Castaldo Christmas Lights Concert 11-29

Thursday was a very busy day!

I did manage to get in a workout in the exercise room at the hotel on Thursday morning, then it was shower and go off to the Rotary Club meeting at a restaurant, where I had a very nice lunch with my hosts and spoke for about 20 minutes about my career and how I came to be in Beaumont. Everyone in the Rotary Club was very nice and welcoming.
In the afternoon I performed a Christmas concert for the kids at the City DayCare and After School Program and that was a total hoot.  Many of the kids recognized me from the day before at Sundance and they were very excited to see me again.  I had as good a time as they did.

Then it was off to David and Vanna Castaldo's house for the evening concert.  Man, I was blown away when I drove up and saw their house! 

And that's not even the whole thing!

As I mentioned in the last entry, the charity to benefit from the concert was the Beaumont-Cherry Valley Rotary Club, and their youth programs.  They brought the kids out in full-force.  David is the Mayor Pro Tem of Beaumont, and he got the town to close off the street so that there would be more room for people.  But he also did something that no other decorator has done...he provide VIP seating! The way it worked was this:  I had a flat bed truck as a stage, situated along his ample driveway.  In front of the stage he had a canopy with seats set under it.  He sold each seat for $20 and all the money went to the club!  Then everyone else who came stood at the end of the driveway and along the fence that you can see in the picture.
It was an AMAZING night.  I could see as I was singing that the place was packed and there was even a TV crew there from Los Angeles NBC affiliate Channel 4.  Afterwards I was told that the official police count was nearly 500 people!

David hired a talented photographer named Rigo Pena to take pictures of the event. Here are some of the great photos I've seen so far: 

My host, David Castaldo, introducing the concert

This is Bruce, the coordinator of the Rotary Youth programs

Disco Rudolph!

This is why I do it, right here!

The guy from Channel 4 recorded quite a bit of the concert and I

was told that it would be used on the news at 11, but by that time I'd moved 30 miles down the road to a hotel in Palm Springs and they didn't get that station there!  However, friends told me that I was in the broadcast feature on the event, but they didn't use my name or any audio!  All is not lost, however, as I was also interviewed after the concert and told that I would appear as part of the one-hour special that Channel 4 produces that will run on Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  That would be fantastic!  I'm actually going to email them and see if they would like to use "The House on Christmas Street" as the theme song for their program.  That would really give the song some great exposure.

I just want to thank David Castaldo again for making it a big night to remember.  It was really all his hard work that got that many people out there, and his light show and his arrangements for me to have a "stage" all made it very fun and professional for me.  I hope that everyone who was there that night had as much fun as I did.  They've already invited me back for next year...and God willing, I will be there!!