Concert series taking place on Prince Edward Island
Community Spotlight Series: Wade
As we celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2025, we’re excited to reflect on the vibrant stories and community members who have helped shape Under the Spire’s story. Our Community Spotlight Series will feature a diverse group of supporters, sharing their personal connections, experiences, and favourite memories with us across 10 interviews. Through their testimonials, we’ll explore why Under the Spire holds a special place in their lives and in our community. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has contributed to this celebration by sharing their reflections with us!
Community Spotlight Series
Interview with Wade Morrison
1. How did you come to know about UTS, and how did you begin volunteering with the organization?
I think it was the first year when we moved back full-time in the summer that we started taking a look at some volunteer activities. That would be right around eight years ago when we sold our house in Ontario in August, and then the next summer we would have been there in PEI full-time during the summer. So that would have been the summer of 2017. When I joined, there were some people I knew but I didn’t know that they were volunteers there. My connection to the church was that I had been there when my classmate’s father died when I was in grade 10. I remembered what a great church it was. We may have gone to one or two concerts before I actually joined as a volunteer, but it was very close to the same time.
2. Before volunteering with UTS, did you have any previous experience in the arts community?
No, I’m completely tone deaf. I go to a lot of concerts and stuff like that, and I’ve always had a music collection. Back when they still had hall concerts in the community, I was always involved in those because I went to a one room school, so it was mandatory to participate in the Christmas concerts. There were only 20 kids, so everybody has to do something, right?
And how did you enjoy that when you were younger?
The performance aspect was fine. Not something I wanted to be more than a hobby or anything like that.
We also volunteered with Elora Riverfest for many years in my adult life. That’s probably another factor as to why I was a little close to the arts just for the 12 years when we were in Elora. We were taking the kids to do arts, we were doing fundraisers or the three day concert events that they had there. So that probably set me up for doing something similar on the island.
3. Why do you continue volunteering with Under the Spire, and what are some special memories you have from your time there?
I think it’s originally because I knew a couple of people who were volunteering there. I knew a close friend from high school, and I didn’t realize she was heavily involved there. That was probably the initial thing, and then she started backing away from her time there, especially around the time of the board change. So that was a bit of a change – having a volunteer coordinator who was also a volunteer, to going to a paid staff role.
My first shift I had done as a volunteer was a lobster fundraiser for PEI Tourism. I showed up to help them cut up vegetables, but I ended up staying for a day and a half in order to help them out. I did the vegetables and prep work, I became a server and plate clearer, and then an ambassador for the concert series talking to people. It was two courses over two days – there was lunch and then there was a very formal lobster dinner. I did a lot of different things as a volunteer that year. There was a really good parking supervisor so I learned how not to get too terrified when the cars will all come in the last 15 minutes before a concert. I did a lot of just wandering around for the promotion of stuff, telling people to come to the concert or people would drive up and say “Oh, what a nice church!” and we’d say “Come on in, because the doors are open, you may as well do it.” And then you get a chance to do some promotion in that aspect, which was sort of close to what I did in my work environment – promoting various things and sharing information. My dad was a big PEI ambassador. He couldn’t go on a bus trip without talking to people about what a great place it was to be – PEI in the summertime. So there’s some of that that comes through as well.
4. Can you comment on how you feel Under the Spire impacts the community?
It’s certainly something for the community. My observation is that at one time, most of the board and most of the employees didn’t actually live in the community, and we’re sort of close to that now, except for my idea that [this] community tends to revolve around the Kensington and Summerside area. We do a lot of festivals in the states where a lot of the volunteers are from away like the one we did in Elora – a lot of people were weren’t weren’t original residents. They’d come there because it was an artsy community and they did stuff. Part of the charm [of Elora] is that they have so many varied acts – and I think you could say that about Under the Spire. You’ve tried to have various themes on various nights or link constants together so people who want to buy multiple tickets can go to see the baroque or chamber music, or the indie artist aspect. As a local with Under the Spire, I’m probably acutely aware of some of the local sensitivities to the use of the church and why they can only bring in the artists that they can.
5. It sounds like you have quite a wealth of experience from your time volunteering over the years. What is it about volunteering that you enjoy so much?
Well we did that when we were kids, right? I mentioned that in elementary school, we had to perform in the Christmas concert, no matter what your age, we had to perform in local stage things and you had to participate, right? So it was sort of built into your DNA that if there was an event going on, you had to go and support the community, whether it was bringing baking or showing up and being in the seat or on the stage. That’s the kind of the mindset that you grew up with – just helping to support what’s around you. If you don’t do it, nobody else will, right? The festival probably wouldn’t make it if they had to pay for ushers and things like that, and a lot of the venues are having trouble with that. I think everybody’s seeing changes post-COVID as to whether or not their audience wants to come out and how comfortable they are coming out.
6. Do you have any other special memories of your time at Under the Spire that sticks out to you?
Like I said, my first memory of the church is being there for a funeral. I’m a little more connected with it now because of Bertha Campbell, who wrote a book about the history of the Indian River churches. She’s a close neighbour, and I see her at church all the time. She talks about the research that she did and going through the book. She was a grade ahead of me in school and so now she’s a person I know fairly well for over 50 years.
The lobster fundraiser was a special memory – and some of the individual concerts were beyond the pale, like Lennie Gallant, Alicia Toner – the place really loves her voice. I think once you establish that connection, that sort of brings you back. There is that sort of acoustical magic to the place. Performers really get it while other performers don’t. There’s at least two or three artists every year who seem to understand what’s happening in there and seem to really play to the strengths of that space.
We hope you enjoyed reading Wade’s interview! Be sure to read the rest of the interviews from this series
