WARREN - About 250 came together at the Warren Community Amphitheatre Sunday evening to praise God through music and give to a good cause.
The Warren City-Wide Youth Choir held its second annual summer concert at the downtown venue to benefit the CURRENT scholarship fund.
Special guest Mark T. Jackson & Final Call from Cleveland graced the stage for a brief set before the choir took over.
Article Photos
Tribune Chronicle / Dan Pompili
Pastor Todd Johnson of Agape Assembly Church leads the Warren City-Wide Youth Choir during the scholarship fund benefit concert Sunday.
More than 65 people - ages 5 to 40 - sang out to the accompaniment of a nine-piece band while the crowd rejoiced. During the show a free-will offering was accepted to benefit the scholarship fund that will help a local student go to college.
The CURRENT scholarship is awarded to a Warren-area high school senior based on their academic performance, church involvement, community involvement and involvement with the choir.
Last year, the first scholarship was awarded to Patrick Flanagan Jr. of Warren G. Harding High School, in the amount of $1,000. Flanagan will attend Bowling Green State University in the fall to study physical therapy.
Pastor Todd Johnson of Agape Assembly Church in Warren headed up the event Sunday and said the group has already generated $1,200 toward this year's goal of a $2,000 scholarship. He said that has come from sponsorship.
Other funds have come through the concerts the choir puts on. Seventy members of 15 churches make up the group that has already performed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as well as last year's summer concert and two years of performing at the African American Achievement Festival.
The group was formed in 2011 by the CURRENT Young Adult Fellowship.
"This is designed to provide opportunities to the youth of our city," Johnson said.
The high-energy gospel concert included an opening number by Cheer Image, an independent community cheerleading squad.