The View From Here: Garfield benefit concert this weekend

GARFIELD - When former Garfield resident Alisa Jones sits down at the piano at 3 p.m., this Saturday, January 18, at the Garfield Christian Fellowship, she will not only entertain her audience but will contribute her talents to support a life-altering ministry more than 7,000 miles away.

Doors open at 2 p.m. for the performance located at The Garfield Christian Fellowship, 303 North 3rd Street.

Admission to the 3 p.m. benefit is by donation and all proceeds will assist the GCF's Ladies Aid Ministry, whose members have supported a micro-enterprise development project in rural Pakistan for more than a decade.

The two-step process begins with paying the salary of a nearby sewing teacher who equips the village women with the skills necessary to open their own businesses. The second part occurs at the completion of the training when each woman receives a sewing machine to launch the business.

Since 2023, Ladies Aid has supplied more than two dozen sewing machines through the program.

A graduate of Oakesdale High School, Jones grew up in Oregon and the Palouse. At the age of seven, she began taking piano lessons from Caroline Hilty-Jones Germaine who, Jones observed "seemed to teach half of Whitman County."

Under Germaine's influence, Jones' love of the piano grew, leading her to earn bachelor's and master's degrees in Piano Performance at the University of Idaho and the University of Oregon, respectively.

Currently, Jones is a member of the music faculty at Linn Benton Community College as well as staff pianist at Oregon State University. During her spare time, she enjoys the abundance of outdoor recreational activities of the PNW.

Jones' performance will include selections from Beethoven, Chopin, Ravel, and Margaret Bonds, an African-American composer who was a contemporary of George Gershwin.

Refreshments will be served.