On Monday, December 11th, the McPherson High School’s National Honor Society left school early to go caroling.

  “I have to say I didn’t think that we would sound very good,” said Maria Martin, a NHS member, “But the group that I was in sounded very good. Each place that we went to had a piano, so Hadley and Paxton were able to play the songs for us while we sang.”

  The group went to the Cedars Assisted Living quarters and the nursing home buildings, and sang Christmas classics to spread cheer to residents and workers.

   “It was fun to do something like that with my friends,” said Lauren Birzer, a NHS member, “It wasn’t hard at all to sing in front of strangers, because they sang along with us.”

  Some students played instruments, and the entire group had the chance to visit with the residents.

  “I played piano for my group and I enjoyed making the music fun and leading the group,” said Hadley Hageman, a member of NHS. “My favorite carol was The Twelve Days of Christmas.  By the ‘12th day of Christmas,’ I was adding some fun embellishments to keep everything interesting.”

  After caroling was finished in one area, the group would move on to sing and talk with other tenants in the buildings.

  “It was special because although most of us aren’t singers, the residents still loved it,” said Ashley Gant, a NHS member. “We sang one of our songs to this other residence- It made her so happy and she even mentioned how exciting it was to see the ‘young blood’ there.”

  Caroling isn’t as common as it once was, but NHS wanted to give a little back to the community in a personal, fun way.

 “We all brought music to sing or play off of. It went over well, even though we didn’t have a huge crowd,” said Hageman, “ We enjoyed singing, and the people there enjoyed listening.”

  The group sang and visited from around 2:30 p.m. until a little after 3:00 p.m.  before departing and going home.

 Some students made connections with the residents they spoke with after singing.

“We chatted with one of the residents who showed us that the birds there loved him,” said Gant.

  “My favorite part was seeing the ‘Bird Man of Alcatraz,’ who showed us his cockatoos and told us fun stories,” said Jacob Hemenway, a member of NHS.

  During the caroling, tenants got involved and excited with the show.

  “We could see the residents singing along with us; some of even started to dance in their seat,” said Alanya Wallace, a NHS member. “Everyone had fun caroling because everyone was involved and we could see the residents enjoying our singing.”

  Whether this is a tradition that is here to stay has yet to be determined, but one thing is for sure- this was an experience to remember for the carolers and the listeners.

  “My favorite part of Christmas Caroling,” said Wallace, “was that we could all enjoy it together; both the residents and the carolers.”