New Middletown decorated its interior with candles and welcomed its guests on May 17. In attendance was the editor of the local newspaper, Wendy Bynum-Wade, who helped organize the event’s connection to the charity.
The performance featured several violin soloists and string ensembles playing classical music. Students and volunteers from the community performed pieces by Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach in the candlelit hall.
The Goshen $5 Generosity Challenge was started at Goshen United Methodist Church 10 years ago when Rev. Susan Chupungco handed out $5 to each member in her congregation and told them to spend it on something other than themselves.
The charity has evolved into a way for people to help their community. A board consisting of about 30 women decides how the funds will be allocated. The money is given to community members who are facing financial difficulties, such as unpaid bills or unexpected car repairs.
“It’s much more than that money,“ Bynum-Wade told The Epoch Times. ”It’s knowing that your community cares.
“And when times are difficult, there’s nothing more inspiring than being able to help somebody when you can and being helped by people who you know aren’t judging you.”
New Middletown spokesman Phillip Zou told The Epoch Times that the store was expecting to sell 40 or 50 tickets, but ended up selling more than 100.
The store opened in November 2023. The building that was renovated for the store used to house the popular Tompkins Department Store, which moved out in the 1970s.
“We wanted to help revitalize Middletown, hence we called [the store] New Middletown,” Zhou said.
“We brought a lot of products here, international products ... from Italy, France, Asia, from everywhere.
“So we thought, ‘Hey, after a year and a half, how can we continue helping the community?’ So we started doing events.”
Chris Parker, who taught music at SUNY Orange for 38 years, told The Epoch Times that he found the performance “very, very impressive.”
“It was wonderful,” he said, noting that the student musicians were “really in tune, a change for young string playing.”
Matthew Krobanski came to the event with his fiancée and said they had an “absolutely wonderful evening.”
“This is the first time we’ve been here, and we had no idea this was true ... we just found it out last night,“ he told The Epoch Times. ”So I said, ‘For $5, you can’t go wrong.’
“Bravo to all the musicians.”
New Middletown plans on hosting more events for the community. The store hosted a Chinese New Year event in January, which attracted more than 500 people.
