To help people experiencing homelessness Central Pennsylvanian artists unite for Joy to the Burg

• Aniya Faulcon
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Aniya Faulcon is The Spark Host/Producer for WITF. She has a passion for shining a light on unique people, experiences, and perspectives within the community.
  
  Previously she worked as the People and Social Trends Reporter/Video Anchor for LancasterOnline | LNPNews. During her time there, she created video packages, provided Facebook Live coverage at community events, and wrote data-driven stories with census data and feature stories on local leaders, non-profit organizations, events, and people with unique talents and experiences within Lancaster County.
  
  Aniya also worked at WMAR ABC 2 News as a Sales Assistant and at the AFRO American Newspapers as an Executive Assistant and Media correspondent. Aniya interned at WEAA Gospel Grace 88.9 and worked at her alma mater’s radio station, WWPJ at Point Park University, where she gained skills and a passion for radio.
  
  Aniya grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended the Baltimore School for the arts for high school with a concentration in acting. She continued to hone her skills and passion for storytelling and later graduated from Point Park University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Acting and Broadcast Reporting. Aniya is eager to continue her journey with storytelling in her role with WITF, as she aims to shed a light on real people and real stories within Pennsylvania in a variety of mediums.

 Chris Rider Photography

The Joy to the Burg Live! event at The Englewood in Hershey.

Airdate: December 13, 2022

Central Pennsylvania artists are back with an all-new collection of Christmas music for the 4^th annual Joy to the Burg. This album project aims to help a portion of the over 14,000 people experiencing homelessness within the state.

Doug Wilburne, Chair of Joy to the Burg 2022, Steve Schwartz, Director of Development for Joy to the Burg, and Joe Trojcak, Organist featured in the Joy to the Burg 2022 album, joined us on The Spark Tuesday to tell us more about Joy to the Burg and how it aims to help the community.

Joy to the Burg started in 2019 when a man named Sheldon Jones gained a concern for people sleeping downtown around his church. He talked to some of artists and got the idea to create a Christmas album to sell and raise money for people facing homelessness.

“It really has grown over the years with more artists getting involved and excited about it,” Schwartz said. “It’s really become a great thing for the arts community as well and this year we were thrilled that the Central Pennsylvania Music Hall of Fame came on board as a partner, they really helped curate all the music and brought a lot of new artists in this year.”

Wilburne also said, we’ve seen an increase of people experiencing homelessness throughout the pandemic, partially because of the housing market challenges.

To help tackle this issue, Joy to the Burg donates to Harrisburg winter overnight shelters and this year, local artists designed greeting cards curated by Susquehanna Art Museum that are being sold to help those experiencing homelessness in the community.

Over the last couple of years Wilburne said, Joy to the Burg has helped over 400 people find temporary shelter and 75 of those people receive long-term housing.

This year’s Joy to the Burg album will include thirty three songs and artists, twenty four of the artists are participating in this project for the first time. They hope to raise over $50,000 this year; more than they’ve ever raised in one year but Wilburne said, he’s confident that they will receive the love, support and generosity that they received in previous years to help those experiencing homelessness.

For more information about Joy to the Burg visit joytotheburg.com.