You Replaced Their Choir Chairs, Now They Can Worship without Painful Distraction

Recently, you made it possible for First Presbyterian Church of Orlando’s choir to replace their choir loft chairs. Choir member Sara Hietala says, “We’re just really grateful. It really needed to be done, we just weren’t sure how it would happen.” Fellow choir member and husband John adds, “It’s a tangible thing. Those chairs are appreciated every week, and will be for maybe another 60 years.”

The choir loft chairs at First Presbyterian Church of Orlando (FPCO) desperately needed to be replaced after many decades of faithful use, but changing out so many chairs at once was too great an expense for the worship team’s budget. Finally, thanks to your generosity, the chairs have officially been replaced. The entire choir couldn’t be more grateful!

“Those chairs,” laughs John Hietala lightheartedly, who’s been a part of the choir alongside wife Sara since 2016, “There’s someone in our choir who’s been in the choir since she was a teenager and is now in her 60s, and we were talking about how old the chairs must have been. They were from the late ‘50s as best we could tell. All of the padding wore out probably 25 years ago, so they were really hard.”  

After so many years of weekly choir practices and countless worship services, the choir chairs were threadbare. They also lacked any lower back support. Sara explains, “Any time we knew we were going to be there for more than an hour, we brought our kitchen chair cushions. Even just sitting for a service, when the service was done, I was in almost so much pain I couldn’t stand up. As a choir, we’re all supposed to stand up together, but standing up was hard.” 

Further, the chairs were becoming dangerous with age. Many of the chairs had broken, the wood creaking with dry rot, and some choir members wondered when their chair would have endured its last service. Despite the clear need for new chairs, music is expensive—instruments, musicians, equipment, etc—and the worship team simply could not afford to update them. 

When John and Sara Hietala first came to Orlando in 2014, they quickly knew they’d found their church family in FPCO. They are both lifelong musicians, John playing the trumpet and Sara the clarinet, and throughout their 30 years of marriage, they’ve been a part of two other church choirs. Therefore, it was natural that once they’d gotten into their new rhythms of life in Orlando, they pursued joining FPCO’s choir. 

Now they have been a part of FPCO’s choir for seven years, and it’s been a delight. John shares, “The choir’s a real family. They’ve been here for our kids. It’s like having a bunch of extra grandparents.” Agreeing, Sara says, “It’s a family within the church. We also really enjoy the music and helping to lead worship. Those were things we started doing right after we got married. It’s something we can do together.” 

When you enabled the worship team to replace the choir chairs with new ones, John, Sara, and the rest of the choir members were excited and relieved. John says, “It was funny, when they first put in the chairs, the gentleman who sits next to me week-in and week-out, we would sit down and look at each other and just sigh, ‘Ahhh,’ for the first several weeks. New chairs don’t seem that exciting of a thing, but the entire choir appreciates it.” 

The new chairs are everything the choir members had hoped for. Above all, they are comfortable and beautiful. Even more, they are also practical—easy to stack and move around, and they even have music holders for the choir members’ folios. Now whether the choir members are engaging in their weekly choir practice or are performing several Christmas services back-to-back, they don’t have to worry about their chairs—they get to give their all to their singing.