The song, "True Colors" has been sung and recorded by both Cyndi Lauper and Phil Collins, but nowhere has it been performed with more feeling and sincerity than by Melissa Chill, a Red Bank-based singer/songwriter who volunteers with Holiday Express, an organization that gives 60 performances between Thanksgiving and Christmas at places where they believe people need cheering up.
Chill sang "True Colors" with members of the Matheny Medical and Educational Center choir during the Holiday Express Christmas Spectacular benefit concert on December 11 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. That followed a performance by Holiday Express at Matheny on Sunday, December 8. Matheny is a special hospital and educational facility in Peapack for children and adults with medically complex developmental disabilities.
At the NJPAC performance, the choir sang "Let It Snow" and "Joy to the World" to standing ovations before Chill took to the stage to lead them in "True Colors". "Melissa Chill," says Holiday Express founder and leader Tim McLoone, "is one of those amazing performers who can be all rockin' and bluesy one minute and rip your heart out the next."
An additional highlight of the Matheny choir participation in the benefit concert has been a special rapport developed with the Holiday Express dancers, a group of young women from the Red Bank-based Kathryn Barnett School of Dance Traveling Troupe. Some members of the dance group attended the Matheny Prom last spring and indicated they will be back again next spring.
