Shoppers at Sparkle Market in Boardman may have heard some orchestral arrangements of some classic Christmas tunes during their Saturday morning grocery run.

That's because students with the Boardman Glenwood Junior High Orchestra teamed up with the Salvation Army to help raise funds for its Red Kettle Campaign from 10 a.m. until noon Saturday.

Orchestra Director Michele Prokop tells 21 News this stemmed from a parent asking if the orchestra could do some sort of community outreach for the campaign with the orchestra's eighth grade students.

Prokop says this is the first time the students have done something like this inside a grocery store.

"Red Kettle is traditionally outside, but we can't really play outside because we're an orchestra and the kids have wooden instruments, so we needed a place inside," Prokop said.

That's when Sparkle Market stepped in to offer up space inside the store's lobby.

"We signed up for this Saturday morning that the kids could come up and play for a couple hours and do some kind of Christmas cheer for those coming into the store and hopefully funds for the Salvation Army," Prokop said.

Prokop said the orchestra chose to help the Salvation Army in order to keep the funds local rather than somewhere far away.

21 News recently spoke with the Salvation Army in Mercer County who said the Red Kettle campaign is struggling this year due to a multitude of factors including cold weather, a lack of shoppers and less people carrying cash.

You can learn more about these struggles here.