Founder and director John Alston is an associate professor of music at Swarthmore College and an alumnus of the Newark (N.J.) Boys Chorus. "In a world where social, economic and educational opportunities are unequal, music can help those with less achieve more. The music I began to learn as a member of the Newark Boys Chorus carried me from a poor neighborhood in Newark to Swarthmore College. The Chester Children's Chorus gives children from Chester, Pennsylvania, an opportunity to use music as a vehicle to carry them wherever they want to go. 的 started the chorus with seven second-grade boys and recruit a new group of second-graders every year. In summer, 2003, the chorus has grown to 41 boys and girls, many of whom have been with us for five years or more. Only one of our singers has finished high school, so we don稚 know what the future holds for most of them. But we do know that we are enriching their lives in many ways."