Lions Club sponsors summer music series
Harold Betters, jazz trombonist, will perform Tuesday evening at the Greene County Fairgrounds, kicking off the Waynesburg Lions Club’s summer music series.
The Waynesburg Lions Club is sponsoring a series of seven free concerts beginning Tuesday with Harold Betters. Discussing plans for the concerts are, from left, Lion Deshirl Yesenosky, Lions President Bernie Fox and Lion Phyllis Canan.
WAYNESBURG – The Waynesburg Lions Club will host a summer of live music with a series of seven free concerts Tuesday evenings at Greene County Fairgrounds and Waynesburg Lions Community Park.
The series, titled “Waynesburg Lions Club Sounds of Summer,” will kick off Tuesday with a performance by jazz trombonist Harold Betters.
This will be the first time the Waynesburg Lions sponsored such an event.
“We wanted to do this as a community service,” said Deshirl Yesenosky, chairman of the Lions music committee. “It’s the Lions Club motto, ‘we serve.'”
The Lions also could not host the event without community support, Yesenosky said.
Many local businesses and patrons sponsored bands and donated toward other expenses to enable the club to provide this service, she said.
The series will begin Tuesday and continue each Tuesday through Aug. 30.
The concerts will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. No concert will be held Aug. 9, the week of the Greene County Fair.
The concerts will held at Greene County Fairgrounds, except those Aug. 2 and Aug. 16, which will be at Lion’s Community Park on Oakview Drive near Waynesburg’s aquatic center.
“For cultural enrichment, we decided to bring this musical event to the community,” said Lions Club President Bernie Fox. All music presentations are free to the public, she said
“We’re telling people to bring their lawn chairs and to plan to have a very enjoyable evening,” Fox said. Lawn chairs will be important for personal comfort, she said, because of the concrete flooring at the venue.
The first show Tuesday will feature jazz great Harold Betters.
Betters released a dozen albums and CDs and performed with Louis Armstrong, Al Hirt, Ramsey Lewis and Urbie Green.
A native of Connellsville, Betters is well known in this area, Yesenosky said. “I’m sure he’ll help get people out,” she said.
The list of performers includes a banjo band, and steel drums and styles from country to easy listening. “There’s something for everyone,” Fox said.
The list of performers include:
• Tuesday: Harold Betters, jazz trombone;
• July 19: Coleman Lee Band, a country/rock band based in Waynesburg;
• July 26: Chanler Bailey on steel drums, a percussionist from the Morgantown, W.Va. area who performs and teaches steel drums;
• Aug. 2: Pittsburgh Banjo Band, banjo music;
• Aug. 16: Lexie, Courtney & Cassidy, a group consisting of local residents Lexie VanDyne, Courtney Ross and Cassiday Chamber, which performs pop and country;
• Aug. 23: Brother Short Band, blues, country and classic rock;
• Aug. 30: Square Thirteen, a band from Columbus, Ohio that performs original music and traditional Americana tunes.
Yesenosky said she came up with the idea of organizing a music series after she and her husband, John, took advantage of live music programs held last summer Monday evenings in Uniontown.
“I wished we had this in Waynesburg,” she said. The Lions took up the idea, and the committee began planning in January.
“We’re hoping the series will provide a unique cultural activity for the community, at which people can enjoy fellowship and good music,” Lions Phyllis Canan said.
For insurance reasons, the pets and alcohol are prohibited at the concerts.
Those who attend are also encouraged to bringing any old eye glasses they have to donate to the Lions. Nonperishable food items also will be collected to be donated to Greene County families.
The donations of glasses and nonperishable food will help the Lions fulfill its mission, Yesenosky said. “We serve.”