Ringers inside and outside.  Merry Christmas to all!

The ringers shared music with about 70 inmates at the Allegheny County Jail for the fourth year in a row.  This is a rare and special audience each year.  We are very fortunate to be able to continue this tradition.

The first concert at Overlook Green began at 6 pm:

Then a quick trip across town to Providence Point for our 8 pm concert:

We were able to ring for some of our best fans at Strabane Trails Village.  Paul and Sue Engle really managed to drum up a crowd for the evening and we loved sharing the holiday joy through our music!  A special thanks to their daughter, Barbara, for helping us with the sleigh bells!!

The Southminster Ringers, Santa and the Train kept children of all ages entertained on this great shopping day at The Village.  Ringing from 11 – 1 was fun and festive! 

Santa and the Ringers.

Plenty of room on the ringing floor!

What a perfect day for ringing!  Mostly cloudy, but no rain.  Not too hot.  Great audiences who asked lots of questions AND the girls did NOT win the tug-of-war this year!!! 

A special thanks to Katelyn, Josh and Samantha for ringing with us.  Our alumni are wonderful!

Another ringing year is underway after our sixth annual weekend at Windy Ridge – August 26-27.  Perfect weather this year – finally!

We arrived safely in Prague and Karen Moritz, our excellent guide, made sure we found our pensione.  It was the delightful Jan Hus House and we had two wonderful nights there.  We had dinner on Friday evening in the Old Town and then rested up for all the sight-seeing we could fit into one day in Prague!

Saturday started off with a great breakfast (European style) and then we purchased tickets for the city tram and took it to the top of the castle hill.  Brilliant suggestion by both Karen and Jaroslav (our host at the pensione).  After watching a fight between Jaroslav and the owner of the local shop over the time it would take for our ride (turned out that the shop owner was his son…) we got directions to the tram and headed out!  Great sights from the top of the hill, wonderful shops on the walk back down the hill toward the Old Town and a fantastic day for all (shopping for the women and browsing for the guys).

Enjoy our photo impressions of the city – and be sure to ask us about some of the memorable moments from the whole trip.  We already miss our friends in Katerinice and Ratibor and can’t wait to hear their progress next summer!  Hope you enjoyed our notes from the trip!

Nicole Bloch, Mark Etzel, Mollie Moreci, Sam Reid and Rich Pinkerton from Southminster

Andreas Hackl and Jonathan Wollenberger from Bells Angels in Berlin

Anna Matejka and Zaneta Matejka from Zelow Ringers in Poland

Ewa Jelinek from Ostrava, Czech Republic

Very special thanks to Wiera and Miroslaw Jelinek, Vojtech Zubicek, Martin Kamas and Ruzena Hribkova, our wonderful hosts in Katerinice and Ratibor.  And a super special thanks to all of the wonderful ringers who came to work so hard during our week of bells and English.  We miss you ALL!!

Can you believe that following the Thursday night concert, the kids returned to Kateřinice, set up the bells and played for a while until we returned from the formal farewells after the concert.  That’s dedication!  Thus, we started off Friday morning with ringing – and only the Good News Bells ringers were ringing this time.  They were eight!!

Following the 9 am rehearsal we planned an 11 am Floorball rematch.  I am sad to report that the better team really can’t claim victory this time.  I can also say with certainty that a few of us will be limping around in pain for a while – but we had a great time!

The worst part of the day was to come with all of the farewells.  There were tears all around and it was tough to leave – BUT – we expect to be back and we expect to hear some amazing progress from this group!  We all miss them terribly!!

2 pm came and we were packed and in the cars and on the (packed) train to Prague.  We are staying at the Jan Hus House and all is well.  We have one day here and then the 11 am flight tomorrow morning will start our return journey to Pittsburgh.  We’ll see everyone at home soon.

written by Nicole Bloch

At last! All of the young people’s hard work was ready for the world to hear!!!  Five days of lots of ringing and laughing and it was concert day.  Excitement and nervous anticipation filled the air. The bells were packed up and all of us travelled to the next town over- Ratibor. The young people were able to see how all of the bells, pads, music and mallets have to be set up—and the often difficult, finding enough tables for the bells, especially at similar heights!

The church was filled with people and we were told that it is very unusual for this many people to come together in the small village, from many villages, especially in the church.  It was a great concert- including local musicians, the church choir and the bells. We played a lot of great pieces with wonderful additions. One piece, Make me a Channel of Your Peace, featured a local women’s choir. It was so beautiful and I was amazed at how good their diction was since they were singing in English! Another piece featured a local flutist, Andrea, and she did wonderfully! I had the privilege to give her a lesson on the flute and had so much fun working with her! The choir was singing Amazing Grace (in Czech) with the last verse in English.  They invited us to sing all of the verses with them. It was so moving and definitely hard to keep my eyes dry!

The Czech youth played so amazingly well! It was so touching how enthusiastic and proud they were to be ringing pieces on their own. Not only were they very excited, but the audience loved them as well! After the concert we all got together and ate some fabulous goulash that was prepared for us. The youth went back to Katerinice while we Southminster Ringers were invited to Jelinek’s home for a lovely spread of snacks and fellowship. On a side note, this morning (Friday) we learned that after our concert, the youth were SO EXCITED about hearing what the bells can do, that they took out the bells and had a rehearsal on their own at 9 pm! Matej, one of the youth said to me “It was amazing! We got back to church and everyone said hurry-hurry everyone get all bells out and ring!”

I cannot wait to hear how well the people in Katerinice will ring next year!

Ahoy!