On Friday, March 28th in the Recital Hall, Global Christian Fellowship will be hosting a Faculty and Staff Talent Show. Designed as a fundraiser for GCF missions, the talent show will feature varied acts from multiple disciplines in an effort to raise money for GCF-sponsored mission trips this upcoming summer. Free chai will be provided and there will be baked goods available for purchase, courtesy of the women’s basketball team.
The event will be emceed by Paul Shea, adjunct professor of missions, who according to Bobby Mauger, GCF’s fundraiser and the driving force behind the show, is “going to open up with something wild” that will set the tone for the rest of the night. Although the show will feature a number of differing acts, including Ben Hegeman, adjunct professor of intercultural studies, performing impersonations of other professors, Mauger said that the primary emphasis of the show will be musical. “It’s a mix of some mostly serious musical talent and then some seriously funny musical talent.” Among those mentioned were a Mo-town group headlined by Michael Lastoria, director of counseling services, and a humorous opera selection sung by Amanda Cox, instructor of voice. Mauger was particularly laudatory of the musical styling of Steve Dunmire, Houghton’s director of church relations. “I think if people don’t know who he is, they’re going to want to know who he is after they hear him sing,” he comments.
The Faculty and Staff Talent Show has been in development for GCF as a fundraiser for quite some time, having false-started with the project last year after hearing of a similar event that Houghton alum Julian Cook was putting together. It was nearly cancelled this semester with the announcement of the campus-wide talent show, Houghton’s Got Talent, but when the event was called off, it made room for GCF to create their own.
All of this is borne out of an effort to get students to interact with missions and create awareness for some of the projects that GCF are involved in. “I’ve had a bunch of conversations with students around campus that are interested in doing missions,” said Houghton junior Olivia Neveu, GCF’s prayer coordinator. “How can we put ourselves out there more so that people are aware of it, so that people who are interested can get involved?”
In the past, GCF has raised money by selling chai during homecoming and selling t-shirts, but now, they are going for something bigger. “It started off by imagining what event would really just create a buzz,” said Mauger. “I’m hoping that it will catch on and be done more.”
With the creation of this event, the GCF cabinet decided that a more personal approach would be required. Together they decided which faculty they wanted to be a part of it and then distributed them among their cabinet members to approach them. Paul Young, professor of psychology, who will be singing at the event with his family, said that there was not an audition process, but that he received a personal invitation from Cindy Austin, admission counselor. Proceeds from ticket sales and the bake-sale will be placed in GCF’s mission fund and distributed primarily among Houghton sports teams and individuals doing internships with One Mission Society.
Tickets for the talent show are available for pre-sale for $3 and will be $5 at the door.