when we work together for the common good.
We are very grateful to our new friends at Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity for their enthusiasm and support of these interactions and this concert. It has been a very rich collaboration.
The tenth annual Her Story Her Song concert will be presented on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 at 7:30pm at Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
For more information contact Mary Jo Bot
mjbot@stcloudstate.edu / (320) 308-3836
Her Story ~ Her Song 2010
April 27th • 7:30pm
Bethlehem Lutheran Church • St. Cloud, MN
The Her Story Her Song concert gives participants and audience members an opportunity to explore an aspect of life from the feminine perspective. Each year, participants seek a community connection that will expand awareness of the community’s support systems available to help women and children an
d to provide a worthy service opportunity for choir members and staff.
Past connections have been made with the Central Minnesota Task Force on Battered Women, New Beginnings, the Women’s Fund of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, the Northstar Club of Sartell Middle School, Parent, Child and Women’s Services of the St. Cloud Hospital, Hands Across the World, the St. Cloud Children’s Home, and St. Scholastica Convent.
In 2010 Her Story Her Song participants are fortunate to be collaborating with the women and children of Journey Home, a local facility that provides primary chemical dependency programming for women. Journey Home is unique in that it supports mothers by allowing their children to stay with them and provides structure to assist them with their parenting skills and in fostering healthy relationships with their children. Residents are encouraged to identify and develop their strengths so they can live rewarding, chemically free lives. Journey Home is a service of the CentraCare Health System serving women from throughout Minnesota.
Our collaboration with Journey Home has included several meaningful interactions.
- Carol Belling, administrator of Journey Home, paid visits to both the SCSU Women’s Choir and Cantabile to share the Journey Home story and to address issues of chemical dependency.
- Music Education professors Marcelyn Smale and Christine Carucci visited Journey Home and led a session for mothers and their children, providing the mothers with tools for using music effectively with children.
- The Women’s Choir will host a Karaoke Night during which choir members and residents share popcorn, laughter, and the gift of singing.
- The Women’s Choir is gathering items to create Welcome Bags that will be given to new program participants as they enter the program and Cantabile Girls’ Choir will be creating Bedtime Bags that will be distributed to the residents’ children. Both are intended to be signs of support and confidence from the larger community as new residents begin what can be a challenging and critical part of their life journey.
The ninth annual Her Story Her Song concert will be presented by the SCSU Department of Music on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 7:30pm at Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
2009 Her Story ~ Her Song
April 21st • 7:30pm
Bethlehem Lutheran Church • St. Cloud, MN
Each year, Her Story-Her Song gives participants and audience members an opportunity to explore an aspect of life from the feminine perspective. With each Her Story-Her Song concert, the design committee has engaged with a community agency that serves women or children to help deepen the experience for the participants and to savor the art and joy of service. 
Past connections have been made with the Central Minnesota Task Force on Battered Women, New Beginnings, the Women’s Fund of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, the Northstar Club of Sartell Middle School, Parent, Child and Women’s Services of the St. Cloud Hospital, Hands Across the World, and the St. Cloud Children’s Home.
This year, we hoped to connect to people and their stories, and in the process, perhaps to their wisdom. We were honored to make a special connection with the retired Sisters at St. Scholastica Convent in St. Cloud.
- The SCSU Women’s Choir hosted a tea party for the Sisters on February 28 during which they shared musical performances, food, conversation and of course, tea served on wisdom placemats made by the members of Cantabile. It was a wonderful afternoon that challenged stereotypes, fostered wonderful conversations and triggered warm relationships.
- Cantabile members were invited to forge individual relationships with special women of their choice through guided conversations exploring real wisdom in real lives. Many also created personal representations of concert repertoire using various art forms.
- Present at this year’s concert will be a beautiful, full-scale reproduction of Wisdom Books, the fifth volume in The Saint John’s Bible. Students from both choirs were able to view DVD’s introducing the art of illumination in the St. John’s Bible, and a portion of a BBC Documentary on the project.
