Corona-oke: Fun and helpful

People who enjoy singing karaoke but have been missing the opportunity to do so publicly at various venues since the coronavirus pandemic virus hit have found refuge in a recently created Facebook page.

But Corona-oke has done even more than help the musically oriented share their singing abilities and have some fun during shelter-in-place, stay-at-home restrictions -- it's generated funds that have so far helped two charities, including a $700 donation to the Community Bread Basket, located at 3501 West St., Weirton.

Funds also have helped aid an effort in Chester to make face masks for health care providers, according to Mike Hissam of Lisbon, who created the Facebook page along with friends Bobby Bowen of Newell and Shane Dudick, who lives in New Mexico.

The trio are friends and graduates of Oak Glen High School who used to karaoke when they were younger and sporadically as able in adulthood.

Hissam said Bowen challenged him through Facebook to a you-sing-one-I-sing-one Billy Joel karaoke contest.

"I sang 'New York State of Mind,' and he came back and sang a song, and as we're posting on public pages, we struck up quite a following, and then Shane was responding and getting enjoyment, and it just grew into a lot of friends from high school and the Tri-State Area," he said.

The trio decided to start and privatize a Facebook page, and Corona-oke launched April 3.

"We never expected it to take off like it did, not only in the community where we grew up, but it kind of spread out everywhere," Hissam said.

The Facebook page hit the 10,000-member mark, noted an April 23 post. "I'm not sure the three of us ever thought this was possible when it all began. Given we had so many members come in, we decided we could do some good, too," Hissam explained.

A beverage koozie sale was launched with 100 sold in one day with another 200 sold in a little more than another day.

"We got donations from folks and were able to give $700 to the Community Bread Basket and also were able to buy elastic and fabric to supply a person in Chester making face masks for health care providers," Hissam said.

"We're now considering other merchandise we would like to sell to raise money," Hissam continued. "The community has been awesome and extremely supportive," Hissam said.

On a recent Facebook post, the page administrators thanked all those who have joined and posted a video as well as those who bought koozies or donated additional money.

"Thanks to all of you, we were able to take something fun between friends and turn it into something to help our community and those in need," a recent post reads. "So far we have raised almost $1,400 and helped purchase supplies for masks. Most of all, thank you to everyone for keeping the group positive and encouraging for everyone who does post."

When the lifting of the pandemic-related quarantine occurs, hopes are that a summer event can be planned and held at Laurel Hollow Park in Newell. Corona-oke Fest 2020 would hopefully include live music, adult beverages, food, merchandise and karaoke.

People have to be a member to view the page which has among its rules to be "kind and courteous," no ads, memes or other irrelevant info and no promotions or spam.

"One thing we're careful of is it's not a page where people feel insecure about posting or singing or performing. We want everyone to feel comfortable and have been fortunate with guidelines so there hasn't been any sort of major problems that kind of plague Facebook pages, and we're proud of that and constantly do manage the site and take off irrelevant material," he said.