4/9/2008

Mountaire holds Communion of Choirs
By Betty Cianci

A unique musical event will take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, April 24 through April 26 when Mountaire's Communion of Choirs will take place at the Trinity United Methodist Church, Route 50 and Division Street in Salisbury, MD.   An open invitation has been extended to all gospel and church choirs in the Delmarva community to participate.  This competition will mark the 14th year that Mountaire has sponsored a gospel talent search. 

During the past five years participation by individuals swelled in numbers, but the choirs had dwindled until none were involved in the event last October.  This year's event will be dedicated to participation by Delmarva church choirs only and Mountaire will not host performances by individuals.  A judging criteria has been established to rate the choirs on tone, intonation, diction, technique, balance, interpretation and musical effect.  The top three choirs will receive monetary awards for their churches in the amounts of $8,000, $6,500 and $5,000.  The first place choir will have the option to be awarded their check at an upcoming Sunday morning service at their respective church.

An added bonus for this event is that one of the distinguished judges will be John W. Thompson, noted composer, music publisher and media producer from Nashville and New York City.  As an accomplished musician, Mr. Thompson has produced over 30 major record albums in the country, pop and gospel fields. He is a multiple Dove award winner being selected for Song of the Year and Producer of the Year.

The general public is invited to listen, free of charge to the competition at Trinity United Methodist Church.  The program will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 24 and Friday, April 25 and end at 10 p.m.  On Saturday, it will begin at 9 a.m. and finish at approximately 2 p.m. although the time of the Saturday schedule may vary dependent upon the number of choirs registered and their scheduled placement.  For information you on schedules call 302-934-3123.

Roger Marino, the Corporate Communications/Public Relations Director of Mountaire has organized the past 13 talent searches.  In his recent press release Mr. Marino noted that "nothing demonstrates more the glory, joyous praise and worship for our Lord than the unification of voices sounding HIS praise before the sanctuary audience; the roots of church music".  He stated that after many hours of prayer, the Lord directed him to reexamine the intent and purpose of the Mountaire Gospel Talent Search.  Mr. Marino also expressed his concern that the church community has witnessed dissolution of the mass choirs which, he feels are "the foundation of the praise and worship of our Lord Jesus Christ in musical communion."

Mr. Marino stated that Mountaire was founded by a Christian and the corporation has maintained Christian values.  The company dates back to 1914 and to a commercial feed business in Arkansas.  In 1959 the company entered into a contractual arrangement with seven Arkansas firms representing various segments of the poultry business and by 1971 the companies became known as Mountaire Corporation.  Today Mountaire Corporation is the sixth largest chicken processing company.

In the Delmarva area there are two Mountaire operations; one located in Selbyville and the other in Millsboro.  Both of these facilities have processing, feed mill and hatchery operations to meet the increasing demand for high quality retail, wholesale and export of chicken products.  Since Mountaire is not a 'brand name" the large companies, food chains, and 43 foreign countries that purchase their products are able to use their own marques.

Mountaire sponsors not only the "Communion of Choirs" but also programs for the less fortunate.  They have united with Joseph House in Salisbury to form a unique partnership wherin Mountaire supports three "Thanksgiving" events throughout the year.  This last Thanksgiving 14,000 people were fed by receiving boxes of fresh poultry, canned and packaged foods distributed for them by Joseph House. This Easter that number totaled 7,500 individuals.  Included in the food boxes were written notices to recipients inviting them to apply for jobs at Mountaire.  During the Christmas season Mountaire, with support from WBOC-TV conducted its annual drive to replenish food bank shelves.  The corporation also makes scholarship awards available to children and grandchildren of their employees who meet specific criteria.. 

The Mountaire website offers additional information on their products and initiatives at  www.mountaire.com.