The annual Gateway Resources Christmas concert filled the sanctuary of the Winkler Bergthaler Mennonite Church Nov. 27 with holiday spirit.
The participants at Gateway Resources sang their hearts out at their Christmas concert
It was, as always, an opportunity for the clients of Gateway, which supports people with intellectual disabilities, to showcase their talents to the community, singing Christmas carols, playing instruments, and sharing readings of holiday poems.
This year’s show was extra special for longtime conductors Pearl Klyne and Tina Wolf, as both retired from their jobs with Gateway earlier this year.
After a few months of retirement bliss, the pair agreed to come back for at least one more Christmas show.
Wolf has been involved with organizing the performance since the early ‘90s, shortly after starting her job with Gateway.
“My first year, in 1993, I was just there, but the second year I got involved as assistant conductor, helping out,” she recalls. “And then I went on stage playing guitar and singing … I’m musically inclined, so I just loved being part of it.”
Klyne began her career with Gateway 24 years ago. She took on co-conductor duties in 2006 after another staff member moved on from the role.
“I just stepped up, and I’ve enjoyed it every year since,” she says.
It’s the participants at Gateway that make this show so special, the duo share.
“I was intrigued by how every participant was so unique, that they were able to read such wonderful stories and poems and be singing and really just give it their all, give it everything they have,” Wolf says. “It’s been nothing but joyful to be a part of it.”
Participants would often start asking about that year’s Christmas show as early as the end of summer, she notes with a laugh.
“We used to shut down for two weeks and they would come back and they would already be asking: when are we practising for the Christmas concert? I would tell them, ‘Not until after Thanksgiving’ and they’d say, ‘Why do we have to wait so long?’”
That enthusiasm is also what’s kept Klyne loving being involved all these years.
“I love the old songs, the traditional carols, and just seeing the enthusiasm with these guys,” she says. “They look forward to it every year, and the church is always packed every year so the community does too.”
Klyne and Wolf love the fact this performance gives the community at large a chance to see Gateway’s participants as so much more than the disabilities they live with—a glimpse at what they can really do.
“I think the whole reason behind it is to show people that these people are more capable of doing and knowing things,” Wolf says. “They’re more capable than a lot of people give them credit for.”
Klyne says she’s always impressed by the varied skills the participants have.
“Some of them, their voices, I’m amazed,” she says. “It’s neat to see when you get different people coming through and we try to see what they’re good at and then we can fit that into the program”
