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Up With People group to perform in Orange
(by Sali McSherry - September 14, 2011)
Up With People group to perform in Orange
By SALI McSHERRY
When former Orange School board member Chuck Jarrett was a kid just out of high school in New Jersey, he, along with a cast of young people, performed for dignitaries and traveled to Belfast and Casablanca. He became business manager for an international organization at age 18.
He followed in his older sister's footsteps but forged his own way when he joined Up with People, the global education and arts organization in which cultural barriers are bridged and global understanding is created through service and music, according to Erin Parrott, who is part of the advance team.
Up With People, which was founded in 1965, is still going strong and will perform at Orange High School Auditorium at 7 p.m. Sept. 21 and 22.
Founded by J. Blanton Belk, Up With People served as a positive voice for young people during the turbulent era of the 1960s. The group was the first to perform at Jordan High School in Watts after the Los Angeles race riots in 1965.
Mr. Jarrett said he decided to take time off between high school and college in 1974 to join the performing group. While he had been in plays in high school, he didn't consider himself a performer but with practice, he became a singer and one of the lead dancers. The music changes to reflect the times but the message of global understanding, tolerance and bringing the world together remains, he said.
One of the most important aspects of the program is giving young people from all over the world the opportunity to stay with local families who generously open up their homes, Miss Parrott said. Mr. Jarrett, who is now chairman of the board for Up With People, and his wife, Stephanie, are hosting Miss Parrott and several cast members.
The program affords participants an opportunity to travel the world, develop community service learning, immerse themselves in other cultures, and perform as well as develop leadership and communication skills and global awareness.
Each year, each international group of about 100 members between the ages of 17 and 29 from more than 50 countries, tours the world -- traveling to about 20 communities across two or three continents per semester, spending a week in each one and living with local host families, Miss Parrott said.
Mr. Jarrett graduated at 17, and traveled to Belgium to meet up with the Up With People cast. "It was an incredible learning experience and I was more ready for college," he said.
In 1974, he and a cast of about 100 were one of the first groups to travel to Belfast, which was a very tense and troubled area during the struggle between Catholics and Protestants in that era, he said. Up With People's message was so important, he said, and left a profound imprint on him.
Mr. Barrett and the cast performed for the Pope, and traveled to Morocco, which he said was something out of the Arabian nights - men walking around the Casbah wearing swords.
At age 18, he was hired as business manager. There were nine casts that year, he said, as part of the U.S. bicentennial celebration, and he was in charge of keeping track of all the business records for each group. He also was a cast director and his job was dealing with the unanticipated challenges of each day.
He learned about leadership and how to manage people from his experiences with Up With People, which was great preparation for his job at Progressive Insurance as chief legal officer.
Service to others is a focus of Up With People, which partners with local organizations in the communities where the groups perform. While here in Greater Cleveland, cast members will visit the Berea Homes & Family Services in Berea where Mr. Barrett is a member of the board of trustees, Miss Parrott said. The cast members will help the children create person videos to express their aspirations, he said. Money raised will be donated to the children's home, he said.
The cast also will host workshops and discussions at Orange High School, as well as other local schools, shining a spotlight on diversity awareness and the sharing of cultures.
Up With People was there when the wall came down in Berlin, groups performed for the Pope, at Carnegie Hall, for kings and queens, at the Super Bowl, at the Olympics and in 1978 was one of the first to perform in China.
Orange High School is at 32000 Chagrin Blvd. Tickets are $15 and available at Garfield Memorial Church, 3650 Lander Road in Pepper Pike.
For more information about joining Up With People, call 877-264-8856 or visit its website.
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