Bangor loves good, clean fun> Up With People carries message

If optimism is not your forte, then you may have rolled your eyes when you heard the Up With People busload of happy kids was coming to town. Toothy smiles, perfect hair, outstretched arms, message of joy.

Forget it.

But Bangor is an Up With People-type of community. At least that’s what local attorney and Up With People alumni Samuel Lanham of Bangor told 2,500 people Saturday at the Bangor Civic Center, where the cast of young performers brought its touring show “World in Motion.”

A member of the board of directors, a list which also includes Shoichiro Toyoda of Toyota Motor Corporation and Spencer Christian of “Good Morning America,” Lanham explained that Up With People turned 30 this year. That means 14,000 kids from 63 countries have participated in this “global classroom,” in which the 18-to-26 year-olds pay upwards of $12,000 for a year of singing, dancing and reaching out to others with a message of compassion and hope.

Backstage before the show, the performers peeked through the curtains into the audience and gasped at the numbers. “Oh my goodness,” said one performer at the large crowd that blanketed the bleachers in the Civic Center. The Bangor audience was the second largest house this particular touring group (there are four others performing elsewhere in the world at the same time) has seen, according to one of the cast members. In a rare turnabout, cast members took photos of the audience.

And Bangor lived up to its Up With People label. Families with children, senior citizens and just plain old regular folk cheered and applauded while the performers and the World In Motion band and singers encouraged healthy living, care for the planet and understanding among people. The show was set against a backdrop of a live global satellite broadcast with Nanna from Sweden, Hiromi from Japan, Anke from Germany and others who smiled brightly in their country’s native grin.

“It takes a whole village to raise a child,” went one song inspired by African folk lore. “We must never give up on our home foundation. Whatever it is, don’t stop giving it dedication,” went another soft-rock song. And Mother Earth belted out an Aretha Franklin-style “Think, what you’re trying to do to me.”

The most popular numbers of the evening where the recognizable ones, such as “Love Is A Wonderful Thing,” a compilation of love songs from the 1950s through today’s top hits. There was also a medley from the broadway hit, “Les Miserables,” and another of indigenous American music.

Tami Chessa, a 25-year-old Milford native who toured with the company last year, made guest appearances in several of the numbers — most notably as a clogger in “Rocky Top.” When the host of the show introduced Chessa, the crowd gave an over-the-top round of applause.

“I didn’t get a chance to perform in my state (last year),” said Chessa, now a student at the University of Maine. Her touring experience was, she added, “incredible, unforgettable and I’ll take it with me the rest of my life.”

The gleeful show fused a Barney-like simplicity with a Walt Disney sparkle for an evening of telling-the-moral-of-the-story. It went something like: I love you, you love me, it’s a small world after all, so we better take care of it. The edge of street life was definitely missing from the hip-hop and rap segments, but inspiration and education, not necessarily authenticity, were the points.

And Bangor, Up With People kind of town that it is, liked it that way. It was good, clean, family fun laced with Up With People optimism. Hokey though it can be, it makes little kids get big-eyed with enthusiasm and makes parents smile with relief.