White River Sound Chorus

Ellen drew the Queen of Hearts this week and you know what that means - Leslie handed over the cash to her!! Randy and Ellen were both smiling when they left. They will enjoy some extra cash and so will our chorus treasury!!

At the end of our rehearsal tonight we had a lot to celebrate. This weekend is big in our part of the world with both the Indy 500 and Memorial Day. We sincerely thank everyone who has served in our armed forces and honor those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. We also look forward to the thrill and fun of the race on Sunday. Besides all of that we also celebrated a new beginning for our parent organization. Sweet Adelines International is now Sing United International! So we say hurray for traditions and hurray for new beginnings!

We are thrilled that the Penrod Arts society has awarded White River Sound with another grant this year. We love singing in our booth each year and pulling in fair patrons to sing tags with us. It has been one of our best membership recruitment events over the years. Their generous grant helps us continue to do what we love to do - fill the world with harmony! Thank you Penrod - we will put your grant to good use!

Tonight was one of our favorite nights of our chorus year - our annual recognition dinner and installation of our new board. It is so rewarding to review all that we accomplished in just 12 months and to heap praise on each person who helped make those accomplishments happen. We also gave out some very special recognition awards to recognize long term efforts of two very special people - Sue Pelley who just completed serving 10 years on our Regional Management team (most of those as the Team Lead) and Gabriele Allen who is handing over the lead choreographer position (a role she has held for over 15 years). We finished the evening by honoring Kay Rodewald with the Director’s Choice Award and Brenda Crowe as our Sweet Adeline of the year. It was a wonderful evening full of love, laughter and lots and lots of thank yous!

Last night we threw a party for Ellen Murray and Betty Lightfoot who are rocking their 80th birthdays. No one would guess either had hit this milestone and we hated to spill the beans, but thought they both should be toasted! Ellen even wrote this poem for Betty: Happy Birthday tomorrow, Let’s banish all sorrow, There’s a gal right behind you, Your age she will borrow. Not just for the day, But for a whole year; It’s forty times two, So be of good cheer! (And let’s have a beer!)

We are all heartbroken. Our beautiful Susie D lost her battle with Pulmonary Fibrosis and went to sing with the angels last week. She was special in so many ways and has left a big whole in our hearts. Sending our love and strength to her family. https://www.randallroberts.com/obituaries/susan-susie-davis

Had an awesome day at Harmony Heartland Region 4 convention. We’re going home with some hardware - 2nd place Div A, 5th place overall. We are happy and proud. Thanks to everyone in Region 4 and congratulations to everyone who performed. There is great talent in this region!!! You are all wonderful friends and awesome performers! ❤️

Friends from Capital City joined the shenanigans in our hospitality room to be counted in our last woman standing! So much fun to sing together and to play Kay’s whacky game. Goodnight Sweetheart for another year!

Finished with breakfast and ready to hear some wonderful harmony today. Pretty stoked to be making some harmony this afternoon, too!! We’ll be on stage around 3:00 this afternoon. Good luck to all the choruses performing today in Region 4.