Area schools benefit from concert

    The sixth annual County Gospel Music Festival held in Fort Fairfield on July 11 raised money for two local schools, Greater Houlton Christian Academy and Cornerstone Christian Academy in Presque Isle.     The all-day concert featured 12 different gospel music groups from Maine and New Brunswick.
    The day began with music from Houlton’s Common Ground and continued with The Denny Family of Poland, Higher Ground from New Brunswick, Heart of Praise of Houlton, The Kinney Trio of Blaine, The Campbells from Manchester, Glorybound (promoters of the Glorybound Gospel Jubilee) from Hampden, The LaClaires of Union, Covenant Sons from Oakfield, Mark Murchison of Caribou and Golden Harmony of L’Etete, New Brunswick.
    Golden Harmony was new to the festival this year, and raised the roof on the pole barn at Farm Park with their uplifting and hand-clapping presentation. Also new to the festival this year were Heart of Praise and Covenant Sons, both groups pleased and blessed the crowd with their music.
    The Campbells, recognized as “New England’s First Family of Gospel Music”, made their second trip to Fort Fairfield for the festival and were again one of the crowd’s favorites.
    This year’s festival was free of charge to the public, something that has never been tried before at Gospel Fest. The purpose behind this was to assure that all who wanted to come could do so without worrying about an admission fee.
    Also, the Gospel Fest committee felt that this was a great way to promote an event that families could attend together.
    Chairperson Nancy Rogeski said, “The day was a success from all angles, the weather was great (one of the best Saturdays of the summer) and the crowd was great, with people coming and going all through the day.”
    “Thanks to the generosity of 17 different sponsors (both businesses and individuals) and of our guests who contributed to the “free will” offering, all of the expenses of the concert were taken care of and there was enough left over to make a donation to two of our local Christian schools,” said Rogeski.
    The Gospel Festival will move to its seventh year next summer with a tentative date of July 10, 2010. Be watching for news of the festival or visit www.countygospel.com.