February 12-14th 2010. Photos from Valentine quartets Fountain Street Friends, Great Lakes Pride, Off-Tones, and Vocal Artisans

To download your photos look for yours in the album, be sure to check all album pages, left click on yours for larger version, right click larger photo and to save select "Save As", select a folder to save to (ex. Desktop) or just to print select Print.

If scrolling through the photo album be sure to check all pages for more photos.

Great Lakes Pride performed at Forest Hills Eastern HS. One end of the 2nd floor lunch room where the Singing Valentine was performed had large windows over the main entrance and students started to crowd there seeing 4 guys in white tuxes walking up to the building and making there way inside. The roar of hundreds of students went completely silent as the Great Lakes Pride quartet sang for a teacher and they all applauded at the end. Great Lakes Pride then followed the Valentine sweetheart to her Biology lab to perform in front of her class of students there as well.

The pickup quartet the Off-Tones performed for about 15 residents at Waldon Woods Retirement Village of Lifehouse plus all their family and friends waiting in each room.

Vocal Artisans performed at a Rite Aid pharmacy and grocery, a salon, also for the Covenant Village Of The Great Lakes Covenant Retirement Community, and 32 residents and family at the Crystal Springs Lifehouse assisted living facility. Several of residents were sung to during lunch in the dinning one at a time among the hanging Valentine's Day decorations, center pieces, and Valentines on the tables.

Fountain Street Four with lead substitute performed for several Grand Rapids area businesses including Art Van, Jack Keller Ford, Charter cable call center, Renaissance Recovery Solutions, as well as Sunset Manor assisted living facility in Jenison. And still they made time for the quartet to sing to their girl friends over the phone. Great Lakes Chorus member Denny Grabill had a surprise for his sweetie at the line dance class in Coopersville Farm Museum. Sneaking away he substituted as bass in Fountain Street Four and sang to his lady in front of the whole dance class. He even gave a touching speech that the lyrics included the "L" word and was the first time he said it to her. They sang her another song and then he dropped to one knee and presented her with a rose. To top off the evening Fountain Street Four went to the Farm Museum's main entrance which was a cement silo for some silo singing and sang several tags and songs with substitutes Mike, Michael, and Denny, the echoes ringing at the top of the silo and lasting forever. FS4 thought they had made a new discovery until Denny informed them that it wasn't uncommon in farm country.

Fountain Street Four (plus) Video- Silo Singing click here

Fountain Street Four (trio) Video- silo singing tag click here

I couldn't find out a lot about it but here's an interesting excerpt I did find online.

Canadian Mennonite Volume 10, No. 13 June 26, 2006. Silo singing a resounding experience. Conestogo, Ont.

http://www.canadianmennonite.org/vol10-2006/10-13/localchurch.php

"He got the idea in 1999 when, as a retired farmer near Conestogo, Ont., he was recovering from knee replacement surgery. Some of their neighbouring Old Order Mennonite young people came to visit and sing for him. Then they spoke of going afterward to sing in an empty silo before the fall silo filling. Apparently, they do this each fall before corn harvest. Regarding the first silo singing five years ago, Shantz wrote in their church newsletter: 'At the end of it all, what felt like half-an-hour was really an hour-and-a-half! A Sunday afternoon in October and an autumn breeze encircles a farmyard outside of Conestogo. Thirty people of all shapes and sizes, and even a few with prosthetic replacements, wedged their way through a small ground level opening into an empty concrete silo. Any a pensive mood soon dissipated as our voices joined in harmony in this acoustical wonderment for our first silo singing.'”


For high speed internet users the Slideshow function link in the upper right corner of the album is recommended or click here