The Sonbeam Puppeteers began sometime in the early '80's quite by accident. I've always had "puppet fever" so I made four (quite ugly) puppets and used them in Children's Worship. There was so much interest in the puppets we were asked to have a class on puppetry during our Wednesday evening meetings. My sister-in-law (also a puppet enthusiast) put me in touch with a company that, not only supplied christian puppeteers but also, held weekend festivals. When a festival was held in Michigan I invited a Junior High girl to go with me. The presentations and workshops were so exciting! She came home with a case of puppet fever and got three of her friends and that became the first team. There is a children's song, "I'll Be a Sunbeam" and we decided that would make a good name for us...with a small change. So we became the Sonbeam Puppeteers.
At a concert we gave for an event at our church, a visitor asked us to come and do a concert for their church and with that our traveling ministry began. We have presented concerts many places. We've never advertised nor charged a fee, but we have stayed busy year 'round. Our concerts are spiritual but not doctrinal. We have done presentations in many churches of many denominations (large and small), nursing homes, summer camps, hospital picnics, clubs(Moose &Eagles}, Deer Acres, Dow Gardens Christmas Walk (annually)and other local civic events. We've been able to help some teams get started by making puppets for them and supporting them financially. Thru the years we've had many puppeteers come and go. They can begin as early as age ten/fifth grade and stay part of the team as long as they want. There have been a few to begin as fifth graders and stay until they went off to college. We love to see the talent of a puppeteer as he/she brings a puppet to "life". Some would rather be a propateer or teckie and work the spotlight, blacklight or smoke machine, etc., but we all have a fun time when we get together to make a new puppet.
Ellen Agle