Port Orange teens play jazz to help feed the hungry

The concert collected donations of canned goods and money for the Second Harvest Food Bank.

By Jennifer Kirschner
| 9:20 p.m. December 9, 2018

Jacob Wilhelm, Autumn Semenick, Ryan Walton, Josh Liebman, Julia Messick, Steven Elkaakati and Michael Fantaro of the Ten-Fifty Jazz Combo. Photo By Jennifer Kirschner

The Ten-Fifty Jazz Combo play at Neighbor's General Store Ice Cream Parlor on Friday, Dec. 7. Photo by Chris Fantaro

Michael Fantaro, Tyler Pauletti and Robert Darcy play door-to-door in the Hamlet subdivision. Photo by Chris Fantaro

The Ten-Fifty Jazz Combo performs at Neighbor's General Store Ice Cream Parlor on Friday, Dec. 7. Photo by Jennifer Kirschner

The Ten-Fifty Jazz Combo collected food and donations for the Second Harvest Food Bank. Photo by Chris Fantaro

Ormond Beach Observer
Neighbors

For the past four years, 16-year-old Michael Fantaro and his friends Tyler Pauletti and Robert Darcy have been bringing festive jazz tunes to the Hamlet neighborhood in Port Orange during their Christmas break from school.

The boys walk door-to-door, with Fantaro on tenor saxophone, Pauletti on alto saxophone and Darcy on trumpet. They're not playing for tips, though — their mission is to collect canned goods to donate to the Second Harvest Food Bank, and, this year, Fantaro was able to recruit members of the Ten-Fifty Jazz Combo.

The band consists of students from Spruce Creek High School, where Fantaro currently attends as a sophomore. This season, he also got a head start in raising money and food to the food bank. On Friday, Dec. 8, he and the Ten-Fifty Jazz Combo performed at the Neighbors Ice Cream Parlor at 5980 Spruce Creek Road.

"I thought this year I could bring music to Neighbor's Ice Cream since it's local and everyone likes ice cream," Fantaro said. "We could play as a combo setting, which is a step up from door-to-door."

From 6-9 p.m. locals brought canned goods and money for the Second Harvest Food Bank. Several baskets of food were collected, and enough money was donated to provide 497 meals.

Fantaro isn't finished yet, though. He, Pauletti and Darcy will once again be hitting the streets of Hamlet on Sunday, Dec. 23, to fill the air with joyful sounds and collect more canned goods for the hungry.

For more information on the Ten-Fifty Jazz Combo, call 500-6061 or email [email protected].