Dear Ringers, I hope you are all surviving the heat and managing to carry on with all your planned ringing activities! It was lovely to see so many of your enjoying the sunshine at the Summer Guildford Festival Service last month - the cathedral looked fabulous and the newly refurbished organ sounded magnificent in the hands (and feet) of John Belcher (if you weren't there, you can hear a snippet on our Facebook page!).
We have had a few celebrations in the region over the last few months, most notably Cookham's 50th Anniversary (and Jeanne Turner's Honoured Member Award) and Pauline Dover's 100th birthday. How both teams managed to keep some surprises secret is amazing!
If you have not yet returned a form for the East Kent Rally at Headcorn in September, there is still space. If you can't find the form, you will find all the details and another copy on the information and events pages here.
I'm delighted that a number of you have already registered for next year's National Rally. I have enclosed the application form and a flier with this newsletter (if you have already registered, please pass them to someone who hasn't!) and look forward to receiving many more applications.
Now the next request for the National Rally 2019 - EQUIPMENT. In order to provide as many practical workshops as possible for those attending, we need equipment for ringers to use, particularly bells/chimes and, possibly more importantly, foam. After all, if you turn up to a workshop, you would hope that there would be bells to use and foams on the tables! If you are coming as a team and ringing in the Sunday rally sessions, could we use your bells or foam on the Saturday? If you are coming as an individual, would your team be willing to lend us your bells or foam? If you are able to help by lending us equipment for the weekend, please do let me know.
If you are winding down for the summer, enjoy the break, and I look forward to seeing many of you at events in the near future.
Keep ringing!
Helen (HELENLSECKER@GMAIL.COM)