DEAR EDITOR:

Carols and Cocoa has been a YSU Dana School of Music staple in the Mahoning Valley for nearly four decades. It is an inspirational gateway into the Christmas season, and it is fun. This wonderful program, first offered in the hallway at Bliss Hall at YSU with several score of people in attendance, has grown to crowds of nearly 2,000 people and is now held at Stambaugh Auditorium.

We have enjoyed these programs for most of those years.

While providing this yearly program that is so inspirational and enjoyable, it also showcases the talent of the students and faculty of the Dana School of Music at YSU. Every year the programs have been wonderful, never any better than on Dec. 5. This year they included a few ethnic numbers, in addition to traditional sacred and pop numbers. The students truly appear to enjoy their own presentations as well as those of their fellow performers. They perform with verve and with a sense that they have accomplished something worthwhile, and they enjoy sharing their talents with others. Isn’t it wonderful that students and faculty have honed their voice and instruments to the extent that they produce wonderful sounds and serve to enrich those of us that so appreciate such talents? In my view, these cultural events, made possible by the outstanding professors and students at Youngstown State University, are worthy of all of the accolades heaped upon them and the enthusiastic applause offered by those of us that attend.

GEORGE and BETTY BEELEN

Canfield