From its beginnings in 1997, Animaterra has made a commitment to community: we nurture our connections as a group, and we reach out to the region, the country and the world in which we find ourselves. We sing for community events, such as the Keene Pumpkin Festival and Tree Lighting, and the Empty Bowls project of the Keene Community Kitchen (see Events sidebar). Our hospice group, Pathway singers, brings music to bedside and the homes of the ill and dying and those in transition. We believe that bringing the joy of our music into the greater community will foster the spirit of unity in ways that other forms of volunteerism (as vital as they are) can’t reach.

Robert Putnam of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government spoke in his book  “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community” (Simon and Schuster, 2001) of “social capital”, the networks that connect us, the fabric of our connections with each other. He includes group song as one of the forms of civic engagement that can lead to other kinds of involvement, such as volunteer work or political activism.

We hope that as women, community members who love to sing, we are helping bind ourselves and those we encounter with a stronger sense of togetherness and connectedness that makes for true community!

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