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Donna Boyce
The Welsh Society of Central Ohio celebrated St. David’s Day two days in a row in the midst of celebrating our own 60th anniversary.
The Ohio Statehouse
On Friday, February 29, members and friends gathered at the Ohio Statehouse to hear the proclamation from Governor Strickland commemorating March 1st as St. David’s Day, read by Mark Colopy from the Governor’s Office of Global Relations. After singing “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau”, the Welsh flag was raised over downtown Columbus to fly all weekend. There were a few aides to Ohio Representatives present even though the House is not in session on Fridays.
Since the sun didn’t shine for the event like it did last year, attendees then went inside to the Statehouse atrium to sing a couple hymns guided by Laura Thomas, a member of our Columbus Welsh Singing Society. Many WSCO folks stayed for a tour of the buildings led by Pennie Sabel. Diolch to Ken Evans for making arrangements for the ceremony and tour.
Ceremony attendees were: Carissa Trinidad and Carrie Yost, aides to Rep. Clyde Evans (Rep. Evans and Ms. Yost were with us at last year’s ceremony), Mike Evans, aide to Rep. John Hagan, and Mike Evans (that’s not a misprint!), aide to Rep. John Widowfield (Mike was also with us last year); Joan Bash, Mary Ellen Bennett (Charlotte Prior’s sister), Donna Boyce, Bob Donaldson, Ken Evans, Linda Franklin, Laura Jenkins, Pam & Evan Jones, Mary Ellen Morgan, Barb Perry, Charlotte & Stanton Prior, Roger Roberts, Michael Sheskey (the Priors’ cousin), Laura Thomas, and Dianne & Homer Williams.
The meal, the meeting and the seminars
On Saturday, March 1, WSCO members and friends gathered at the Clintonville Woman’s Club in Columbus, and detoured from a long-standing practice of afternoon seminars followed by the annual meeting, dinner and entertainment, to present a new format in an effort to include those who can no longer drive at night -- morning seminars, a mid-day meeting, and then a luncheon, with entertainment and group singing ending the event.
The first seminar was on the history and practice of carving Welsh love spoons and was presented by Chris Watkins, founder of the Waterfall Love Spoon company. Chris spent his first 20 years in Wales and listening to his accent was an added treat to finding out more about the love spoon tradition. Chris had spoons for sale before and after the meal and also generously donated one of his lovely hand-carved spoons to the raffle.
The second seminar was presented by Melanie Pratt, one of our own Welsh folk dancers. Melanie discussed Ohio gravestones and how we can learn so much from not only the epitaph, but also the artwork on the stone, and gave an overview of preservation methods. Melanie allowed her services to be offered in a silent auction. Tom and Leslie Twigg, winners of the auction, will be making plans with Melanie to find out more about the stones of some of their ancestors who are buried locally.
The seminars were followed by a brief business meeting during which WSCO members voted for new board members and officers. Ken Evans, WSCO out-going vice-president and in-coming president, thanked out-going president Homer Williams for his work on behalf of the society and presented him with a guide book to Wales and explained that his gift of a flock of Welsh sheep was, at that moment, in an airplane that would be landing soon and the flock would be delivered to Homer’s back yard.
Homer’s last duty as president was officiating over the meeting and awarding a door prize to the person who lived the farthest distance away. A flag of St. David (gold cross on a black field), donated by Roger Roberts, was given to a woman from California.
The daffodils on the dining tables were purchased by Dianne Williams, and Donna Boyce brought in the 60th birthday celebration items.
After a luncheon of creatively-named “Chicken Cymru” and “Steak Owain Glyndwr”, we were entertained by James Hildreth, our October gymanfa organist for many years, who showed us his talents on the piano. He was joined by his fiancée, Valorie Adams, an outstanding flutist. Together known as Duo Celeste, they treated us to a delightful half hour of Welsh tunes – a performance about which WSCO board members have heard many positive comments.
We closed the afternoon with the raffle drawing and then group singing led by Ann Gillard, director of our Columbus Welsh Singing Society. In addition to items from the Welsh Store inventory, raffle items donated were: hand-carved wood love spoon by Chris Watkins, book titled Wales from the Air by Homer Williams, red and green flower pot by Barbara Clark, and dahlia plant by Donna Boyce.
Many thanks go to Mary Ellen Morgan, chairperson for the event, and Joe Speakman, Jr., who does the graphics for our event programs. Thanks, also, to Gene Beard who obtained the Wales vacation planners and bookmarks from the Wales Tourist Board and the extra copies of Ninnau that we had available as handouts.
(a picture of the raffle winners is on page 7)
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