Due to the snow storm and snow removal there will be no parking on Main Street Until Further Notice
Good evening and welcome to our Annual Christmas Eve Sing a Long.
We are in the final days of our Year of Celebration of the 150th Anniversary – The Sesquicentennial of the Village of Warwick. In a weeks’ time we will be raising and lowering an Apple on Railroad Green to signify time past, time present and the future and I hope you will join us for the festivities.
But now, tonight, we sit next to our families and neighbors to sing, to be merry and to share our love and hope with each other. The goal during the Sesquicentennial Year was to be inclusive, to share our history, our pride and above all, to have fun!
Along the way, through all the events, activities and parades, came so many stories – beautiful stories of lives well lived, of small town dreams, of friendships, and sharing this remarkable Valley and this beautiful Village.
This evening, I have a story to tell. It is a story of a song in the night – a bird song, a nightingale. Over fifty years, fifty winters and fifty Christmas Eve’s, we’ve been blessed with our very own Nightingale.
Our dear Suzie Emmerich has led us in gleeful sound and given moments we all treasure. This is music from the heart.
Tonight, I would like to use words made famous in a movie, and I think perfect for this moment. I’ll let you guess the source. I would also like to mention that this was a plan hatched by Lilibet McLean who could not be with us this evening, but is truly here in spirit.
So dear Suzie, I say to you,
“back where I come from there are men and women who do nothing all day but good deeds. They are called phil…er… phil…er… good-deed doers and their hearts are no bigger than yours, but they have one thing you haven’t got! A testimonial! Therefore, in consideration of your kindness, I take pleasure at this time in presenting you with a small token of our esteem and affection. And remember my sentimental friend, that a heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.”
Suzie tonight we want to give you a gift of a splendid golden nightingale keepsake pin as a token of our affection, a gift from our hearts to yours. We hope you will wear it and think of us. Thank you for all that you have given us. We are so very grateful.
Dear friends on this night of nights, on behalf of the Village Board of Trustees we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Safe and Happy New Year!
