Bradgate Rotary Christmas events raise over £2,000
GROBY SINGS Under The Stars was the theme for our community choir Groby Sings’ winter concert weekend at the end of November. Whilst the weather gave us a very chilly couple of days, the choir’s enthusiastic singing of songs such as We Built This City, To Dream The Impossible Dream and Rewrite The Stars soon warmed things up. Our conductor, Helen Hayes, looked very much The Greatest Showman in her ringmaster outfit as she guided the choir and band, and encouraged the audience, some of whom had travelled from many miles away to support family and friends in the choir, to join in with some of the songs. There was a wide variety of numbers relating to the ‘stellar’ theme, some more obvious than others. The children’s section was boosted by several new members this time and they particularly enjoyed singing the ‘Klingon’ chorus in Star Trekkin’, a 1987 parody of the original Star Trek television series. That was a fun song but in contrast there were two beautiful choral pieces, So Many Stars and O Holy Night which told the Christmas story. The final number, the very powerful This Is Me, from The Greatest Showman, was chosen for an encore as it epitomises the ethos of Groby Sings, a choir that aims to be totally inclusive and to value everyone for who they are.
~ Our next event ~ After a new year break, singing will resume on Monday 24th February at the Groby Club when the theme will be Groby Sings On The Road. Everyone is welcome to come along and enjoy singing songs from Calamity Jane and Simon & Garfunkel. For enquiries, please contact us via our website www. grobysings.org (Groby Sings is a Registered Charity no. 1180490.)
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BRADGATE ROTARY held several successful events in the run-up to Christmas, with the proceeds being donated to local charities.
The Christmas Fair at Groby Village Hall raised over £1000, and a series of appearances by Santa and his Sleigh during December raised a similar amount. One of the Santa events was a joint one with the Laundon Way Co-op, and another took place at Bradgate Park when Santa’s Sleigh joined the Advent procession to the ruins of Bradgate House. A Bradgate Rotary spokesperson said: “We’d like to thank everybody who came along and supported us. All of the money raised will be given to local charities, including Canine Partners and Prostaid.” Bradgate Rotary members meet for breakfast at the Stamford Arms on the first three Wednesdays of the month. For more information, visit: www. bradgaterotaryclubleicester.weebly.com
Another successful Groby Christmas Tree Festival! ST PHILIP & St James Church, Groby would like to thank everyone who provided trees for our Christmas Tree Festival last month. There were 24 trees, and about half of them were prepared by children’s groups or schools. As usual, we asked visitors to the Festival to select their favourites, and a prize was given to the two trees that received the most nominations. Although not every visitor voted, there were about 350 votes for each category. The winners were: Children’s tree - Lady Jane Grey School with ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ (pictured) Adult’s tree - Let’s Walk Groby with ‘A Walk in the Woods’ Lady Jane Grey School also won last year, while Let’s Walk Groby was participating for the first time. Runners up for the children were Groby Nursery Playgroup, and Girlguiding Groby. For the adults, Groby W.I. and HooTs Groby were second and third.
Christine Davies