Duane Hicks
The Rainy Lake Ringers will be getting its own set of new handbells after the Ontario Trillium Foundation recently approved a grant of $12,000 for the local group.
This is a major boon to the club, which currently is using bells on loan which have to be returned in June.
“We’re thrilled. Absolutely thrilled,” choir director Diane Maxey enthused this morning. “Until you own your own bells, there’s no feeling like it.
“These other bells have been on loan [from the Ontario Guild of English Handbell Ringers], so we’re hoping to keep them until June and then we’ll be in the process of purchasing our own,” she noted.
“It’s been a great experience for the fact that it’s enabled us to build our skills and get experience. There is a real technique to playing them,” Maxey added.
“It’s been a great learning experience, and now that we have our own, we’re absolutely thrilled.”
The grant should cover most, if not all, of the cost of a new three-octave set of handbells (39 bells in total), which the handbell choir should have purchased and in their possession by the fall.
But Maxey said the group also needs accessories, such as wheeled-cases for the bells and music books and stands, which will cost another $5,000.
To cover the extras, the handbell choir will start fundraising later this spring. Members currently are brainstorming ideas, such as a concert and bake sales, to raise money.
“If any clubs or organizations are interested in helping us out, that would be absolutely thrilling,” Maxey noted.
The handbell choir started at, and continues to be supported by, St. John’s Anglican Church here. In fact, the group was able to apply for the Trillium grant through the church.
But Maxey said she considers the handbell choir to be a community one, and welcomes any supporters—and new members—from the community at large.
The handbell choir meets every Sunday at 2 p.m. For more info, call Maxey at 274-7309.
The Rainy Lake Ringers are slated to perform at the Kiwanis Club’s annual Good Friday prayer breakfast later this week at La Place Rendez-Vous.
In related news, the Trillium Foundation also awarded the Fort Frances Lions Club $15,000 over one year to install a sidewalk that will help make the park, playground, and washrooms on Second Street East more accessible and safer for people of all ages and abilities.
“It’s very good news for us. We finally got the rest of the funding that we need,” Lions president Jacques Fiset said this morning, adding combined with $10,000 from the Moffat Fund from last year and $12,000 from brick sales, the club has sufficient funds to build a full walkway.
Fiset said construction of the walkway, which will extend from the handicap-accessible swing to the picnic area, public washrooms, the archway, and possibly to the east end of the park, should start later this spring.
“We’ve been looking at this for quite a number of years now, but you know how hard it is to raise funds these days,” he remarked. “Besides our other commitments we have in our budget throughout the year, we were trying to put money aside for this, and we didn’t want to take it out of [the general fund] because we don’t have much there, either.
“Things are getting tougher and we sure appreciate it when this comes through.
“The two we really have to got thank on that is Lion Luke Schill and Lion David Beach,” added Fiset. “They’re the ones that put the hard work into it.”
As well, the Town of Rainy River will get $37,200 over one year to purchase and install equipment in its arena and community centre.
The upgrades will help the town continue to offer sport and recreation activities for people of all ages there.
