On December 16th, from 6:30 to 9:30PM was the holiday coffee house to support the Caroline Szewczyk fund. It consisted of Colonia’s talented musicians, poetry writers, and refreshments. For ten dollars, a person could support a great cause, be entertained, fed, and enjoy the company of one another in order to get into the Christmas spirit. It was a well put together program run by the adviser of the Colonia High School guitar club, Mr. Perrino.

The starting performer’s in the lineup were senior student Trevor Trela, and junior student Danielle Leide. They performed two songs including ‘Winter Wonderland’ and ‘Life is Frightening’ by Rise Against. Next was poetry. Junior student Micheala Camacho read some of her original work that inspired just about everybody in the cafeteria. She used alliteration, stellar rhymes and real world problems to get her point across within her poem.

Next on the stage would be Colonia’s very own senior band, Break the Basement. Jordan Davis on percussion, Jerry Kirwin and Kenny Florczak on guitar/vocals, and Joe Stoneback also on the guitar. They played an acoustic set with songs including She will be loved by Maroon 5, “Why bother” by Weezer, and an original Break the Basement Song called Just out of reach.

Guitarist and vocalist, Jerry Kirwin said, “My favorite song to play had to be our original, ‘Just out of reach’. It is very a personal song to me because I wrote it, and it was fun to play while watching other people enjoy it as well.”

Kirwin showed a lot of gratitude towards the people who showed up, and encourages everyone to check out his band for themselves on SoundCloud.

Trela who was the guitarist/vocalist who sung with Danielle Leide and plans to pursue his musical career at Ramapo College said,“Yellow Ledbetter was my favorite song to perform the entire night, and watching Break the Basement play ‘Why Bother’ was one of the best performances all night. It was a good time and worked towards making money for a good cause.”

All of the proceeds from this concert went to The Szewczyk family for 26 year old Caroline Szewczyk who suffers the results of two CVA strokes. The lower left side of her brain, and upper right side were very affected and now she relies on the help of other for survival. She leads a very timely and expensive recovery. She needs help to pay for a wheelchair accessible home and therapy, this coffee house was dedicated to her in order to help her reach those goals.

Other performances included an original Colonia High band, None the Less that made an appearance that got everyone in the room to start singing along. Vocalist, Nicole Cougle had a strong presence on stage with her confident and versatile voice. They performed a Christmas song, and finished with an Incubus song that put everyone in the mood for the JT Project. The JT Project performed acoustic versions of modern hip-hop songs including Trap Queen by Fetty Wap, and Hotline Bling by Drake. The musicians also performed Justin Bieber’s Mistletoe. A surprise guest performance by Mr. Perrino’s wife also took place.