Angel lights shine down on the little girl on a pedestal, singing center stage. Little white trees mingle around the musicians and their instruments. Before the stage sits a crowd of avid Kenny Rogers’ fans. All of the eyes are on the singers. Billy Dean takes the stage. The song ends. The crowd goes wild. The singers go backstage to prepare for their next performance. The choir backs up Kenny Rogers in his Christmas carols. The crowd goes crazy. The concert is over. The members of Fossil Ridge High School’s Select Mixed Choir can now say they have sung with one of country music’s legends.

The choir was nominated anonymously to sing with Kenny Rogers at his hits and Christmas concert. Choir teacher Mrs. Karen DeVries said she did not know who nominated the choir or how they got nominated, but she’s very thankful that they did.

Leaders of the choir spread words of encouragement onto their fellow singers during the ride down to the event center.They spoke to the choir about their tight relationships with each other and their hard work that had brought them to this moment. “This I think is one of those high school moments that you’ll remember,” DeVries told the choir on the bus, “like when you go back to your high school reunions…so thank you for letting me go along for the ride.”

And a moment to remember it was. Both Matthew Rangel, senior, and Elizabeth Wineinger, senior said their favorite part was talking with Billy Dean backstage. Wineinger said Dean was “down-to-earth” and that “singing with [Dean and Rogers] was amazing.”  

The choir went into intense preparation for this once-in-a-lifetime performance. “We got [the music] a month in advance, and worked on it throughout the month along with the music we were preparing for the concert,” explained Rangel. The choir practiced both during class and outside of class to be ready for the show. According to Wineinger, the work really paid off and it was “the best [the choir] ever sang that music!” Rangel said that the hard work wasn’t just that of the choir though, but that of Mrs. DeVries and Principal Dr. Deirdre Cook. “[Thank you] to Mrs. DeVries for getting our choir to where it is now, everyone in the choir for singing like they do, and Dr. Cook for supporting the choir in us doing these kinds of performances.”

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