He has a bond with the community

It’s all about making good music. For more than 30 years, the Columbia Falls Community Choir has been crooning melodies to delighted audiences each spring.

Director Ron Bond founded the choir and has been at the helm ever since.

“People owe something to the community,” the 77-year-old music aficionado said last week. “They should give back if they can.”

Bond has loved music and sports — an odd mix for most Montanans — all his life. He grew up in the rough and tumble town of Walkerville overlooking the Berkeley Pit in Butte.

“I was one of those kids you couldn’t tell what to do,” he said.

The spirited youth excelled in music and sports. After high school in Butte, he played college baseball for four years, obtaining his bachelor’s from Rocky Mountain College in Billings and a master’s in music education from what was then Colorado State College.

He returned to Montana, taught a year in Shepherd and then came to the Flathead to teach music for more than 30 years at the Columbia Falls high school, junior high and elementary schools, and in West Glacier.

The Community Choir started out with 37 members and has grown to 113. Word of mouth draws the singers, which come from across the Flathead, as far north as Olney, as far south as Ferndale and all the towns in between.

The nonprofit choir has no paid staff, and sponsors help pay for the cost of sheet music, which can run as high as $2.50 per person per song. That’s a significant expense for a concert with 12 to 13 songs.

While everyone in the choir is a volunteer, they all work hard. At a supplementary practice last week, about 50 members spent the evening dissecting various parts of various songs, making sure they had the melodies and harmonies down right. Bond said about eight members of the choir are choir directors themselves.

“The No. 1 thing is to have fun,” he said. “But it’s not fun if you don’t produce a good product. They work really hard. They don’t want to do a bad job.”

Bond likes variety in his shows — jazz, religious, classical, pop, you name it.

“You might not like the whole concert,” he said, “but you’ll hear something you like.”

Accompanied by pianist Dawn Hashley, the choir will perform at the Columbia Falls High School Little Theater on Saturday, March 29, at 7 p.m. and Sunday March 30, at 2 p.m.

The concerts are free, but donations will be accepted at the door. Refreshments will follow the Saturday night concert.