Soul Stock 2024: Night 1
Janice Schatz had a vision of a Christian music festival in our rural city. Since 2020, during the heart of the pandemic, this festival has reached the lonely and hurting offering a better way.
Soul Stock is Shawmut Park on Depot Street in St Marys next to the parking garage., where it is held every year. The event was started on very small budget during the pandemic she 2020. It was held in an empty factory lot and there were more people on stage than in the audience. There were not any vendors or food, local Christian bands came to preform on a old flatbed trailer. Members of the band A Day Awaits, from Dubois in neighboring Clearfield county, nearly fell off the stage back then. Every year, Janice is nervously making preparations, fear that it won’t come together. To launch a festival like this requires her to make split second decisions. What make look like organization is her juggling the needs of the artists, vendors and the audience. She does her best to anticipate what might happen next, but like anything we do, you can count on there being something expected which might occur. Each year the festival has grown, which has added more dimensions to her planning and increased her need for more fundraising. However God always pulls through for her.
Soul Stock is free event open to anyone who wanted to attend. Many of our attendees come from distance counties in Pennsylvania and other states to watch these bands perform. and participate in the events. Many don’t preform for free and Janice has to do extensive fundraising efforts of pay for them to perform. Here are the links to donate to the festival so Janice can continue to offer this wholesome, soul changing, and life changing event to the community, greater Pennsylvania, and the whole world. One dollar can change the life of just one person. Paypal at @gatheronthegrass, Venmo to @gatheronthegrassworship or you can give at GiveButter at https://GiveButter.com/EtkxIQ or by texting “SoulStock” to 53-555
The evening was warm, a balmy eighty . the air was filled with anticipation of the great things to come. Laura Antonelli, from Bennett’s Valley, (see Memorial of Mt Zion article for more information about the valley.) owner of Journey of Life Design was all set up of the weekend. Anytime Lunchtime a local restaurant and food truck was preparing delicious food for the hungry patrons. Boy Scout troop 199 was selling Italian sausage sandwiches, popcorn and drinks to raise money for their troop. A few of the members of the troop 199 were doing volunteer work for Janice Schatz. Many of the volunteers went unseen in their diligence to serve in this great event.
Local churches and business sponsored the event and artists on stage. Elk County Foods, a local grocery store with stores in Ridgway and Johnsonburg was a sponsor. Victory Church in Morrisdale, Pennsylvania and Deeper Water Ministries of Emporium, Pennsylvania sponsored the event. Shiloh Evangelical Presbyterian Church, a place with a beautiful building, a great history and a wonderful congregation was also a sponsor. Pastor Wiest of Shiloh was the event’s photographer, and I saw him joyfully moving from place to place trying to capture that perfect shot. The Faith Baptist Church on West Creek Road in St Marys was another sponsor and they also had a booth there as well. Finally, my own church, the Hallton Church of Christ, with two locations, one in Ridgway and in the original building that has stood for more than a century in Hallton. Hallton also sponsors The Vision Christian youth center on main street in Ridgway.
REV FM is one the radio stations who was there Friday night so Janice and sponsoring the event. Family Life Ministries had a both as well. This organization has wide reaching influence and a bunch of radio stations. Way, Truth and Life radio also had a booth as well and was another sponsor. Without the help of these stations and the people capable of running complicated sound systems this event could not have happened.
Another local booth contained The Benedictine Gift Shop. This shop is a tribute to the Benedictine Nuns who played a central role in the development of St Marys, both commercial and spiritual. In the store is a small museum dedicated to the nuns. Across the street at the site of the St Marys Catholic Church is the other grotto for the nuns, their own burial plot, the stations of the cross, and the original convent. You can find my one place study on The St Marys Catholic Church on the ProjectKin Substack and their social media sites. I am grateful for the role they let me play in their mission to preserve both local and family histories.
I have to admit as one of the attendees, the event was full of wonder. There were times when I was pulled in the by the music or a speaker or even a bunch of kids playing outdoor games that I lost track of people,bands and vendors, so please if I missed you I am sorry. These three days are high point of the summer, proving that there are still community members still in touch with the spiritual roots of the city of St Marys. I took as many photographs as I could and tried to record everything that I could, but there were times when I was swept into the excitement and joy of the whole experience.
Pastor Welborn, a former biker, now a pastor reaching those struggling with addiction and bikers was there to baptize anyone who felt called to take the next step in their faith. He has a biker church in Tennessee. I put the website for his church in the caption. An important thing to note that night was the children who were volunteering to be baptized. The speakers were not there just to entertain but to share their story and their message of how Jesus had changed their lives. Their honestly, the ability to speak the truth without persecution was the most beautiful part. We must not take our freedom of speech for granted. The tongue is strongest muscle in the entire human body. It has the power to tear people down or build them up. I want the words I write and speak to build people up. Honesty and transparency may not tell people what they want to hear, but it could light a spark in their head. That spark could lead them seek out the truth on their own and restore their hearts and minds to a better place.
Magdelene Rose was in a Christian band with her sisters called GFM, which stands for gold, frankensense and myrrh. They played Christian heavy metal. Don’t be so quick to judge, this amazing artist also has an masters degree in psychology. She uses her music ministry to reach those who are struggling with body image issues and Anorexia and Bullemia associated with it. She has an amazing energy which is infectious and there were some teenage girls dancing in the corner. Magdelene Rose was the perfect opening artist for the night and Soul Stock itself. She shared her heart warming testimony that I am sure has touched the hearts of some that night. You can find her song, Shark Spray, on YouTube. I downloaded it on my Spotify, and it is a great song to listen to on my jaunts to Benzinger Park, lost in my own world.
Seventh Day Slumber took the stage after Magdelene Rose. Their music is the Christian answer to metal, hard rock and even punk. Both Magdelene Rose and Seventh Day Slumber have this amazing energy around their performance. I found it impossible to sit down. However, I am late Gen Xer, a product of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Rob Zombie, and Metallica. The Vision Youth Center in Ridgway, an outreach of the Hallton Church of Christ, bought tickets and brought an entire busload of Elk County youth to the Bryce Jordan Center in State College to watch them play at Winter Jam. The lead singer, the guy with the blue mohawk told us stories of their life on the road as a family. Way back in the 1990s there was this band called DC Talk, who not only made it big in the Christian charts but like Switchfoot crossed into the secular music realm as well. There were three men in DC Talk, TobyMac, who went solo, Michael Tait, who had his own band, Tait before joining the Newsboys, and Kevin Max, who went solo before joining Audio Adrenline. Well, these guys were on tour with Tait. It was an electrifying night, a crowd transfixed in wonder, and teenagers on the side swaying to the music. You can find Seventh Day Slumber on Spotify as well and downloaded their songs like I did. My favorite song is Rehearsing Tragedies.
On a Friday night, July 26, 2024, St Marys was transformed from an isolated city in the wilds of the Allegheny Forest to a music venue, a free concert in a place where concerts don’t happen. St Marys is not a place major recording artists choose to come to because as much as St Marys tells itself it is a city, it is still a small town. If you ever venture to St Marys, you will feel the small town in the city.
I was so pleased to see your post in my Substacks Reads email just now, recognizing the hard work of my friend Janice Schatz. I have known her ever since first grade and she is the real deal!
This is awesome, not only for the content (which is always solid) but for the local vibes, which I appreciate on multiple levels.
Great piece, Rainey!