We started off this term with our AGM and the following week we invited our charities of the year to receive their fundraising cheques. After all our hard work of the previous twelve months it was great to invite STEPS and the Shepshed Toy Library to receive cheques for £1500 each. This was a remarkable achievement in itself, but we also has some surplus money in the kitty, and being the generous lot we are, we decided to share this out with all of our previous charities. Peter le Marchant Trust, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Air Ambulance, Bloodwise, LOROS, The Shepshed Food Bank and The Shepshed Volunteer Centre all received £500 each. We were very pleased to be able to do this, our links with the local community and fundraising for them, are really what Serenade is all about.
Starting Christmas songs in September is always strange, so it was a welcome relief to know that for the first few weeks of this term we would be brushing up Serenade at the Movies 2018some of our songs to support at the British Legion Concert in October. The concert was great and the Steel Band was particularly a hit for us.
Serenade went “on tour” yet again to our local nursing homes. It’s something we particularly enjoy doing to bring some Christmas cheer to the residents. This year we went to Marwood Nursing Home, Charnwood Hall, The Willows and Westroyd.
Then onto the Christmas practice, and some really different arrangements for this concert, so we certainly can’t say it’s boring. Lots of hard work, as usual, put in by our members to learn their parts, which can be quite challenging if you are not signing the melody, especially if the song if one you know really well; you have to unlearn it, and then learn your new part. We teamed up with our, by now, good friends The Loughborough Concert Band to perform at St Botolph’s Church, for which the concert band were raising money for its upkeep. It was a great night and it really kicks off Christmas for us, performing all those wonderful carols with our friends and family. We played to an absolutely packed house, in fact the numbers standing we quite humbling.
Serenadie Brigitte appeared on Radio Leicester talking about Serenade’s Christmas Concert and how much she enjoyed singing with us all.
The icing on the cake for this term was winning the Shepshed Rotary Club’s annual Christmas Tree Festival. What a stunner of a tree it was. A singing Christmas Angel was created by a few of our members, what a great high to end on.
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