WALKERTON – It started as a plan to raise funds for Saugeen Hospice – a gospel show, by local musicians, at St. Paul’s United Church.

That was before COVID put a lot of things on hold.

Musicians PJ Mack (a.k.a. Pat McNinch) and Tom Traversy urged people to hold onto their tickets – the show would go on, eventually.

Turn the clocks forward a couple of years, and those tickets got people into one of the most enjoyable events held in Walkerton in a long time – the Spirit in the Sky gospel show.

While final totals haven’t been calculated, all the tickets were sold and the audience was delighted. And so were representatives from Saugeen Hospice Inc.

Performers were, in a word, amazing – Mack and Traversy were joined by the remarkable Mandy Craddock and Elaine Pearce, members of the St. Paul’s church choir and Grey Bruce Singers who formed the Ladies Gospel Choir, and the Gospel Quartet (Traversy, Bob Ferguson, Gord Smith and Richard Field), with accompanists Colleen Robertson and Chris Burton.

Pauline Kerr, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Walkerton Herald Times