Webster United Church of Christ continues Caring Community Concerts as a virtual summer series

Webster residents can tune in on Wednesday evenings

Photo: Webster UCC Facebook Page

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COVID-19 has caused a series of event cancelations and postponements throughout the Webster community. For instance, the popular fireman’s carnival and garlic festival have both been canceled. The Waterfront Art Festival was also canceled, though it still organized a virtual experience to help support local artists.

The Webster United Church of Christ is taking a similar approach with its Caring Community Concert Series this year.

UCC has sponsored a Summer Caring Community Concert Series for 15 years, inviting people to gather with family and friends, experience music by local musicians, and support community charities through free will offerings.

But with COVID-19 presenting social distancing challenges, UCC has had to alter the way it presents these concerts.

Instead of canceling its concerts this year, UCC is making its summer series a virtual experience.

Local music groups will perform virtually Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. throughout the rest of the summer. The first virtual concert already took place on July 15. Subsequent concerts will take place every Wednesday until August 12.

Each concert will feature a local charity organization, for which free will offerings are collected virtually. One hundred percent of the donations collected will benefit the featured charity for that week.

“While sponsoring our 2020 concerts in a traditional way is not a possibility, we still have a tremendous opportunity to continue building community,” Carl Richter, senior pastor at Webster UCC, stated in a news release shared on Facebook. “We recognize that building community and helping our neighbors must continue during difficult, stressful, and isolating times, as well as through good times.”

The 2020 schedule of virtual concerts (along with the community charities each concert will support) is as follows:

• July 22: Mr. Mustard - Benefitting Webster Public Library BookBox for Kids

• July 29: Johnny Matt Band - Benefitting Webster Hope House

• August 5: Alyssa Trahan - Benefitting Webster Comfort Care Home

• August 12: Allegro - Benefitting Heritage Christian Services - Jennifer Lane

“The charities in our community are surely experiencing significant reductions in giving during these trying times,” Richter added. “We have an opportunity to show them that we will continue to support them during these times and give them an opportunity to share how they give back to the community… Neighbors helping neighbors…”

People can view the concerts at https://uccwebster.org/caring. For more information, call the church office at (585) 671-3757.