In one week, 50 students from Nansemond-Suffolk Academy will appear in Walt Disney World’s Candlelight Processional.

The young men and women, under the tutelage of Toni Cotturone, have been singing Christmas carols since August during their school day, practicing their parts and memorizing the songs relentlessly.

“Disney wants this up to their standards of performance, so we need to be ready for it,” Cotturone said Wednesday.

The school’s upper school chorus gets this opportunity because Cotturone applied in the spring for her students to be able to go. This is the second time in five years the chorus, which includes students in eighth through 12th grades, has performed in the prestigious event of a lifetime. Cotturone applies for the event every five years so that no student gets left out of the opportunity just because he happens to be a certain age.

“That’s exactly why I do it that way,” she said.

Recently, another group, the Suffolk Steeler dance team raised enough money at the last minute in order to perform in a separate program at Disney.

We’re sure that both the Suffolk Steeler group and the NSA group will perform well and represent Suffolk well in Orlando. The chance to go to such a renowned theme park and perform there is a big opportunity for many of these students, and we wish them well. And congratulations to them and their leaders, who have initiated these trips and helped provide this life-enriching experience.