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Wheeler Celebrates Holiday Festival 2021
December 17, 2021
The Wheeler community filled both the inside of Central Congregational Church on Angell Street and the school’s Providence courtyard with music and singing during this year’s Holiday Festival. Due to health and safety capacity limits, for Thursday’s rehearsal, performers and 8th- and 12th-graders were in the church, while the rest of the school watched a livestream from different campus locations. Friday’s event for families was also available for viewing online.
Head of School Allison Gaines Pell welcomed everyone, encouraging them to reflect on the small moments and choices that ultimately impact our lives. “Over these next few weeks, consider what we have and where we are today, the friends sitting by your side, the colleagues and family members who are carrying us through this time. Notice and expand the goodness of the small things and experiences,” she said. Her complete remarks can be found here.
Her remarks were followed with performances by Kindergarten, 1st-grade, 2nd-grade, and 3rd-grade singers and dancers. 4th- and 5th-graders joined the “Broken Mallet’s Upper School Marimba Band for a performance of “Watching From a Distance,” while the Middle School Jazz Band followed up with Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You.” The Middle School Chorus, alongside Ada Annan ’27 and Ryan Miller ’27 on ukelele, followed up with a rendition of “Tonight You Belong to Me,” and the Middle School Show Band performed Randy Newman’s “Almost There.”
Upper School Performance Jazz also performed “Feira de Mangaio,” and The 18 Wheelers a cappella group joined the Wheeler Dance Company with a rendition of “I Know a Place.” The Wheeler Handbells closed out the indoor performances with “Gabriel’s Message.”
Wheeler students, faculty, and staff then returned to campus and joined voices to joyfully sing “Take Up The Song,” which also marked the beginning of Winter Break.