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DeCristo rolls out Manteca events
Joni Morris, concert, Movies in the Park coming up
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Fred White of DeCristo Productions talks about upcoming events he’s helping coordinate in Manteca.
The curtain is about to go up on four months of community entertainment designed to help foster kids, honor America’s servicemen, and provide a family-style setting for live music and movies.

It will all happen thanks in part to the effort of Fred White and DeCristo Productions.

The events include:

• A Patsy Cline Tribute Concert featuring Joni Morris and the After Midnight Band along with special guests at The Place of Refuge, 486 Button Ave., and benefitting Agape Villages Foster Family Agency on Friday, April 24, at 7 p.m. Tickets are $26.50 online for general admission and $22.50 online for senior admission by going to www.PatsyClineTributeConcert.com or $30 at the door.

• The One Nation Under God Memorial Day Commemoration on May 22-25 including a major USO-style show at Woodward Park on Sunday, May 24, from 2 to 5:30 p.m. followed by an official ceremony at 6 p.m., and an aerial fireworks display at 8:45 p.m. For more information go to www.TheMemorialWeekend.com

• Movies in the Park on Saturdays June 20, 27, July 4, July 11, July 18, and July 25 in the storm retention basin at Woodard Park. This year a $1 admission will be charged to help offset city costs connected with the effort as well as the costs DeCristo Productions incurs staging the movies. There will also be local bands in concert.

• A July Fourth celebration at Woodward Park – in connection with the Movies  in the Park – to make up for the fact the city has shifted its official Independence Day celebration to Friday, July 3, at Big League Dreams sports complex to avoid holiday overtime costs for police.

The productions are part of White’s way of giving back to the community. The Agape Villages concert is near and dear to his heart since White was a foster child and understands the need.

In a leap of faith several years ago, White chucked a well-paying high-tech job and his family moved out of a spacious, 3,000-square-foot plus tract home so he could pursue his own business, DeCristo Production.

His current clients include groups such as the Modesto Symphony and various businesses as he handles their multi-media needs whether it is a high quality video production for advertising or deploying websites that are “user friendly” and “don’t make you work.”

He noted Yahoo – the leading Internet portal – makes users look for things and to click on what they want after they find it. On sites White designs, once you click on them, the site downloads and a video or animated graphics comes on with a voice over.

“All of the work is done for you,” White said.

On one firm’s site it has three simple video panels with minimum reading. You click on the videos and you are given a quick overview of the company’s message and information for that particular component of the website.

White is convinced the wave of the future on the net are sites such as the one he is designing.

Whether it is the Movies in the Park or his concepts on web design, White is driven by the philosophy “just imagine and we will get you there,”

“Ideas are perishable,” White said. “You’ve got to act on them while they are fresh or else they become stale.”

White credits his experience as a FFA greenhand and public speaking and project skills he learned back then to help him focus on objectives and to effectively communicate points.

He recalled thinking that Bill Graham and Billy Graham were one in the same while growing up.

Then he discovered they were two separate people – Bill Graham the evangelist and Billy Graham who brought concerts to the doorsteps of American cities.

In retrospect, White said the confusion was apropos since both men represent what he would like to do – reach large numbers of people effectively whether it is to spread the word of God, entertain, or effectively encourage community involvement.

To reach White, call 1-916-760-7363.