This year, the concert takes us on a search for wisdom. The music and readings chosen for this concert help us on our quest, as we seek to better understand this allusive concept.
Is it a rare gift possessed by few, or a part of each one of us, waiting to be acknowledged and embraced? We hope you will join us for the journey, and that you will leave the concert choosing to join in the search.
2008 Her Story
~ Her Song
April 29th • 7pm • Bethlehem Lutheran Church • St. Cloud, MN
Her Story~Her Song honors and celebrates the rich experiences of girls and women through song, word and action. The concert has shown that experiencing fine music and poetry through a feminine lens affirms the journey of women and girls for both the performers and the audience.
Having evolved over seven years of collaboration and friendship among women faculty members in the SCSU Department of Music, the concert offers powerful opportunities for service learning, provides exceptional mentoring models, and creates respect for diverse experiences. Joining the SCSU Women’s Choir and faculty for this year’s concert, will be Donne Voce from Sartell High School.
Each year, Her Story~Her Song establishes a community connection with an agency that provides services to women and/or children. Past connections have been made with the Central Minnesota Task Force on Battered Women, New Beginnings, the Women’s Fund of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, the Northstar Club of Sartell Middle School, Parent, Child and Women’s Services of the St. Cloud Hospital, and Hands Across the World. In 2008 the musicians are fortunate to be collaborating with the St. Cloud Children’s Home, with a special focus on the adolescent girls of Cottage One. We are grateful for the way each of these agencies has embraced and nurtured the opportunity to work and learn with us. Through these collaborations we hope to open doors to meaningful engagement, an essential step in creating a nurturing community for us all, and to empower the students involved to discover their own potential to grow, serve and make meaningful contributions to their communities. As a part of this collaborative effort:
- During March, university students and faculty toured the Children’s Home and attended a panel discussion presented by adolescents from the program. Each of these young people graciously shared their own stories, giving all involved a glimpse into their experiences.
- In consultation with Children’s Home staff, lists were created of items that residents would benefit from having. The decision was made to focus on arts and craft supplies that students could use for varied art activities, as well as scrapbooking items to be used in a joint scrapbooking day. SCSU and Sartell High School choir members
have begun to collect a wide variety of art supplies that will be donated to the Children’s Home.
- In early April, university students and Cottage One residents spent a Saturday afternoon scrapbooking together. An earlier photo shoot was held in order to supply photos for the Children’s Home residents to put into their scrapbooks. The activity provided an opportunity for meaningful interaction, role-modeling, and joyful camaraderie.
- These interactions have prompted a number of university choir members to inquire about volunteer opportunities with the Children’s Home.
The Her Story ~ Her Song planning committee is very grateful to our friends at the St. Cloud Children’s Home for their enthusiasm and support of these interactions and this concert. It has been an inspiring collaboration. The Her Story~Her Song concert is proud to be presented by the SCSU Department of Music. The performance is Tuesday, April 29, 2008 at 7pm, Bethlehem Lutheran Church.
For more information contact Mary Jo Bot
mjbot@stcloudstate.edu / (320) 308-3836
2007 Her Story
~ Her Song
May 1st at 7pm - Bethlehem Luthern Church
- During February and March Brianda Cie
del, the founder of Hands Across the World, and Julie Collins, an Americorps volunteer who assists Brianda, visited the choirs and spoke about the organization, its clientele and about the work they do. Each of these women provided students with a positive and strong role model of someone who has made a difference in her community.
- Students were offered the opportunity to volunteer at the South Side Boys’ and Girls’ Club during Hands Across the World morning classes for new immigrants.
- In consultation with Han
ds Across the World staff, lists were created of items for adults and children who may arrive in Central MN without things they need. The list included such items as shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes, soap, towels, and washcloths. Students and faculty collected these items to create “Welcome Bags” for Hands Across the World to distribute to new immigrants and refugees. In April, choir members and faculty gathered together to pack these bags for our newest community members.
- A small collection of books, markers, crayons and paper were collected and donated for Hands Across the World to use with children in the program.
