May 4, 2009 issue
Music with gratitude
By Hesston College staffHurricane survivor, pianist and songwriter Tony Duplessis sang April 20 at Hesston (Kan.) College.
Hurricane survivor, pianist and songwriter Tony Duplessis sings April 20 at Hesston (Kan.) College. — Photo by Larry Bartel/Hesston College
His chapel presentation followed a 90-minute concert the previous evening to raise scholarship funds for Hesston students enrolled in the Disaster Management program, a joint program with Mennonite Disaster Service. Program director Russ Gaeddert said more than $1,400 was raised.
“I’ve seen firsthand what MDS does and the impact it has on people’s lives,” Duplessis said. “They minister to people through their work.”
Duplessis, 40, and his wife, Donna, have a new home thanks to MDS workers at the Diamond, La., project site. Their new home was dedicated in December 2007. The couple had fled to Arkansas in advance of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in August 2005. The hurricanes also destroyed the church Duplessis was pastoring at the time, the Lighthouse Fellowship congregation in Buras, La., which was also rebuilt by MDS workers. The MDS project site in Diamond is the former St. Jude’s Catholic Elementary School, where Duplessis learned to love music.
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