By Kate Thorman
The Los Altos-based Interfaith Network for Community Help (INCH) will be holding its 10th Annual All Faiths Gospel Music Festival from 7-10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. Like every year, director, INCH president, and Los Altos resident Stewart Wobber, is excited. “It’s a great feeling,” he says, “People come and have a joyous experience being together, sharing faith, listening to beautiful voices and great music.”
This year’s anniversary festival will feature both new and veteran performers of the festival. The first night will have the Grace Lutheran Children’s Choir; the Taylor Eigsti Trio, led by the young “genius composer and next big star,” according to Wobber; the Foothill Gospel Choir; and the Stanford Gospel Choir, whom Wobber says “we are very lucky to have.” Saturday night, the program consists of the San Jose Jazz Society All Stars; the Oakland Jazz Choir, who are coming for their third year; the Avery Stafford Impact Worship Team; and the Marantha Hope of Glory Mass Choir.
But the Festival is not simply for enjoyment. “It started 10 years ago as fund-raiser to help at-risk youth in East Palo Alto,” says Wobber. “We’ve since raised $80,000 for college scholarships.” INCH looks for students who would probably not go to college otherwise, and are often the first person in their family to go. The award is presented to the students at the end of 8th grade, in front of their peers, and they are encouraged throughout high school with brochures for the Boys and Girls Club, afterschool tutoring, as well as scholarship opportunities. “Hopefully after four years, they will have accumulated enough scholarship money to be able to go to college and stand on their own feet.”
“A lot of these kids have a vision, but they just don’t know how to get there,” says Wobber. One of last year’s winners lost many family members in an East Palo Alto fire. She told Wobber that her aunt who died was the only one who had believed in her. Wobber says that the scholarship is intended “to show that somebody believes in them. They’ve had a tough time getting to high school, so we’re giving them a hand up. By college they feel confident enough that they can apply instead of being convinced that they’ll be rejected.” College graduates from the early years of the scholarship have gone to such prestigious universities as MIT, Cal, and UCLA, as well as Foothill and Canada Colleges, whose admission departments love these students because of their motivation.
The groups who come to play in the festival are also very motivated. Wobber says that they are always so excited to perform when they hear about the cause. One group that was unable to attend this year due to prior commitments called Wobber and told him how disappointed they were. Says Wobber, “People really get into this.”
For Wobber, the concert is also great because it’s doing something more for the community. He likes being able to have “all the races and religions come together; we’re all God’s children and we need show everyone that.”
In addition, people really get into the festival. They had so much response from both groups and the community that the concert was expanded to two nights instead of one. Wobber loves “the wondrous joy of having all the people there - every year it’s a different feeling, but it’s always wonderful.”
The jazz component of the festival came from the early year when Wobber would have his jazz friends there and a group wouldn’t show, so the jazz guys would play some stuff. Now, that has expanded to include Taylor Eigsti, the Oakland Jazz Choir, and the San Jose Jazz Society All Stars.
“I look at these kids as tomorrow’s leaders,” says Wobber, “So it’s wonderful to be able to help them and give them something more than the usual education supplements.”
The festival will be at the Grace Lutheran Church in Palo Alto, at 3149 Waverley St., and the corner of Loma Verde. A $10 donation and entrance fee is required.
