12/13/07
2007 Summerton Christmas Cantata will be number 26
By Jerriod Grizzle

Linzy and Karen Washington have done their annual Christmas concert without skipping a beat for 26 years. Sunday, Dec. 16, at 7p.m. St. Mark AME church in Summerton, concertgoers will get to experience the sounds of holiday music.

“It is an opportunity for everyone in the community to come together and celebrate the season,” said Linzy Washington, Summerton business owner and community leader.

Washington said that he enjoys the chance to see people at the concert and to enjoy the holiday season through music.

Last year, the concert drew over 100 people.

“We have a church that will hold about 300 people and we are hoping to draw even more people this year,” Karen Washington, a teacher at the Summerton Early Childhood Center.

Karen said that the concert will feature both contemporary Christian music and holiday favorites such as “Jesus O’ What Wonderful Child,” “The Gift Goes On,” “Mary Did You Know” and “White Christmas.”

The concert may feature a duet with Linzy and Elaine Elmore, a bank officer with First Citizens Bank and Trust in Summerton singing “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire).”

Elmore said the event is a time to enjoy holiday memories with friends.

“Every year we have so much fun,” she said. “People are relaxed.”

Linzy said the most important aspect of the concert is the people coming together to celebrate music and walk away with a feeling of the true spirit of Christmas.

Over the years, the Washington’s Christmas concert has become a Clarendon County tradition said S.C. House Representative Cathy Harvin.

“It provides an opportunity for people to visit a church that they may not go to usually, to experience and drive home the fact that the community that worships together can solve its problems together,” she said.

Harvin said the concert had residual benefits such as sharing in celebration of the season and people of all creeds and colors getting to know one another.