During Advent, kindergarten through third-grade students at Holy Family School, Decatur, are performing Beneath a Shining Star, a Christmas musical, at multiple locations around the city.

DECATUR - After rehearsing for weeks, the youngest students at Holy Family School are almost ready to present the Christmas musical Beneath a Shining Star.

The kindergartner through third-graders are directed by Christine Smith, Holy Family preschool teacher.

Their first performance will be on Dec. 13, before the entire Holy Family School. The next day the children will give a performance at St. Patrick School, and then at Our Lady of Lourdes School. Other performances will be given at the next-door South Shores School, St. Mary Hospital's Adult Daycare Center, Fairhaven's Christian Home and Imboden Creek Living Center.

The musical will be performed for parishioners at Holy Family Church after the last Mass on Sunday, Dec. 16, beginning at 12:15 p.m. After the performance, a potluck birthday party for Jesus will be held in the Holy Family School gym. Everyone is encouraged to bring an item to donate to homeless children in Decatur, through Project Success.

Suggested items to donate include: new pajamas, toothbrushes and toothpaste, combs and brushes, handy-wipes, deodorant, small stuffed animals and small bottles of perfume for girls or cologne for boys.

Colleen Richardson, who taught preschool at Holy Family last year, is coordinating Holy Family's Project Success Displaced and Homeless Youth Knapsack Project. An assortment of donated items will be assembled together and placed in a drawstring backpack, to be distributed to the more than 160 homeless children (preschool through eighth grade) in Decatur. The knapsacks were donated by doctors at Cancer Care Specialists of Central Illinois. Items for the knapsacks will continue to be collected through December, with drop off locations designated both in Holy Family Church and School.