Ten years of community Singing and Smiling will be celebrated this Thursday July 3rd at Rhydypennau in Cardiff. It’s the tenth birthday of the award-winning Goldies Cymru Charity.
Charity founder Grenville Jones started his popular ‘Goldies’ fun singalong in July 2015 at the Rhydypennau Library. NOT a choir but a weekly organised singalong of the popular hits of the 60s onwards. From the onset this weekly session has attracted over 70 people each week to sing, dance and have a great time with the Goldies leader Sue Thomas.
A regular over the years has been John Bisset who loves attending the session where he has made many new friends over the years, he said:
“We always have such a fabulous time and without question, the Goldies Cymru Charity through its Sing& Smile sessions has brought joy to so many lonely people. We all love it!”
The sessions were forced to close during Covid but the Charity reacted by going online and were one of the first organisations to introduce ‘sofa singing’. We organised weekly online sessions by two of the Goldies Cymru leaders and many hundreds of people across the country enjoyed the weekly sessions as well as special broadcasts at Christmas and other times of the year.
“We could not welcome our lovely older attendees to the sessions for obvious reasons during lockdown and so instead we took our sessions into people’s homes through the internet. These sessions were extremely popular and many retirement homes also streamed them each week to their residents,” said Goldies Cymru founder Grenville Jones.
This Thursday, July 3rd, there will be a special birthday cake and Grenville will be the special guest. He recently won a national award for his contribution to community music and how his charity has brought happiness to so many lonely people in the last ten years. He was presented with a special award by HRH The Princess Royal in London. Goldies Cymru run sessions across South Wales in community rooms and Libraries and last year they launched new sessions in the Conwy area, supported by the local Borough Council.
Goldies Cymru have been supported in South Wales by the Moondance Foundation since they launched 10 years ago. Founder Grenville Jones paid tribute to Moondance and their wonderful support:
“Without question Goldies Cymru in South Wales would not have been able to continue without the brilliant and on-going support from Moondance. Their financial support has enabled us to develop across South Wales, start many new sessions and we are indebted to them.”
This Thursday’s session starts at 10.30am in Rhydypennau’s Park End Church (CF23 6EG) and everyone is welcome to attend.
One of the many achievements of Goldies Cymru has been the success of their Primary Schools intergenerational programmes. In 2018 the charity won the Education Category in the prestigious National Lottery Awards based on the anniversary of World War I. The award was presented by Katherine Jenkins who has always supported the work of Goldies. Children from the local Primary School will be taking part in the birthday celebrations this Thursday.
Discover Goldies Cymru on www.goldiescymru.org.uk and for further information please contact Goldies Cymru project leader Cheryl Davies 07860 944410.
| [donate]
| Help keep news FREE for our readersSupporting your local community newspaper/online news outlet is crucial now more than ever. If you believe in independent journalism,then consider making a valuable contribution by making a one-time or monthly donation. We operate in rural areas where providing unbiased news can be challenging. |
