Sacred Heart Church to reprise popular 'Cabaret Night'

The Cabaret 2018 Committee includes, from left, Bonnie Stone, Diane Dennis, Roland Bergeron, Carol DeRoy, Gladys Galarneau

AUBURN — Sacred Heart Church in Auburn is bringing back “Cabaret Night” in celebration of its on-going parish-wide pipe organ fundraising campaign, which is nearing its first milestone goal.

The second annual musical variety show for all ages that will once again be hosted by guest entertainer Louis Philippe will be at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 3.

“Cabaret Night” is just one of many events the parish has undertaken as part of the overall fundraising drive launched in 2015 to help purchase, refurbish and install a 1954 Casavant Opus 2277 Pipe Organ ,which, through a donation to the parish, was acquired from the Sisters of Notre Dame in Toledo, Ohio.

The secondary goal of the Sister Elizabeth Platt Pipe Organ Fund for Sacred Heart Church is to provide education and training programs to parish organists, choirs and cantors, as well as subsidized organ lessons for deserving and talented young people.

Thanks to the generosity and enthusiastic support of parishioners, volunteers and the community at large, the parish is close to reaching its primary goal for the organ installation sometime this year, according to Carol DeRoy, fundraising committee member and “Cabaret Night” production coordinator.

“I believe that this endeavor has brought our community closer together in sharing a mutual dream,” DeRoy said, acknowledging the many gifts made in recognition of family and friends or in memory of loved ones.

Committee member Roland Bergeron, in charge of finance, agrees. “This project has lifted us up and brought unity among our parishioners,” Bergeron said. “We are prayerfully grateful to be much closer to our goal in getting the pipe organ installed and creating beautiful sacred music for generations to come.”

At age 86, Sister Elizabeth Platt, C.O.C., currently serves as pastoral associate, and has dedicated more than 30 years of service to Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in religious education and the RCIA program. A period of her life she often speaks about with great fondness is her years of ministry teaching children to sing the parts of the Mass. She also worked with the Boys’ Choir in Boston before coming to Maine.

Pam Vaillancourt, a familiar talent from the L-A area, began singing in the church choir since her elementary school days. Since 1994, she is the music director at Sacred Heart Church, a well-known advocate of music and ministry, and will once again serve as stage manager for this year’s event in addition to performing duets with Louis Philippe, Patsy Cline medley and a gospel medley).

“After our first ‘Cabaret Night,’ there was so much positive feedback that we knew we had to do it again,” Vaillancourt noted. “The cast and volunteers have worked really hard in bringing this show to our stage and much closer to our goal. I hope that everyone who came to last year’s sell-out ‘Cabaret Night’ will come back and see this one.”

This year’s line-up of diverse acts includes Ben Daigneault, Emma Daigneault, Rabbi Sruli Dredsner and his wife Lisa Mayer, The Noddin Boys (Lee and Bruce), Philippian Troubadours (Dick Dubois, Bruce Geoffroy, Jim McConnell, Bob Morin and Conrad Vaillancourt), “Mr. Ray” (Ray Marchessault), Magician Mark Vaillancourt, Alana Gagnon and Pam Vaillancourt.

The Sacred Heart Parish Hall is in the basement of the church, located at the corner of Minot and Western avenues in Auburn. Tickets are $12 for adults and $6 for students. For more information, contact the IHM office at 207-782-8096.