Stars align for charity show

By Lethbridge Herald on December 17, 2025.

Alexandra Noad
Lethbridge Herald
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Canadian country legends George Canyon and Aaron Pritchett have been travelling across the country for almost two moths raising funds for Children Believe and will be making a stop at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena this evening.

Children Believe is a Canadian charity organization who works alongside poverty stricken countries to find and address needs such as building wells to provide access to water and providing girls bathrooms for schools in Ghana.

After a few emails and zoom calls with Children Believe, Canyon and Pritchett met with Michael Carmondy, chief marketing and development officer, who brought inspiring insight on the work his charity does, but Pritchett says talking about the work they were doing wasn’t enough for him and Canyon.

“It was an instant great feeling listening to him speak with such passion, telling us the details of the things we needed to know…but there was something we were missing, so George and I felt we needed to see what they do.”

When Canyon and Pritchett suggested seeing their work in action to Children Believe, the organization suggested to take the pair to a place where the work being done could really shine-Ghana, a country in West Africa.

While the two country musicians have been many places, West Africa wasn’t on either of their lists so they took a three-day trip to Ghana, and while they may have only gotten a glimpse of what life is like for the people there, both Canyon and Pritchett say it’s one of the most memorable trips they’ve had so far.

Canyon describes meeting the villagers, chiefs and elders as stepping back in time to 500 years ago when villages took care of the children, not just their immediate family.

“The empathy and love they have for each other in these villages was just mind boggling, I’ve never seen that kind of peace and love, what we think poverty is, doesn’t represent itself in emotion there, they’re at such peace with the world.”

Coast to Coast Cowboy Christmas is two 45-minute sets of both Canyon and Pritchett singing beloved Christmas carols, along with their hit songs.

Canyon says the show is much more intimate than other shows they’ve done and have even received comments from fans saying it was as if they were performing in their own living room, which was their plan all along.

“It’s all about the stories and the songs and sharing memories together and there’s a lot of crowd interaction.”

He adds that this is not only a family friendly show, but having your kids tag along is encouraged.

“We just love having kids at the show…we’re always excited when it’s a show with kids because we include them in part of the show, it’s just a great family show.”

Children Believe will have a booth set up at the concert and will be accepting donations and providing more information on their organization.

Canyon and Pritchett have collaborated on a CD available for purchase only at the concert by a donation of $20 or more, which includes eight Christmas tracks-three from each of them and two duets along with a mobile download option, with all proceeds going to Children Believe.

Pritchett says the CDs are a hot commodity at the show, and they’ve sold more of these CD’s than any other CDs they’ve had at either of their shows throughout their careers.

“It’s nice to see that people are making that effort, making that donation, knowing its going a long way.”

Tickets are still available for A Coast to Coast Cowboy Christmas on visitlethbridgearena.ca. Donations for Children Believe can also be made online by visiting childrenbelieve.ca/cowboychristmas.

While the tour will end on Dec. 23, Canyon and Pritchett hope it will become an annual tradition for them and are planning another tour for next Christmas Season.