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Donna Boyce, editor
On Sunday, Oct. 17th, over 100 people attend our annual Gymanfa Ganu. In addition to many ‘regular’ faces there were some ‘returned’ faces that we don’t see every year and the ‘new’ faces of first-timers. Diolch yn fawr iawn to Mary Ellen Morgan, event chair, for making the arrangements for this event.
Mary Ellen has had our own long-time WSCO member Lloyd Savage scheduled for several years to direct this gymanfa. Lloyd has conducted the main session at the National Gymanfa and many cymanfoedd throughout Ohio during the past four decades. WSCO’s annual July picnic attendees are used to seeing Lloyd in his other guise as a leader of playful songs while accompanying us on his accordion.
James Hildreth was with us again as our organist. Jim has played for WSCO events for a number of years and, when not busy with WSCO, is the organist for the Broad Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus, teaches private piano and organ, gives solo organ recitals, and joins his wife Valorie, a flutist, to perform together as “Duo Celeste”.
The Special Music for this afternoon was performed by a group called “Twmpath” – three Ohio musicians with Welsh heritage. Jennifer Evans Kinsley, hammer dulcimer, Michael Eberle, fiddle (ffidl) and Michael Sission, double bass (dwbl bas), provided Lloyd and Jim and our vocal chords with rest breaks during two sets of lively Welsh tunes that had my toes tapping.
Some attendees traveled 2 hours to join us in this annual tribute to our Welsh heritage. Jeanne Jones Jindra came up from Gallipolis and long-time member Meredydd Williams was down from Rocky River. And he was not the only person from the Cleveland area: Bob Woods, a former student of Lloyd Savage’s and a friend of the Savage family came to film Lloyd conducting the gymanfa, and David Dieball has been waiting 13 years for his work schedule to permit his attendance and was happy to finally be able to join us and to purchase a songbook.
More than 90 people took advantage of the invitation to the Te Bach and entered the room to find that the table centerpieces continued the theme from the October Dragon Tales – “Heritage – Treftadaeth”’. Each table was decorated in a different manner to spotlight various aspects of our Welsh heritage - daffodils and the red dragon, sheep and border collies, women’s “traditional” folk dress, cooking, castles, legends and folk tales, love spoons, travel, music and the language of Heaven.
A selection of books on one table included a Welsh/English New Testament Bible and an1883 Welsh Diary/Datebook with lists of, among other things, bank holidays, postal fees, dates and locations of Welsh fairs, and Welsh churches in both England and America.
Song and dance music books were passed from one table to another and a group was huddled around the recipe books. Picture postcards, dolls in Welsh dress, a miner’s lamp and a small wooden harp generated comments and sparked discussions.
Kade Harden, an OSU linguistics student working on a Welsh language project, was introduced during the Te Bach to Joan Owen Mandry, our “resident” Welsh speaker. Kade was previously introduced via e-mail to Chris Watkins, the love spoon carver in Wooster, OH (and a 2008 WSCO St. David’s Day seminar presenter) who assisted her with her autumn-quarter assignment.
Beth Ransopher, WSCO president
Central Ohio was honored to have an elected member of the Welsh National Assembly visit Columbus. Ms. Bethan Mauve Jenkins was here November 11 – 16, 2010, with an eight-person international delegation visiting cities across the United States.
WSCO was contacted by the International Visitors Council of Columbus, an affiliate organization of the U.S. State Department, regarding her arrival. Prior to coming to Columbus Ms. Jenkins and the delegation had already visited Washington D.C., and several cities in California. Their last stop after leaving Columbus and before returning home was Austin, Texas.
While in Columbus Ms. Jenkins had the opportunity to visit Amish country, the New Albany School District, Easton, and the Columbus Zoo, as well as learning about our state and local government.
WSCO warmly welcomed her with a gift basket full of Columbus pamphlets, maps, WSCO information, and Columbus known treats from Cheryl’s Cookies and Bath & Body Works. President Beth Ransopher and WSCO Board Member Stacy Evans had the opportunity to have dinner with Bethan one evening in downtown Columbus.
Elected in May of 2007, Ms. Jenkins represents South Wales West and the Plaid Cymru Party in the National Assembly. Her political interests include education, community services, equal opportunities and youth involvement in politics. Bethan is a Party Spokesperson for Child Poverty and Culture at the National Assembly. She is also Chair of the Assembly’s Cross-Party Group on Eating Disorders and has established a Cross-Party Group on Human Rights. Additional information on Assembly Person Bethan Mauve Jenkins and the National Assembly of Wales can be found at www.assemblywales.org.
Ms. Jenkins noted that she enjoyed her trip to Columbus very much and is pleased to see an active Welsh group exists in Central Ohio. She thanks WSCO for making her feel so welcome here in Ohio.
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