HARROGATE, Tenn. — The Tri-State Youth Choir, which is made up of students grades 7-12 from the tri-state area, is beginning its 26th season. The youth choir is a nondenominational, non-profit organization that nearly 1400 students from the tri-state area have participated in throughout the years.
The choir, under the direction of Elizabeth Edwards, tours area churches performing a program each year that involves praise and worship songs and corresponding drama skits that teach both young and old about Christ’s message.
At the end of the tour the choir goes on a mission trip to Jacksonville and Orlando, Fl. where they perform and do mission work at churches, rescue shelters, and nursing homes.
Choir members also gain Christian education opportunities while on the mission trip such as visiting the Wycliff Bible Translators office, where they learn how the Bible is translated to many different languages in order to be distributed across the world.
In order for members to be able to go on the mission trip they must attend practices and do community service. They participate in several community service projects the choir through out the season such as the annual trash pick up, walk/run-a-thon, and annual dinner where the choir members are the servers.
The choir has evolved and grown throughout the years to become what it is today.
It began in 1981 when Doyle Dunn, who was the pastor at First Baptist Church of Harrogate, decided to take a small youth group on a tour to Savannah, Ga. Judy Robertson, the current producer of the choir, went along on the trip and accompanied the group on the piano.
According to the official Tri-State Youth Choir website, shortly after the trip a youth group from Memphis, Tenn. came to Harrogate to sing for a local church. While in Harrogate the members spent time with different families in the community.
After this, the idea of a “touring youth group” was very popular in the community. Area churches were too small to have a choir of their own so the churches in the Cumberland Gap area joined together to form the Cumberland Gap Baptist Youth Fellowship Association.
Though out the years the association grew and churches from around the area began to join. The youth choir sang each year at the Crusade for Christ.
Upon seeing the growth in the choir Dr. Edwin Robertson, and wife Judy, saw an opportunity for the choir to begin touring. Then in 1989 the Cumberland Gap Youth Fellowship Choir made its first mission trip to South Carolina.
Each summer from then on the choir went on tour, adding new members as they went. As the choir continued to grow members from Kentucky and Virginia began to join and in 1992 the name was changed to Tri-State Youth Choir.
The Tri-State Youth Choir continues to sing and tour each summer as a mission opportunity.
This year’s choir has nearly 120 members, making it the largest the Youth Choir has ever been. The program they will be presenting is entitled “Traveling Light” and tells the story of a man who carries a lot of baggage, said Judy Robertson, choir producer. It shows, throughout the program, how he learns to lay his baggage down at the cross.
The Youth Choir will be performing at several area churches over the next few months.
The Youth Choir will also be participating in their first community service project today at the Trash Pick up in Claiborne County. They will have a trailer available at the Harrogate City Park where community members can bring scrap metal they may need to dispose of.
Also as a community service project the choir will come pick up disabled automobiles or farm machinery for community members within a 35-mile radius and safely dispose of them.
For more information about the choir and their performance schedule, or for information on the community service projects they are participating in contact Judy Robertson at (423) 869-3364.
Andrea Schneider is Staff Writer for the Daily News. She can be contacted via e-mail at aschneider@middlesborodailynews.com.
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