Holiday charities look different this year because of Coronavirus safety concerns. Some organizations have reimagined holiday toy drives while several events have been canceled. A Wyoming County organization that hasn’t missed a year since 1999 is actually hoping to serve more families this holiday season.
The Wyoming County Toy Fund is partnering with fire departments in 2020 to pass out gifts to the community. The organization serves children 12 years old and younger. Traditionally, organizers and volunteers gather at Wyoming East High School to distribute toys to families with tickets. Tickets are distributed to families identified through the county Department of Health and Human Resources.
This year, organizers wanted to find a way to spread out their distribution in an effort to prevent large crowds. Eight fire departments agreed to help.
Fire departments passing out toys include:
Mullens
Pineville
Oceana
Cyclone
Upper Laurel
Brenton
Coal Mountain
Hanover
Toys will be passed out on Saturday, Dec. 12. Social distancing will be monitored. About 30% of families with tickets usually show up, according to organizers. They’re hoping this year, with increased accessibility throughout the county, more families will be able to participate.
T’is the season for great friends, sugary treats and indie-tastic holiday music from “A Change of Tune.”
Need to spice up your holiday party? “A Change of Tune” has you covered with its Happy Indie Holidays Spotify playlist, which is chock full o’ original holiday jams and traditional tunes. Hear everyone from The Shins to Tom Waits, Fleet Foxes to Norah Jones and more in the player below.
“A Change of Tune” has a few more radio presents to share, including a rebroadcast of our collaboration with Mr. Eclectopia (Sunday, December 20 at midnight, following Bill Lynch’s Lost Highways) and holiday interviews with Boston pop rockers Guster, British indie favorites Los Campesinos! and Los Angeles-by-way-of-West Virginia singer-songwriter Scott Simons.
Missed seeing this year’s live performance of Joy to the World with Bob Thompson and guest vocalist Lena Seikaly? No humbugs here! You can watch it this Sunday, December 20 on WVPB television (7pm on WVPB HD and 11pm on WVPB-2).
Now in its 23rd year, Joy to the World is an annual live performance holiday jazz program hosted by pianist Bob Thompson and produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting. In addition to a distinguished solo career as the leader of the Charleston-based Bob Thompson Unit, Thompson has also been a member of the Mountain Stage band since 1991. Earlier this year he was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Credit Josh Saul
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Lena Seikaly made her Joy to the World debut this year.
For this 2015 show, Bob Thompson and his band are joined by guest vocalist Lena Seikaly, a fresh voice on the national jazz scene from Washington, D.C. Most recently she was recognized as a 2015 semifinalist in the Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Vocals Competition. Named “one of Washington’s preeminent jazz singers” and “brightest voices in jazz” by The Washington Post, Lena is already making her mark as both a revivalist of traditional jazz vocals, as well as an innovator in contemporary vocal jazz styles.
Sunday’s Joy to the World broadcast features such holiday favorites as “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” “The Christmas Waltz” and “Christmas Time is Here.”
This season’s premiere broadcast of Joy to the World featuring vocalist Mollie O’Brien can be heard on West Virginia Public Broadcasting Thursday, December 24 at 8 p.m.
Joy to the World is our live performance holiday jazz program hosted by pianist Bob Thompson. From the producers of Mountain Stage and West Virginia Public Broadcasting, this 22-year tradition is performed before a consistently sold-out audience in Charleston, West Virginia’s Culture Center Theater, as well as additional at live road shows around the Mountain State.
This year’s Joy to the World premiere episode features special guest vocalist Mollie O’Brien, whose voice is a true gift itself. Listeners will enjoy her swinging version of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and a wonderfully cheerful arrangement of “Cool Yule.” Thompson and his band share instrumental takes on holiday favorites like “Up on the Housetop,” “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” and “My Favorite Things.” The ensemble’s rendition of “Bells Will Be Ringing,” which closes the show, is certain to leave audiences filled with joy.
Throughout the day December 25 our listeners will be treated to classic episodes of Joy to the World airing from 12-6 a.m., 9-4 p.m. and 6-8 p.m. Special guest vocalists will bring old classics and new renditions to life in our Christmas Day Marathon.
After 24 years of playing sold-out shows, touring the world with the likes of Ben Folds and George Clinton, and releasing an album of cat meow covers, Guster’s story is without a doubt a gusty one. We sat down with the alternative pop band’s frontman to talk about Guster’s newest record, their holiday music plans and their January 2016 return to the Mountain State.
The man behind the lyrics of Frosty the Snowman, Peter Cottontail, and Smokey the Bear is none other than West Virginian, Jack Rollins. His song about a magical snowman coming to life and bringing holiday cheer can be heard almost everywhere this time of year. In 2011, Rollins was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame.
Jack Rollins – West Virginia Music Hall Of Fame Induction
Rollins, who’s also known as the real Frosty the Snowman, was born in Scottdale, Pennsylvania on September 15, 1906, but he moved to Keyser, West Virginia with his family when he was three or four years old. He ended up growing up in Keyser and as an adult lived in New York, California, and Ohio, but West Virginia was always special to him.
“Your home is where your heart is, and his mother and his brother settled in Keyser, West Virginia,” said Rollins fan, Champ Zumbrun, “and he would come home at every opportunity while his mother was alive. In fact, if you go to [the] cemetery, he’s buried next to his mother.”
Zumbrun wrote an article in 2011 about Rollins’ life that was published in Allegany Magazine in Cumberland, Maryland. He’s a retired forest ranger from Maryland and he’s also a musician.
While working as a forester, he performed Jack Rollins’ song, Smokey the Bear every weekend for more than 30 years.
In 2011, Zumbrun received a surprising phone call.
“The chief of the Smokey Bear Program nationally learned that Jack Rollins, who wrote Smokey the Bear was going to be inducted to the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame,” remembered Zumbrun, “and they were reaching out to the National Forest Service office to find out some information about Jack Rollins, and since I had been researching Jack Rollins, they contacted me, and connected me with the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, and they asked if I would share my information with them, and I said sure, anything to help Jack out.”
The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame also learned about Zumbrun’s history singing Smokey the Bear, so the group asked him if he would sing at Rollins’ induction ceremony. Zumbrun said yes.
The West Virginia Music Hall of Fame was, however, still looking for a family member to accept the award on Rollins’ behalf.
Credit Wikimedia Commons
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A Little Golden Book’s storybook edition based on the 1950 song of the same name. Cover art illustrated by Corinne Malvern.
That’s when Jack Rollins’ grandson, James Busemeyer from Ohio, came forward to accept the award for his grandfather.
The songhas become a classic. This time of year, we hear Frosty the Snowman playing on radio, television, movies, and in shopping centers.
It was written in 1950, but is still so popular today, and Champ Zumbrun knows why.
“Because I think people always need songs that are happy and have a message of joy and that’s what Jack was all about. If you want to know Jack Rollins just look at the lyrics in his songs. They’re happy, they’re innocent, they’re full of joy. I think people always need to celebrate and be reminded that life’s not drudgery, and there’s a spirit in life that’s joyful, and those songs if you listen to them are joyful, happy songs.”
The music of Frosty the Snowman, Peter Cottontail, and Smokey the Bear was composed by Rollins’ partner, Steve Nelson.
