PARKERSBURG -- Celebration Iowa Singers and Jazz Band didn't tote along food, bottled water or lumber for disaster victims.

Instead, they offered the gift of music.

On Tuesday, residents from Aplington, Parkersburg and New Hartford were invited to A Performance of Hope, the second to last stop on the Iowa high schoolers' summer tour.

"This is one resource we can bring to them," said singer/dancer Amalie Appleton of Sanborn. "We can share our music and our dance and our love of the arts and remind this community of the hope and joy that will come back."

An estimated 350 attendees lined up chairs in the Aplington-Parkersburg High School parking lot for the concert, tacked on to the group's nearly 30-stop schedule after a tornado ripped through Parkersburg on May 25.

"Here we are literally in the parking lot where the tornado came over our heads and we're performing," said program director Clark Goltz, noting the high school football team practicing just across the street.

The performance site was symbolic of the town bouncing back, said Kevin Truax of Truax Insurance in Parkersburg.

"We're here, and we're going to keep on moving forward," said Truax, who's heavily involved in A-P music programs with his wife, Amy.

Final loads containing the razed high school were trucked away as the concert stage took shape Tuesday afternoon, Goltz said. Tom Manifold of Parkersburg, with MidAmerican Energy, mounted a temporary electrical box onto a tree to borrow power for the show from a new, neighboring line, behind the parked tour bus.

Second- through fifth-graders from Parkersburg -- known as Celebration Iowa's rising stars -- were selected by their music teachers to act as flowers, small animals and other characters during the "How Does Your Garden Grow?" portion of the program.

Sam Badger, Cassidy Choate, Megan Johnson, Brandi Meyer, Clara Peterson, Grant Truax and Kiersten Truax rehearsed for 45 minutes earlier in the day, learning simple choreography, how to take a bow and how to smile. They memorized song lyrics in advance.

Celebration Iowa's goal was for residents to relax and have fun.

"I hope they just enjoy a night off from worrying about, maybe, rebuilding or getting back to normal," said jazz band member Stephanie Koltookian of Cedar Falls, who helped clean up Parkersburg one day of summer break.

The group's performance received a standing ovation.

"One lady came up to me and said, 'I haven't smiled this much in weeks,'" Goltz said. "That's why we came.

"One of our missions with Celebration Iowa Singers and Jazz Band is to bring goodwill," Goltz added. "This is the biggest goodwill stop we've ever done, where we've done a concert for an entire community."

Freewill donations, including an anonymous check for $1,000, benefited the A-P High School band and vocal departments. For the new school's auditorium, Truax is eyeing a 7-foot, 1-inch Boston concert grand piano, which West Music agreed to sell at wholesale cost.

"This might get me darn close to getting it," said Truax, who hopes to raise enough money by month's end.

Many of Celebration Iowa's 20 singers/dancers and their accompanying 16-member band toured the rebuilding scene and ate dinner at Parkersburg United Methodist Church.

"Clark said the kids liked potluck, so the parishioners from our church all made the food and brought it in," said Vickye Thompson of Parkersburg.

Celebration Iowa is a project of Luther College in Decorah. Past participants have landed roles in Broadway productions and the Metropolitan Opera.

"It was wonderful," said Wendall Abkes of Parkersburg after the two-hour show. "It's was invigorating. It was refreshing. I love this kind of stuff."

Contact Tina Hinz at (319) 291-1484

or tina.hinz@wcfcourier.com.