Something to Sing About!

We recently headed over to meet Leyburn Ladies Choir at their home in Leyburn Methodist Church where we accepted a generous donation of £730 towards our Eye Appeal. The ladies all looked fabulous for the photo - dressed to impress in their uniform of black and pearls.

Treasurer, Wendy Grannan, previously got in touch to tell us they were supporting our appeal, and explained how this appeal in particular stood out to the choir, with a few of their members or family having eye conditions and being patients at the Friarage, or having been in the past.

Choir Leader, Ruth Biker, explained to us how the group hold two main concerts a year, in the spring and at Christmas, and had decided that for their spring concert in May they would support Friends of the Friarage. Ruth also happens to be the Accompanist for the East Witton Male Voice Choir, who, with Diana Hartley as conductor, also held a collection in aid of our Eye Appeal at their own spring concert which raised a very close £743, meaning that between the two choirs, the fantastic amount of £1,473 was raised from their crowd of loyal supporters. Ruth said,

"It's astonishing the amount we raised on the nights, we are always so very grateful for the generosity of our audiences.”

The choir currently have around 25 members and sing everything from Mozart to Musicals! They were established in 1971, making them 53 years young - how impressive!! They started life as a Young Wives choir and evolved into the Leyburn Ladies Choir they are today - with some of those original members still part of the group! The choir usually meet for practice on Monday afternoons but are currently on a well-deserved break for the summer, with rehearsals due to resume again in September. New members are always welcome.

We are incredibly grateful to both choirs for thinking of us in their fundraising efforts and would like to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated on the night.