Latest News from the CCC

"On Sunday, October 17, 2021, the CCC held an outdoor performance at Clothier Field. The performance was postponed from the night before because of rain, but the Sunday performance was greeted with a nearly full moon. The lighting and acoustics were spectacular. " Photo and quote by John Wehmiller

Click here to see the Chester Children's Chorus in action in a YouTube video. They sing of hope and love in the face of loss in their community.

Letter from John Alston, September, 2021

Dear CCC Friends,

On September 10th, the CCC moved our music, math, and administrative programs into Pittenger Hall, a beautiful and perfect space for us. The first floor can accommodate our administrative needs and up to 20 pairs of CCC staff and College students practicing math. The second floor is for music - rehearsal space for over 100 children and group piano instruction (pianos for 8 children and instructor). Our staff is always happiest when we see our children.

Now, Sean and I are able to greet and encourage the children while they are in math, College Math Coaches and our children are both on campus, and Elisa can more easily share communications with children and families. Situated next to the College baseball field, Pittenger Hall gives the children plenty of beautiful green space for play and affords them easy access to the rest of the campus. With a building all to ourselves, the CCC is a chorus, an education program, and a summer school. It’s good to finally be home.

We’re asking for your help to support some of the special costs related to improving all that CCC can do in the new building. We need to raise $50,000 to enhance the interior, including special lighting, audiovisual equipment, and student furniture.

Our new home has truly been 27 years in the making. My first office in Lang Music Building was the CCC hub during the 90s and early 2000s. Eventually, children from every elementary school in Chester were singing in CCC, and as we grew, we struggled with space for after school rehearsal and administration.

We moved the CCC office to College space at the Swarthmore Train Station in 2008, rehearsed the children in small groups at the Chester Friends Meeting House (to shorten the after-school commute), but held full chorus rehearsals at Lang on Saturdays. The Meeting House was small but charming, with old pews for seating. We were comfortable there for several years, but the sound of gunshots in the neighborhood prompted us to move to a former YMCA on a lovely block in Chester (7th & Yarnall).

A leaky roof and lack of heat prompted us to move weekday rehearsals to the third floor of the Catholic Social Services of Delaware County, next to the Chester Police Station. And while the stage was small, the children took advantage of the half basketball court. The exhaustion from rehearsing in Chester on weekdays and Swarthmore on Saturdays prompted us to move weekday and Saturday rehearsals to the Swarthmore United Methodist Church in 2017, and moved our office across the street to 112 Park Ave, which also housed our new piano lab.

Had CCC remained primarily a music program, we probably would have kept this arrangement. We continued to grow, adding Dana (Managing and Education Director, 2018), Carolyn (Director of Development, 2019), and Kevin (Lead Math Teacher, 2019), to manage our year-round Math Practice Program. This past summer, nearly 100 children practiced math daily with our staff and dozens of Swarthmore College students. The CCC’s growth, the children’s beautiful singing, and the intensity and success of our Math Program prompted the College to give us a campus building big enough for our entire program.

Thanks to the generosity of many of our current and past Board members, we are halfway towards our $50,000 goal. Please consider making your gift to our “A Home of Our Own” Campaign, now through October 12, to ensure we can provide the enhancements to the interior of our new home. To make this important initiative effective, we ask that your gift be in addition to any intended annual giving. Your support of this new space will help enrich the experience of all of the children in the CCC.

You may make your gift/pledge by going to the Donate section of the CCC websiteor mail your gift to: CCC “A Home of Our Own Campaign”, Gift Records Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave, Swarthmore, PA 19081.

Thank you in advance for your thoughtful consideration.

In gratitude,

John Alston

Executive and Artistic Director

Science for Kids

Poster Show and Tell by the participants in the Science for Kids program at Swarthmore, July 2016