One hot concert!

Our school choir gave a hot concert today in a beautiful old ivy- covered baptist church. I say "hot" because it was 90 degrees outside, and warmer inside... The acoustics in the sanctuary are quite good, though, and that inspired the kids to give their best effort, despite cramped quarters on the platform.

They had sung all but their final two numbers when the heat began to take its toll. We have 7th-12th graders in the choir and there was a 7th grade boy who had once before gotten faint after standing so long like that, so the director was watching out for him. Towards the end of the third-to-the-last piece he noticed that this boy was sweating profusely and swaying a little and he mouthed at him to see if he was OK. The boy shook his head "no" so they helped him off the rostrum to a seat at the end of the piece.

I went over to see how he was and another teacher went and found him some juice and the concert went on...briefly. All of a sudden another boy was swaying and back he went into the row of boys behind him. Luckily, they caught him, but he had fainted dead away. One of the juniors picked him up in his arms and brought him to the pew beside me. The boy was totally limp.

We had a doctor and a couple of nurses in the congre- gation and they came over to help out. He was in a tuxedo shirt, tie and vest, all of which either came off or were loosened. Someone called 911 and soon EMTs were tramping through the church to where we were and took him into a side room.

Mean- while, the concert went on, but only after the director moved the kids to the front of the platform and spread them out a little to get some air between them. Someone found a big fan for them as well. While they were singing the penultimate song, ambulance personnel came in with a stretcher, but soon left empty handed. That seemed to signal to the choir that their friend was OK, and they sang their hearts out to complete the concert.

Turns out the boy had not eaten breakfast... and it was about 1 p.m. when this began happening, so he would have had trouble without the heat. Put the two together, though, and it was pretty scary. Fortunately, they both recovered and were able to walk out of the church on their own steam.

Whew! is all I can say...