Published by Gagnon Bros. Pub. Goffstown NH - Vol. 2 - Issue #7 March 2004

Pancoast To Make Music With African Children

Goffstown resident, Optimist Club member and internationally know children's entertainer Judy Pancoast will soon be entertaining children on another continent. On easter night she will be taken by jeep to the village of Nyumbani. There, she will meet and write songs with orphaned, HIV positive African children for a week.

Pancoast has been invited to make the journey by the board of directors of the orphanage, which was founded eleven years ago by a Jesuit priest, Father Angelo D'Agostino. The orphanage will be her week-long home, and she will live in a volunteer lodge and spend her days making music with the children. Nyumbani is home to about a hundred children whose ages range from newborn to twenty years old. While their medical status is closely monitored, they are also taken on outings and given meaningful enrichment opportunities as often as possible.

"From the moment I first saw a photo of some of the children I felt that God wanted me to go there, to meet them and get to know them and share the universal language with them," says Pancoast. "I'm very eager to make the trip."

Pancoast is hoping to write songs with the children and record at least one tune for an upcoming CD, the partial proceeds of which would be donated to the orphanage.

Pancoast produced music for several years under her previous brand name; she recently discontinued using the trademark and is now simply going by her own name to promote her music. She is represented by LAUNCHSCS Public Relations in New York City and is currently working on the production of her first music video.

Her next local performance will be a benefit for the Goffstown Mother's Club at Mountain View Middle School on April 2.

For more information about Nyumbani orphanage, visit www.nyumbani.org.