Over the last five years, the Mar­i­onettes, with sup­port from their spon­sors of 40 years, bpTT, has raised over $1 mil­lion for a wide range of caus­es, in­clud­ing hur­ri­cane re­lief ef­forts, can­cer treat­ment and pre­ven­tion, men­tor­ing pro­grammes for at-risk youth, sup­port for the vic­tims of do­mes­tic vi­o­lence, and care for the ter­mi­nal­ly ill. A re­lease from the group said it raised near­ly $200,000 dur­ing its Christ­mas se­ries last year. The mon­ey was equal­ly dis­trib­uted among six char­i­ties.

• The Love­Un­til Foun­da­tion, which has a num­ber of so­cial-out­reach pro­grammes that pro­vide care for aban­doned chil­dren, bat­tered women, HIV-pos­i­tive pa­tients, drug ad­dicts and oth­er peo­ple in need

• The re­build­ing fund of La Madeleine Or­phan­age in Haiti.

• The fund for the restora­tion of the RC Cathe­dral of the Im­mac­u­late Con­cep­tion.

• The All Saints' Church ren­o­va­tion fund.

• The Greyfri­ars/St Ann's Church of Scot­land re­build­ing fund.

• The Mar­i­onettes Prop­er­ty Fund.

The cheques were dis­trib­uted at a spe­cial func­tion ear­li­er this month. Ad­dress­ing the gath­er­ing, artis­tic di­rec­tor and con­duc­tor Gret­ta Tay­lor ex­plained how im­por­tant the evening was to the group. "The or­gan­i­sa­tions you rep­re­sent have played a valu­able part in the Mar­i­onettes' jour­ney. We are a mu­si­cal fam­i­ly, now al­most 50 years old, which has earned ac­cep­tance in the wider com­mu­ni­ty for what we as­pire to, spir­i­tu­al en­rich­ment through per­form­ing fine mu­sic as well as we pos­si­bly can."

• For more in­for­ma­tion vis­it the Mar­i­onettes' Web site www.mar­i­onetteschorale.com and Face­book page (www.face­book.com/mar­i­onetteschorale.